I’ve got a shopping trip lined up that is guaranteed to save me money. Want to know my secret? I’m happy to share it with you  – I’ve been shopping this way for some time now and I love it. But first I have to ask if you remember the (old – dating myself here) ad slogan of “let your fingers do the walking”?

It was created in the early 60’s for the Yellow Pages phone book, and actually won an award from Advertising Age as one of the Top 10 Slogans of the 20th Century. The concept was to use your fingers to flip through the Yellow Pages to find the business you were needing, possibly to pick up the phone and call them, to find out if and when they had what you needed before you actually drove there. We still do this today of course, on the phone itself.

This background info is to let you in on my shopping method that will save you money – we’re going to let our fingers do the walking. Through catalogs and magazines and on-line sites. I don’t know about you, but I actually love to get catalogs in the mail, along with of course, my fashion and style “research material” – my monthly magazines. I sit down and flip through them, folding over the tops of pages that have items that I’d like to buy, or in the case of magazines, outfits and ‘looks’ I’m especially liking.

Once I’ve done that I’ll place them on my desk near my laptop, so they’ll be nearby when I’m ready to place my order. I also have a few websites I visit regularly and do a similar type of shopping, putting items I especially like into my shopping cart or marking them as “favorites”.

Now here’s where the only bit of discipline you’ll need comes in – get up and walk away from them. Leave them alone for a while. In the case of websites, I close the tabs at the top of the page. I usually end up moving the catalogs to a basket, where they’ll still be handy, but they’re not on my desk anymore taking up space where actual work needs to happen. I’ll often have quite a stack of catalogs and magazines by month end, at which time I’ll flip back through them to check out the marked pages. Almost invariably, the pages I’ve flipped down for possible purchases don’t interest me any more. If they do, then maybe I’ll tear out that page of the catalog and save it for a bit longer; most of those eventually end up getting tossed as well.

But here’s the thing – I’ve had the pleasure of shopping – the thrill of the ‘find’ – without spending any money. If there is actually something I discover that makes it through this process and I still deem it worthy, then that’s another story. Of course, if I’m shopping for a specific purpose or a particular item to complete an outfit, that’s also different. But as a professional who has helped many women through their closet purge, helping them to let go of items that have never been worn while bemoaning the money spent for those items, I can tell you this is a better way to shop, especially for those of you who are real shoppers, who view it as “entertainment”. I highly recommend getting your thrill by letting your fingers do the walking and keeping your wallet in your purse. Your bank account and your closet will thank you!

Thanks for reading,

Adena