Controlling Impulse Spending

So glad the comment button is back...been wanting to comment as I am sure others have on your post.

Yes...it is time to get the spending under control and especially during the holidays.  I like your ideas.  I do like to use cash for the christmas purchases when I can...I have my envelope system and when the money is gone...well you stop buying.  Credit cards make it so hard with the..."I need it now!" mentality.  I am impulsive too...once bought a couch at IKEA and we didn't have a way to get it home so I insisted my husband tie it to the roof of our then....Chevy Chevette.  Not a good idea...we lived on top of a really steep hill and almost didn't make it home.  I just had to have that couch though. 

Great article...thank you for passing on your hard earned wisdom with us!

The best thing I ever did was stop carrying a balance on the one Visa card that I have, it was getting ridiculous to see how much I was giving them for the use of their card. Now I don't charge more than I can pay off each month and I do all of my shopping on the Internet too! The things I'd like to get!

I've used Quicken since it began, even printing out their checks on my then dot matrix. Switched to Money and really liked when my credit union let me download and synch my accounts over the net. Just switched back to Quicken since Microsoft is giving up on Money. It really helps to have the visual cues seeing real time changes on the accounts. Sometimes impulse still wins out though. Christmas is a stern test.