budget: need vs want

I had a reader request to do a mini series on budgeting and spending money.

my WHOLE life i've been a crazy hoarding money saver.
my high school friends hated it, particularly when i would talk their moms out of buying them lots of clothes at Nordstrom's that they didn't need :)

The most simple pieces of advice that my parents both taught me about saving and spending money growing up was that we bought what we needed and when we felt like we had a little extra money to spend once a month or whatever worked for us, we would buy what we wanted.

My mom taught us this simply through the idea that growing up, my parents paid for those "need" items and with our own money we paid for the "want".  I loved hoarding my money, watching it increase in my bank account with each babysitting job I did that I never wanted to spend it.

Over the last few years I've loosened up and realized that sometimes things that don't seem like "NEEDS" at the time can be just that.  these two things aren't always a need but every once in a while they are:

Source: this-is-glamorous.tumblr.com via Plum Pretty on Pinterest

my best SIMPLE advice for saving and spending money is to ask yourself before each purchase "is this a need, or a want?"  event if it is just a $10 t-shirt from target... those small purchases can really add up. My mom also always taught me to never buy something just because it is on sale. It has to be a need regardless of if it's $5 or $50.