what’s the difference between needs and wants

[Awakeatnite]

If you are trying to save money and you are good at it and don’t fritter it away how do you decide what is a need or a want, how do you justify your buys and make sensible decisions

I think it depends - for your kids yes but no one else.

My new philosophy on this is

• imagine you had only the bare income- what do you need to keep functioning so that would be essential bills, food and petrol. These have to be paid every month without fail. I'm always looking for ways to reduce these - cancelling non essential subscriptions, turning the lights off, switching provider etc.

Then you have the irregular spends like the dentist, haircuts etc. Don't happen every month but are necessary for staying alive and healthy. Includes celebrations of birthday etc. These are essential to functioning, but worst case scenario if you couldn't pay them for a couple of months no one is actually going to send a red letter.

Then there's the rest. This is the money that is left over and you can ultimately decide what to do with that based on your values and priorities. Hobbies, savings, big purchases, there's no one size fits all.

I think of it in terms of shoes.
If your last remaining pair of shoes fall to pieces then you need new shoes.
If you shoes fall to pieces, but you have 250 other pairs in your wardrobe, then it's a want and nota need.