I have a hate-love relationship with buying things. Getting my hands on a fantastic piece of engineering is both mind-boggling and exciting. At the same time, too often do I find myself enjoying something for a limited time and then forget all about it. Which is a bit sad, since I've spent my money buying it.

Which is unfortunate, as money most often is acquired by trading your time for money. Inherently, this means that I've (many, many, times) traded my time for things that have no value for me. That's beyond unfortunate, and rather sad.

So, let's cheer things up by focusing on the techniques and frameworks I've deployed in my life to buy fewer things that aren't valuable to me over time. More specifically, let's focus on the Thirty Day Rule, which is a technique used to avoid impulse buying.

The thirty day rule states that before making any purchase one has to wait for thirty days.

It's a simple rule, but for me, it has changed my perspective on buying things. Personally, my emotions are quite.. Determined at times. Very determined. And when they find something they like, they want it! I assume that a lot of you can relate to this.

But after waiting for one week.. Two weeks.. Three weeks.. Those emotions that were so determined start to relent. And eventually, they might have faded completely. By applying the Thirty Day Rule, the initial emotional response is given enough time to not be listened to.

After thirty days, it's time to decide if you still want to purchase the item or not. If you still want to purchase it, it might be something you really need, or really want. But if you're somewhat like me, chances are that you're simply not that interested in the item any longer.

Maybe you've found an alternative that suits your needs better after doing some more research? That's great. I often find that spending more time reflecting on purchases leads to purchases that are truly valuable to me.

To apply the rule in my life in a more sophisticated manner I developed the Thirty Day Rule app for myself and made it publicly available for free. It's available on both iOS and Android and is developed using React Native and uses Django on the backend.

I sincerely hope that both the rule and the app serves you well! Let me know if you have some feedback about the app :)

Thirty Day Rule app