A financial influencer I follow, Bernadette Joy, recently shared her $1 rule, and I happen to use a very similar one when it comes to making purchases. Instead of adopting the traditional scrimp-and-save method to try to wipe out debt or build savings, this “buy it if you’re going to get good value from it” approach is pro-spending, but only if the math looks good. From a money psychology perspective, it tends to be more effective because it’s less restrictive and more sustainable.
It’s the same approach new-school weight loss and wellness apps like Noom use; enjoy your food, enjoy your version of physical activity, and use real calculations to determine if you’re making progress toward your goals. Joy’s version of the rule is simply to take the cost of something, divide it by the number of times you’ll use it, and if it’s less than $1 per use, she buys it. If it’s more than $1, she walks away from the purchase (obviously there are some exceptions and I’ll outline how those get handled in a moment).
If you’d like to try this rule and see if it helps you to save money feel better about your finances, it works like this: Let’s say you’re thinking about buying a cheap pair of shoes (fast fashion, is what that’s often called). If they are $50 and you’ll only wear them twice, that means your cost per use is $25. Using the $1 rule, that’s a hard no! Alternatively, you might consider spending $350 on much better quality shoes, but you know you’ll .
