Helping us stop buying stuff we don't need (or even want really)

Trying to stop buying stuff you don't really need? For help understanding the impulse and some great questions to ask before you spend that money check out this post at Wisebread about why our brains want to buy new stuff even when we don't need it?

Here's another article that may help - Great Depression Saving Tips. I especially like this part:

"Apply the stranger test to purchases. Picture a stranger offering you the cash value of the purchase or the purchase to you, and figure out which one you would pick. If you pick the cash over the item, then you should seriously reconsider buying and just make do with what you have instead."

I'd skip the part about saving things to use later though. Unless you have a specific use in mind it just add to the clutter of stuff to deal with in your home.

In the spirit of this post, I am using up categories of items before I buy another.