You can save a lot of money throughout your life by training yourself to ignore the hype. Advertisers go to great lengths to convince us we MUST HAVE certain products. These products are always their own company products, they never tell us we must have a product from another company. Strange that isn’t it.

There is so much media hype sometimes. It can be hard to resist. There are all sorts of mind games and tricks being played on us. They show images that get us into a certain mood. They show other images to fool us into thinking that our life would be so good, if only we had the right product…. their product.

Marketing people use psychology to persuade us to do what they want us to do. They use tricks that appeal to our innermost, fundamental feelings. They appeal to the caveman’s hunting instinct that exists in almost all men and the mothering and nurturing nature that most women are born with. They appeal to us in ways that it is in our nature to want to do. Men want to be hunters and women want to be carers and nuturers. It’s in our genes.

The advertising industry also knows that appealing to our logical minds works too. The trouble is we are not always logical and we are fooled by the image of the successful business man or woman, striding through life with a trail of success behind us. All we have to do is buy this car, own this phone or purchase the latest laptop computer. If only success were so simple to achieve, if it was that easy we would all be rich and successful.

If you spend your life buying the latest gadget that is being hyped you will probably never be rich. Chances are you will always be short of money because you spend all you have buying into the latest hyped product, fashionable item or spend all your money doing whatever is the ‘In Thing’ at the moment.

Train yourself to see through the hype and look at the product being sold. Is it really so good you want to blow all that money on it? Chances are, whatever it is will be out of date in six months. It will certainly be six months old and will no longer have that new and exciting feel about it.

Do you really need all this stuff? If you have a phone that works just fine, do you need to buy a new one just because it has some newer features? Maybe you do but the chances are you don’t. Most of us are suckers for all this stuff. We enjoy buying new things so it only takes an advertiser to say that we ‘Need’ this newer version and we are puppies in their hands. We just do whatever they tell us to do. Its ;oke we are hypnotized.

Learn to resist the hype. One definition I saw says hype is… ‘exaggerated and usually misleading publicity or advertising’ Hype is always misleading if it is coming from the promoters. If you friends are excitedly telling you about a movie or a game they are looking forward to that isn’t hype. They are just giving their opinion and sharing their enthusiasm for something.

Advertisers are a different kettle of fish. They have something to sell. Learn to be more discerning and analytical when you view advertisements and read gushing articles about the latest and greatest thing about to be released onto the market. Read between the lines and decide if it is really as good and important as they say.

If you really need it then buy it. If you can manage without then maybe save your money and wait for the next version to come out and then think about it again.

The best way to save money is by reducing the cot of things without changing our lives or what we do. When it comes to driving the cost of gas can mean people reduce their travelling and trips but you can save a little bit of cash on your driving by altering the way you drive.

Changing the way you drive is nothing drastic and it will make very little difference to journey times but it will save gas and save money. The basic rule is to drive more gently. Be less aggressive with acceleration and plan ahead so you can lift off the gas pedal and break more gently.

Less aggressive driving means your engine doesn’t have to work so hard and so it uses less gas. Less gas used means you save money when it comes to filling your tank. The more often you make yourself drive in a less aggressive way the more it becomes a habit and over time you will do it without thinking and use less gas and save money on gas every time you fill your tank.

Smoother driving also causes less wear on your engine and brakes and should men you spend less on servicing your car so it is a win-win situation we have here. Smooth and gentle driving saves money on gas and wear and tear on your car so try it next time you are driving.

Using credit cards is not the best way to save money. You will almost always do better to use good old cash for your purchases but if you must use a credit card there are a couple of useful tips to consider.

If you are using a credit card to purchase products or services then use the cheapest credit card. You may like a certain card you have. It may be pretty or it may give you points towards something but if you have another card that is cheaper to use because the interest rates are lower you should use that card unless you have a very good reason for using the more expensive credit card.

Another time you may choose to use a credit card for a purchase is when you have run out of cash but you want to buy something at a bargain price. In this situation you need to consider the additional cost of interest charges on the borrowed money. If you will not fully repay that money for several months it may well be that you pay more than if you waited and paid cash. Interest charges can add ridiculous amounts to the cost of things in only a few months so do the sums and work out if it is really a bargain when you add in the cost of the interest charges on your credit card debt.

People often say they wish they had lots of money but money doesn’t make you happy and you can’t eat it. Money is great for enabling you to achieve and to have what you want but as an aim in itelf it is pointless.

You can start changing your attitude to money and that can help make you happy but there are also ways to think about money that can make you sad. Money is just the stuff we use to get paid and to pay out but, as the song says, money can’t buy me love.

The ideal situation is to be happy with your life and have enough money backing you up so you can always do anything you want without financial worries but if you aren’t happy you cannot expect money alone to make you happy no matter how much of it you had.

Not having enough money does make people miserable. There’s no doubt about that so being careful with your money and avoiding wasting it can prevent you sliding into difficult financial circumstances which can cause great unhappiness and stress.

Just think of money as a means to an end. A tool that can help you enjoy life. Money is not a solution by itself.

There are lots of money saving tips and if you put them all into action you can save a lot of money but the best money saving tip in the world has to be the simplest one of the lot.

It is this…. Stop spending money without thinking about it first!

The best way to save money is by not spending it. It is that simple.

It is so obviously true that we tend to ignore it but we go to the store and get tempted by the glam and the glitter and we have a dream that somehow things we buy will make us happy people and the world will be a better place.

You only have to watch the shopping channels on TV to see how they market almost every product as, ‘How good this will make you feel and how everyone will love you if only you buy this product.’

We are all suckers for this sort of line. We all want a better life and a better life for our family. We fall for the idea that a product can make you a better person, time after time after time.

Buying stuff does not make you a better person. Saving money by not buying unimportant stuff will leave you with more money in your pocket and less debt on your credit cards.

NOT buying stuff will leave you feeling you are in control of your life not the marketing people and not the credit card debt collectors.

Save money by thinking before you purchase anything. Ignore all the marketing speak and the encouragement to ‘buy now before the price goes up’. If you need it then go ahead and buy. If you don’t need it then save your money.

Buying stuff does not make people happy. In many cases it leads them down the route of debt and financial stress and problems. Think before you purchase anything at all and you will be amazed how often you say to yourself, ‘Actually, I don’t need that. I will save my money’.