When my spending was a little less tightly reined in, I frequently fell victim to the seduction of impulse shopping. I never meant to by things not on my list, but I would be in a store, something would look good, and it would end up going home with me. Nothing huge, but little things, as illustrated time and time again, do indeed add up.

I developed a small hack for myself to keep my impulse spending in check. This basically required me to pay for anything I bought on impulse twice - once with cash when I bought it, and then when I got home, I would make a credit card payment in the exact amount of that impulse purchase. If I wanted something bad enough to pay for it twice, I figured I could get it. This, combined with stopping going to stores just to see what they might have on clearance (I still miss you Target!) really reined in my impulse spending and put me on track to a better financial future.

But the flip side of that coin is that all that paying twice? Was a source of snowflakes to help whittle down my debt total even faster than I did originally. Now that my credit card is paid off, and I am focusing on our student loan, I have fallen out of the paying twice habit. But paying twice for impulse buys can still be done to a loan you can’t pay to as frequently as you want - it just involves putting those snowflakes into a savings account designated for the purpose first.

So if you have an impulsive side, harness that side for good. Use it to generate snowflakes for yourself to meet your saving, debt reduction, or investment goals. You’ll be surprised how quickly they add up!