Technology and the internet are wonderful things, what would we do without them? Well, maybe save some money based on this post! I want to talk about email subscriptions. They cause clutter and they cause temptation and we don’t need either of those in our lives!
True Story: Those of you that know me know that I LOVE Disney. Take all of my money, Walt Disney! When I graduated from college and had my first “big girl” job and apartment on my own, I made a purchase from The Disney Store online and I ended up opting in for their email subscription. Every week or multiple times a week I would get an email about some deal they were having, and I had to take advantage of it! One or two purchases later I realized I had to unsubscribe from that email list. I was too tempted and buying things I didn’t need. Now I only go to disneystore.com when I’m looking for something specific and I can keep checking the website until there is some sort of sale. It’s a little extra work, but it proves that I really want that thing. If I don’t, then I don’t buy it. And that’s a win for my wallet!
Here are my email subscription strategies:
- Unsubscribe from tempting emails. As in my Disney store example, you’re better off without the temptation. If it’s a sale that’s available to the public, then it will be on their website. If you really need or want something from that store, you can go straight to their website and check for deals there. Plus, by unsubscribing from a bunch of different email distributions, you will declutter your inbox. Every day I must have 50-100 emails that I don’t even read, I see the sender and subject and just mark as read in bulk. That’s how I knew it was time to get off of some of these lists. This applies to Living Social and Groupon. If you are looking for a specific deal, you can always go to their website, but it took me several purchases I regretted to learn that lesson. Don’t buy something you don’t need just because it’s on sale. You’ll never beat yourself up for an impulse buy you did NOT make!
- Send email subscriptions to a special folder or email address. I actually set up a completely different email account for all my “subscriptions” so I wasn’t junking up my main email account. Now that I have a smartphone, I see messages from all my email accounts in one inbox so it doesn’t matter too much, but you can change those settings. You can choose to not look at the subscription email account or set up a subscription folder for all those emails to get dumped in so you don’t have to see them unless you need them.
- Subscribe to “insider” or “reward” emails and search when you need them. Restaurants, in particular, have a lot of rewards or insider programs that can provide great coupons and deals. Since I’ve mentioned in the past that eating out is our “splurge” vice, I’m signed up for a lot of restaurant emails! In this case, the deals are often only available via the email so I can’t just go straight to a website to get the deal when I need it. When we decide to go to a restaurant, I’ll search my inbox for that restaurant and see what recent email deals I’ve received. Going to Olive Garden? Oh look, I have a coupon for a $1 Kids meal. Craving PF Changs? Oh look, we can get 20% off this week. I basically ignore the emails as they come in and then search when I need them. You could combine this and the second strategy and send coupon emails to a folder and then search that particular folder when necessary and you’d avoid clutter and temptation while always having a great deal available at your fingertips!
Do you have any strategies for dealing with all the emails and resisting temptation? Share in the comments below!