Now, I am one of the last people on earth you should go to for financial advice (although I am quite proud of the fact that we transfer $50 every week into a savings account…and less proud of the fact that we occasionally make withdrawals from said account in the week leading up to rent payment), but over brunch my friend Andrea told me a little money-saving tip she uses, and I thought it was so great I had to share.

Basically, what she does is this: every time she’s about to make an impulse buy – new pair of shoes, sweater, takeout sushi, whatever – she asks herself whether or not she can absolutely live without the item, and if the answer is “yes” she not only doesn’t buy it…but uses the banking application on her phone to immediately transfer the amount of money she would have spent on it into a savings account. So there’s an instant, tangible reward (seeing the amount in your savings account increase) for exerting willpower!

Brilliant.