Can Small Money Habits Change How You Spend? Here’s What I’m Noticing

The numbers from my 20-minute money experiment this week, at least on the surface, aren’t that impressive.

I found about $381 in measurable value. Nothing to complain about, certainly, but not exactly life-changing money.

But something else is happening that might be more important.

I’m starting to pause.

The Best Kind of “Free” Vacation

I was on vacation this week, and I discovered—or maybe rediscovered—one of my favorite financial feelings.

A free vacation.

Okay, obviously it wasn’t free. Past Me paid for it.

Months ago, I figured out what I thought the vacation would cost, added some buffer because vacations have a way of costing more than you think, and gradually set the money aside.

Then we went.

And I spent it.

I didn’t feel like I was “on a budget.” I wasn’t mentally calculating every meal or wondering what the credit card bill was going to look like when I got home.

The money was already there.

Maybe that’s one of the things we sometimes get wrong about budgeting. The point isn’t always to restrict Present Me.

Sometimes the whole point is for Past Me to take care of Present Me so she can stop thinking about money for a while.

And honestly? That felt pretty priceless.

Something Is Changing

When I started this year-long experiment, the idea was simple: spend about 20 intentional minutes every day doing something that could improve my financial life.

Find some money. Save some money. Make an investment. Improve a system. Check something I’ve been ignoring.

But lately I’ve noticed that those 20 minutes may be spilling over into the other 23 hours and 40 minutes of my day.

Before booking travel, I paused and checked my credit card benefits.

Turns out, booking through the card’s travel portal qualified me for a $100 credit.

Before automatically buying an international cell phone plan for some upcoming required travel, I paused and checked my existing plan.

Turns out, I could enroll in an option that charges me a relatively small amount only on the days I actually use my phone internationally. For this particular trip, that should save me about $100.

Another credit card benefit I checked included a free year of Apple TV, worth about $156.

None of these things required a brilliant financial strategy.

I just had to remember to look.

And increasingly, I am.

Maybe the Real Habit Is the Pause

That might be the most interesting result of this experiment so far.

What began as a deliberate exercise in financial intentionality is starting to feel a little more natural.

There’s a tiny space appearing between:

“I need this.”

and

“Buy.”

Between:

“I’m traveling internationally.”

and

“Add international plan.”

Between:

“I’m booking a trip.”

and

“Use whatever website I normally use.”

That pause gives me just enough time to ask:

Do I already have something that helps with this? Is there a benefit I’m forgetting? Do I already own this? Is there a better way to do it?

Maybe the real return on these 20 minutes isn’t just the money I’m saving.

It’s the pause I’m starting to create before I spend.

Lest You Think I Have This Figured Out…

I should probably tell you about the tool.

A couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t find the battery pack for a relatively inexpensive tool somewhere in the yard.

So I did what any personal financial blogger committed to intentional spending would apparently do.

I put another tool in my Amazon cart.

It was cheap. Finding the battery was annoying. Buying another one was easy.

Fortunately, someone in my family found the battery and pointed out the rather obvious fact that buying another tool because I couldn’t find part of the perfectly functional one I already owned was perhaps not my finest example of avoiding waste.

Order canceled.

Experiment apparently still necessary.

I caught myself doing something similar when my body spray ran out. My first instinct was to add a Bath & Body Works body spray to an order before stopping to wonder whether I already had one tucked away from a Christmas present that I could use.

That old instinct toward the path of least resistance hasn’t disappeared.

But I’m noticing it.

Sometimes I even find myself thinking, Do I really want to explain this purchase on the blog next week?

Apparently having a personal finance blog is its own form of accountability.

What My 20 Minutes Produced This Week

Here’s where the week landed:

The dollar amount is useful to track. After all, part of this experiment is figuring out whether these small financial habits actually produce measurable results.

But this week, I’m more interested in what isn’t in that total.

I stayed within the vacation money I had already saved.

I reset my spending plan for September because summer tends to be a little more expensive for me, and I want to stay on track with my savings goal.

And I caught myself pausing before several purchases that otherwise might have happened almost automatically.

Those things are harder to put into a spreadsheet.

They may also matter more over time.

One More Experiment Within the Experiment

I also tried limiting my online shopping to one day during the week.

Week one was a success.

I’m going to keep the idea but be flexible about which day it happens. I don’t particularly care whether it’s Thursday or Tuesday. The point isn’t to create another arbitrary rule I have to follow.

The point is to create another pause.

Instead of seeing something and immediately ordering it, I can wait until my online-shopping day.

Maybe I still buy it.

Maybe I don’t.

Either outcome is fine as long as I actually made the choice.

I Think This Is What I Was Looking For

When I started this experiment, I thought I would spend a year collecting little financial wins.

And I am.

Bonuses. Discounts. Better interest rates. Investment opportunities. Credit card benefits. Gift cards. Avoided expenses.

But I’m beginning to wonder whether those are just the visible results.

The more interesting change may be happening underneath them.

I’m paying a little more attention.

Not obsessively. Not perfectly. And definitely not enough to prevent me from occasionally trying to replace a perfectly good tool because I misplaced the battery.

Just enough to interrupt autopilot.

Ben Franklin, whom I have long admired, and quoted many times, was famously concerned with avoiding waste. I’m certainly not going to pretend I’ve achieved Franklin-level thrift. But I understand the appeal of the idea: use what you have well and make your choices deliberately.

Maybe that’s what these 20 minutes are teaching me.

The goal isn’t to make the perfect financial decision every time. Maybe it’s just to create enough of a pause to realize that you’re making a decision at all.

And then choose.