Want to Stop Impulse Spending? Try Making a List
The Jesse Mecham Show
YNAB
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Almost everyone spends on impulse from time to time -- it's pretty normal human behavior -- but we don't always want to spend impulsively. Jesse recommends a simple strategy for dealing with your impulses: make a list! Write down all the things you want as they come to you.
Sometimes the act of writing something scratches the itch enough to satisfy your wanting. If it doesn't, however, that's where YNAB steps in. With YNAB you can not only write down your wants as categories, you can set dollars aside to pay for them. And when you do that, now you can turn those impulses into guilt-free fun and enjoyment.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello. |
| 0:13.2 | My name is Jesse Meekam with another episode of the Jesse Meekam show. |
| 0:16.4 | And I'm here each week to obsess out loud about your obsession with money. |
| 0:20.8 | No, I'm just kidding. We are not obsessed with money out loud about your obsession with money. |
| 0:21.4 | No, I'm just kidding. |
| 0:24.7 | We are not obsessed with money, but we do worry about money. |
| 0:29.1 | And so I am here to help you eliminate your money worry. |
| 0:36.2 | And I'll be honest, one of the ways that worry creeps in, well, it's maybe the only way, is that our money is misaligned. How we spend it is |
| 0:40.0 | misaligned with what we care about. And one of the culprits for causing misalignment is the |
| 0:45.9 | all too common impulse spend. I am as guilty as any of suddenly wanting something. |
| 0:54.6 | For instance, I found out last week when a friend and I were finishing up these rocking chairs that we had built, I found out that his brother had received what's called a drill doctor. |
| 1:09.1 | And the large version is the one that the brother wishes he would have gotten for Christmas |
| 1:13.9 | and hadn't. |
| 1:15.1 | And the drill doctor sharpens your bits. |
| 1:17.6 | And we had just finished attaching the runners to our rockers. |
| 1:22.1 | And my bits were dull. |
| 1:24.7 | And thus sparked the conversation from my friend about how his brother had this thing |
| 1:28.6 | suddenly on my list called things i want in notes on my phone actually have it i have it right here |
| 1:35.5 | i've got the drill doctor there the large version because i want it to be larger than the one his |
| 1:41.1 | brother has uh no his brother said he wanted that larger version, wishes he would have gotten it. |
| 1:46.4 | So what are a few more things that I have on the things I want list? |
| 1:51.9 | It's fairly long. |
... |
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