Spring-clean your spend: How to go dark on digital and save big dollars

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If you’re anything like me, all your digital devices may now be trying to seduce you to spend every time you pick them up.

Collectively, your screens can almost look like a snapshot of the inside of your brain – all your personal penchants on an online platter, before they even flicker into your mind.

Some digital spring cleaning can remove temptation and save you money.Credit: Aresna Villanueva

This is because, for years now, an army of clever digital marketing types have tracked and forward mapped your searches and purchases so they can give you more of what you desire most.

Sounds convenient right. So …

What’s the problem?

Being constantly served discounts and deals for items you may well want makes them highly difficult to resist.

This is particularly so because in tighter economic times we are all looking to bag a bargain.

Check out this piece I wrote on The Lipstick Index and why our spending on little luxuries goes up – hello coffee too! – when we’re feeling economically down.

Getting a discount also releases a hormone called dopamine in our brain. Which is addictive.

Marketers are trying to get us to “save” on what we crave … and spend with them.

But you can give yourself a break from temptation by creating some mindful money and mental space.

What you can do about it

This week I’ve made it my mission to go incognito online and get back in control of what I see, with a four-step process.

Step 1: Firstly, I unsubscribed everywhere. It’s email by email, but every electronic direct mail that lands in your inbox must by law have an unsubscribe button at the bottom.

I did it for all of them.

Step 2: Next, I turned my attention to my social media feed, because while simply not going to the shops stops the shopping “stroll”, the scroll can be dangerous for your dollars.

You can’t turn off advertising on most social media platforms – connecting advertisers with buyers is mostly the business model. But every platform has some mechanism to minimise it.

On Facebook, for example, the three dots at the right-hand side of an ad lets you “hide” that ad or “see less” in future.

Merchant by merchant, this makes a difference, but know that your personal details will continue to be cross-matched with your Facebook profile, and you will be targeted by marketers in the future.

Just click the three dots again.

Step 3: Next, I changed browser and search engine entirely.

Google is one of the most insidious and invasive search engines in that it remembers not just what you search, but even the speed and nature of your keystrokes.

However, there is a comprehensive permissions control area that lets you turn off personalised ads across Google products, including Chrome. Just be aware that you’ll see ads for things that don’t interest you – you can’t turn them off entirely.

However, a browser called Brave has no ads.

Team this with a search engine called DuckDuckGo, which is the default, and your searches won’t be remembered either.

Step 4: Finally, I turned off app notifications. Call it an occupational hazard, but I have a bunch of apps dedicated to cutting the cost of my life that constantly flash up notifications and opportunities.

This is easy to stop by simply turning off app notifications in your phone “settings”.

Just a final mention when it comes to social media.

Those helpful social media types who either act as a conduit for discounts or want to share their investment knowledge with you are just trying to make money either from the platform or by what they spruik.

The corporate watchdog ASIC has cracked down hard on the so-called fin-fluencer. I suggest you “unfollow” anyone with even a whiff of get-rich-quick about them.

With my mission to go digitally dark complete, now if I decide my family needs or wants something, I simply actively search for it.

I will still activate the savings apps when I consider how to make my purchase, particularly the cash back ones, which are helping me set aside money for Christmas.

Could you similarly switch off the incessant spending suggestions and take more pressure off your budget?

Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.