The 30-Day List

How to use it

The 30-Day List is a waiting list for things you want but do not need, and it helps anyone who tends to buy first and wonder later. It holds each want until its decision day, then puts three questions in front of you.

Start with What you want to buy, a short name of up to 60 characters. Add the Price in dollars if you know it. It is optional. The date you wrote it down starts on today's date. Change it to an earlier day for something already on a paper list. The wait offers 2 days, 30 days or 90 days and starts at 30. If you type a price and leave the wait alone, the page picks one from the price rule and tells you so under the field. Press Add to the list, and the item joins the table with its decision day and the days left. Your first item replaces the example list. The list stays on this device between visits, and Clear the list asks you to confirm before it removes everything. The rules behind the waits come from our 30-day rule playbook.

The list

The list needs JavaScript to save items on this device. Without it, the list below stays on the example.

How the numbers work

Every figure on the list follows one fixed rule:

• Decision day. The date you wrote it down plus the wait, counted in calendar days. An item written down October 26, 2026, with a 30-day wait has a decision day of November 25, 2026, shown in the US long form like that.
• Waiting, 16 days left. The calendar days from today to the decision day. Today is the date on your own device. On the decision day the status reads Decide today, and the three questions appear with links to the Chain Cost Calculator and the Cost per Wear Calculator. Once that day passes, it reads Ready since and the date.
• The suggested wait. The playbook's price rule: under $50, 2 days (the playbook's 48-hour rule); $50 to $500, 30 days; over $500, 90 days. A price of exactly $50 or exactly $500 gets 30 days.
• One more round. A new decision day: today plus the same wait again. The item counts its rounds. From the second round on, the page adds the playbook's warning that an item still on the fence is usually a no.
• Not spent. The prices of your dropped items added up. In the example, the $150 side table to match the new sofa was dropped on its decision day, so the list reads "Not spent so far: $150, from 1 dropped item."
• Bought and Waiting. Bought adds up the prices of bought items. An item with no price adds nothing to either total. Waiting counts every item not yet bought or dropped, ready ones included, which is why the example shows 2 waiting.

What this does and does not tell you

It tells you, on any day, which wants have outlasted their wait and which faded before you spent a dollar. Read through it once a week, as the playbook suggests. Items you have lost interest in can be dropped early, and most lists shrink faster than people expect. The figure to watch is Not spent, because watching it grow is one of the quiet pleasures of the rule. Over a few months, the list also becomes a record of your triggers: the stores, times of day and moods that produce the most wants.

It does not decide for you. It keeps the dates and prices and puts the questions in front of you on the right day. The answers are yours. A list is only as honest as its entries: anything you buy without writing it down never shows up, and every price is what you typed. It sends no email and no notification, so you have to open the page yourself. Put the decision day in your calendar too. It counts days by the date on your device. It also lives in one browser on one device, so clearing this site's data deletes it.

Not spent is a record, not money in an account. It becomes savings only if you move that money. The wait outlasts a sudden urge, but for the habit behind those urges, our playbook on impulse buying covers the rest.