What the "Foot in the Door Technique" Can Do for Your Personal Finances

As an investor and former small business owner, I know that no matter how savvy you are in matters of finance, you can always make mistakes, especially in questions of personal finance when making someone happy can seem more important than doing the smart thing.

Almost every couple I know complain that one or the other is spending too much money. I know that I get into a spending mode when something important gets on my radar, as I did when I refurbished my old house to turn it into a home.

Spending money is easy and fun, but like a hangover after drinking too much, the next morning can be brutal. And that's where the Foot in the Door Technique comes in.

The premise behind the technique is simple: Humans are more likely to accept a drastic change if it comes gradually. For example, in a study aimed at reducing drunk driving, people who were first asked to sign a petition against driving while inebriated were more likely to call a taxi at the end of an evening of drinking. The initial step, that foot in door, conditioned the participants to accept the more drastic change (reference 2).

When trying to alter bad spending habits, the same principal will work. When I tried to foster healthy spending habits in my family I started by asking whether we could eat out at a less expensive restaurant. The next time I asked if I could cook the same food at home.

The Foot in the Door Technique initiated a change but also aimed at sustaining the change over a long period of time. In my family we went through a phase of eating healthy food, with the result that we all lost weight. Suddenly all our clothes were too big and, quite happy about it, we went on a spending spree of buying new things.

To curtail the habit, which I was as guilty of as everyone else, I set a budget for each person based on the prices I saw in the store. For example, with my husband jeans became the standard by which his allowance was gauged. I wanted my allowance set by the price of dresses, so my allowance was slightly smaller. Having a fixed budget forced us to make smarter decisions at the store. Even better, when we got home and saw how much we spent, we would typically decide to return a few items.

Financial responsibility is not something we were born with. I took on the role of the one who says "no" to everyone else, but it was hard for to say "no" to myself at the same time. I focused on the fact that small purchases will quickly add, and I allowed the Foot in the Door Technique to help chip away at my family's bad habits and lead us to smart spending practices and financial stability.

References:

1. Wikipedia: "Foot in the Door Technique"

2. Taylor, T., & Booth-Butterfield, S. (1993). Getting a foot in the door with drinking and driving: A field study of healthy influence. Communication Research Reports, 10, 95-101.

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