Financial Formula

I wrote a post recently about being intentional and my mind has been buzzing around thinking of ways to be more thought-out, more researched, more intentional about my choices and decisions.  One area that needs a serious over-haul is the way that I spend money.  We have made some wise choices along the way and wouldn't consider ourselves excessive spenders by any means, but there is definitely fine tuning that needs to happen.  I am not good at waiting.  I hate researching.  I am a compulsive buyer. I don't like price comparing.  I don't like going from store to store to find the best deal.  However, with us thinking about how I could work less, and with hubs being in ministry, pennies need to be a little more pinched. 

So I've been thinking of a formula of sorts to help me process expenditures.  Not only do I want to consider how to save money, but I want to be more creative about how I go about buying things that our family needs.  I'm not saying I'll apply this formula every time (because I am an efficiency person and thinking for longer than 10 seconds about a decision is rarely sustainable for me).  But I'll try.  For awhile.  And tell you how it goes.

I'm going to ask myself these questions before I race off to buy something, or pick it off the shelf, or even look at all:
1. Is this really something we need? (I know, obvious, but still a good question).
2. Is there something else we already own that could work for this purpose? [Our TV shelf became our dining room 'hutch' with some re-purposing]. 
3. Could I make it?[Been thinking about making this to save money]    
4. Could I buy this used or borrow it? [I was at Scoop & Save today, an amazing cake decorating store and found out that you can rent cake pans for 2 bucks a day!  Genius!  This inspired my 'borrow it' point.  You just never know what you can borrow!]
5. If I can't avoid buying it and can't find it used, where could I buy it locally?  Or even better, from more ethical places?  [I went to Ten Thousand Villages today and was floored by the incredible amount of interesting, unique, and fair trade gifts there.  If I'm gonna buy someone a gift, why not from there?]

What are your great money saving tips?