UNITED STATES—I know I am not the only person who suffers from it, I’m referring to impulse purchases. I feel sometimes we have this engrained notion that if we go shopping or we visit an establishment where we can purchase goods we find this exact desire to purchase something. It feels almost foreign to visit an establishment and not make a purchase.
Well, I am starting to come to the realization that you do NOT always have to purchase something. It is ok to tell your brain: I DO NOT NEED ANYTHING! THIS IS NOT SOMETHING I NEED. That is not easy to do, but if you start to say it over and over again, when you do happen to go out and do a bit of shopping rather local or at the mall (where people do still go) you can control your wallet and not the other way around.
This happened to me recently and it was a great feeling because I entered a few stores and I left without purchasing any items. Guess what? I was pleased with myself and so was my wallet. I was able to save some money and there was no guilt. I didn’t purchase something and tell myself immediately, “Why did I just waste that money? I should return this item because in my gut I truly don’t want it.” This happens more often than we like to admit, plenty of people call it buyer’s remorse.
If you experience buyer’s remorse after making a purchase that is always a bad thing. You should never feel that way after a purchase. If you do that means you indulged in a purchase that you shouldn’t have. There was a temptation and you allowed it to get the best of you. We just should feel the pressure to buy, buy and buy. We sometimes have to just stop and reflect on what we are spending.
Why are we spending it? Are we spending to cover up for something? Sometimes we buy things to deal with our emotions. We might be grappling with things that we don’t know how to process and handle, so we use shopping or spending as a crutch. It hurts us more than we realize on a financial level. In addition, I think so many of us have this psychological feeling that it is stupid to go into a store and not purchase something.
America, window shopping is something people do more often than you imagine. This is how you determine exactly what you want in a product. Think of this like buying a house, a car, furniture, a TV or another large ticket item. Those are things that you don’t want to spend without properly considering all the options available at your fingertips. It is like online shopping. So many people do it because they’re bored, but guess what, you can browse online and then make that decision after thinking, “I truly don’t need it.” Don’t spend what you DON’T HAVE or HAVE TO SPEND!
The more I age the more I realize just because something is ON SALE doesn’t mean it is something I have to have. A sale is just that: a sale, and what is the goal of accumulating stuff if you’re NOT going to use the items. It is wasteful spending America, and who wants to throw money in the trash? Not me, but what about you?
