Everyone loves a good deal, but on-sale items have a way of tricking us into spending more than we planned. One way to curb impulsive buying: Consider if you’d pay full price for the item.
Photo by Cosmic Kitty.
If the answer is no, you probably don’t need it. Likewise, if you weren’t going to buy it anyway, don’t let the sale convince you it’s something you need. It takes work, but you can program your mind to stop buying stuff you don’t need.
Aspiring Millionaire has a few other tips to keep spending in check.
How to Keep On-Sale Items from Destroying Your Net Worth [Aspiring Millionaire]
Comments
2 responses to “If You Wouldn’t Buy It At Full Price, You Probably Don’t Need It”
That’s overly simplistic. Every purchase, in fact, every decision is trade off between cost vs benefit. When the cost changes it definitely requires re-evaluation of the decision.
Let’s extend your argument further. What if the discount was 100% or 99.99% ? Would you still give a blanket “No” to every purchase? I don’t really need a new iPad as such. I can make do with my phone. But if Harvey Norman were selling new iPads for $1, I would be crazy not to get one.
Of course, that doesn’t mean I will get a thousand iPads or that I would consider buying a live tiger just because it is on sale for $1. My point is, when the cost of something you might want changes, then you definitely need to re-evaluate your cost benefit analysis.
You know you can buy stuff you don’t actually need. It’s called “want.”