Quote: Originally Posted by
Christa W /img/forum/go_quote.gif
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Buying stuff, especially beauty products, makes me feel better for that short period of time. (that's a whole other thread entirely)
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Quote: Originally Posted by
tulosai /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Regarding the first sentence I quoted, I think almost all of us, whether we realize it or not, also are victim of that and that is part of why we all buy things we don't need in general. and I don't just mean people on this thread or on MUT or who like makeup- I mean nearly everyone.
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There are studies that have determined that shopping is in fact literally physically addictive. Here's something I posted in the November no/buy thread on this very subject:
Quote: Ah, found some links about how psychologists have found that shopping can be literally addicting! It's all about the dopamine -- and that's a major factor in why cocaine is extremely attractive to some people.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/arts-and-science/2011-05/got-shopping-on-the-brain-blame-the-dopamine/
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200603/doped-shopping
http://personalmoneynetwork.com/moneyblog/2012/08/29/impulse-shopping-dopamine/
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2006/12/11/post-8/
http://www.zmescience.com/science/domestic-science/better-dressed-dopamine/
And that's just a few of them. One interesting thing is that two major parts of this are the hunt and the anticipation. Just *finding* an amazing pair of shoes or the perfect electric blue nail polish can be enough for some people. That's one of the big reasons why you should walk away and think a purchase over before you buy it: You may decide you don't really want it after all once the dopamine discovery high wears off. This is pretty much exactly where buyer's remorse comes into play.
As for my 2014 plans, I'm taking a slightly different approach because I have several goals that I think I can target with just one plan: I can shop one weekend a month, strictly from a list I've spent the previous month compiling and reassessing (the longer I look at something on my list, the more likely I am to decide I don't need/want it after all), after I get my non-rent paycheck**. That's for *everything* -- online purchases included -- except certain fresh groceries that I can go ahead and pick up as needed, like English muffins (breakfast!) and milk every week (I might be able to make it every other week, but just to be safe, I will plan for every week). I will allocate $20 a week for those as-needed items outside of the monthly shopping runs.
The rest of the weekends will be stay-at-home weekends dedicated to cooking for the freezer (I used to do this, and it was *fantastic*, but I've gotten overly used to *not* doing it and need to go back to it), cleaning, getting rid of stuff I don't use (I have an entire *room* full of stuff I haven't touched in more than four years) and putting things (like perfume oils) up on eBay. That should keep me out of stores and focused on getting my apartment in order. I have a nasty habit of buying *stuff* that just clutters up my apartment. That needs to end. This will also cut back on gas. I've been sick/cranky and staying home most weekends lately (since I take the bus to work and hate holiday shopping crowds, I've basically been using my car to go to the grocery store once a week since Thanksgiving, and that's it), and I can go an entire month -- maybe even longer -- on one tank of gas when I don't spend every weekend running errands and shopping.
I'm also going to read this personal economics book I picked up a couple of years ago and haven't read because it's a survival guide sort of book that views debt and bills as the zombie apocalypse. Wait. I phrased that poorly. I keep putting off reading it just because I am a procrastinator, not because of its contents or presentation. I got it because of the way it's put together as a survival guide, and the bits and pieces I've read when I've opened it to random pages are really good and useful. It's intended for people who are at or near the bottom of the economic food chain (so no investment tips, but plenty of tips on things like how to stay away from scammy situations and reasons why getting healthy is actually a financial thing -- and it's so aware of its target audience that there's even an entire chapter with the subtitle "How and why to keep your job... Even if you hate it"), and it was cowritten by an actual economist (so it knows what it's talking about) and a local former radio personality/former podcaster/eternal smartass (so it's extremely readable).
Why it's useful and relevant: It gives tips like set up an autodeposit of $25 to $50 a month to a savings account that you basically have no access to (one specific rule: DO NOT GET A DEBIT CARD FOR THIS ACCOUNT). It sounds crazy, but I've done a variation of it before, and it's actually really nice: If you're a money-fritterer, you don't notice the absence of that $25 to $50 -- and then you'll remember that you set that up months down the line, and then you'll finally get around to checking to see how much you have, and then you'll say, "Holy crap, I have three hundred bucks in there? Ooh, new shoes!" And that's what this account is for: Remembering about it at some point down the road and playing.
Hmm. Maybe I should report its tips back here whenever I come across something that seems useful! (I definitely need to see if I can get another direct deposit from my paycheck and get a $25-per-pay-period thing set up for my secondary credit union that I don't actually *go* to because it doesn't have weekend hours, and I've left my account there untouched for so long that they have actually called me to let me know that I need to *do* something with the money -- even if it's just calling them to move five bucks from checking to savings or vice versa -- every six months or a year if I want the account to remain open. I might as well let money quietly pile up in it!)
** I get paid via direct deposit every two weeks. I figured out how much will cover rent and money I owe my dad (he loaned me some money a couple of years ago, and I'm sloooowly paying him back), and I get that much deposited into my checking account every other week. The rest goes to savings. Therefore, I get one check that goes entirely to rent/Dad and one non-rent check that goes towards other bills/groceries/etc. each month. This month is a three-check month, and when that happens, I need to start putting the majority -- if not all -- of it in savings.
ETA: It has come to my attention that I forgot to name the book! It's _Zombie Economics_, by Lisa Desjardins and Rick Emerson. Amazon has it
here.
/emoticons/
