When the price is Right…

Have you ever had one of those trips to the store where you’ve painstakingly budgeted, but wind up spending twice as much as you planned? We all have. Most often times the culprit is the enemy of all things saving money, the impulse buy.

This is usually how it goes: You go in with a plan, but you see so many savings and discounts that now your cart is overflowing with merchandise and you know you’re going to regret it later . It’s not that we won’t use it - in fact, there’s normally a thousand reasons we can come up with to justify the purchase and only one reason to just leave these items on the shelf - saving money.

Now, I’m not one to say that any and all impulse purchases are bad - sometimes they make us feel great, stumbling across a deal and having the courage to just dive on it…the challenge is that most impulse buys aren’t deals, they’re just stuff that we think we want.

The only real solution is simultaneously simple and difficult…simply keeping your head about you. Ask yourself “How bad do I really need this?” or “Will I even use it?” You’ll find that more often than not, we’re not capitalizing on offered deals as much as we’re simply satisfying that “buyer’s Id” that tells us to make unwise purchases, a practice that comes coupled with a terrible backlash that we’ve all experienced: Buyer’s Remorse…and no one enjoys having to cope with guilt when we get our items home.

It’s definitely a tight balance, but with a bit of effort and discipline it’s not difficult at all to find the sweet spot between having an eye out for the deal and simply buying up everything we find that’s offered at even the slightest discount…because if we follow the latter practice we spend more money in the long run, and who can afford that these days? If one can learn to objectively assess one’s need and desire, as well as give a wide berth to all that delicious “candy” near the register, you’d be amazed at how much you can save on a monthly basis.