What the heck kinda tip is that, you ask? Well, let me explain.
A long time ago, my parents told me that they went to one of the “marts” on a Saturday afternoon and spent two or three hours shopping. They looked at everything from towels to electronics and had a cart full of new goodies. Now, my father could not be called anything like a patient person, so when they got up to the cash register and discovered the lines to be, well, let’s say really long…my father got a little perturbed. So perturbed, in fact, that he and my mother left the cart sitting there and they left the store – never to return to their cart full of stuff.
My father told me later that it was one of the most eye-opening experiences he had ever had. They had all the fun of shopping – and didn’t spend a dime. And when they got home, they hadn’t missed a thing! The old towels still dried. The old TV still worked. And they were hard pressed over dinner to remember all of the other stuff they had just “had to have.”
Now, am I advocating going to stores and shopping til you drop than not buying anything…not really. I mean, go for it if it sounds like fun, but what I am really advocating is a waiting period. I often go to flea markets or stores and see things that I like. But I don’t buy them right away. I walk on and figure that if the item is still what I really want to spend my money on by the time I’m ready to leave, than I can go back for it. It is very rare that I go back for any item.
For larger purchases, I wait at least a full day before buying anything. I go to stores and I wear myself out comparing and looking, but then I go home and see how I feel. Sometimes – like with a new refrigerator I really needed – I’ll compare even more online and then finally decide which I want. But other times, like recently with a new car I thought I had to have, I go home, do out the math, and realize that the repairs on my old one will really be cheaper in the long run.
So – there you go. Just wait. You might not need it later…or now!
cheaplikeme says:
Great point. You can also get so much information this way about price that when a real bargain comes up, you know it’s a deal and you can snap it up. We just bought a much-needed laptop computer for my husband, who’s in grad school. We were able to jump on the last 15 minutes of a sale online because we knew the computer would suit him — an “impulse buy” that was preceded by 2 months of looking and not buying.
20th September 2007 at 8:47 pm