Why You Make Spur of the Moment Purchases

Exceeding your budget can lead to personal debt and it can impact your financial security. This is easily done with tempting unconscious spending. Managing a household budget is difficult without discipline. The temptation of unconscious spending is greater than you might think.

You might be out with your girlfriend shopping, and she buys these cute new shoes; so suddenly you have a pair of new shoes in your shopping bag also. You didn’t need any new shoes, but the display was so attractive. You found some that matched an outfit you have at home, so it is easy to justify your purchase. Then, the credit card bill will come in and have to be paid.

External and internal pressures make it tough to resist unconscious spending. What really makes sense is conscious spending if you want to stick to your budget. You have worked hard for your money, and you should buy what is best for you and your household with the money you earn. Most people don’t buy this way because they are unconscious spenders.

Another aspect of this topic is the incredible range of products now available to us. In most developed nations you can buy anything you want day or night. If you look at the new catalogs and think about it, they are loaded with things we lived without for years.

Now they serve a purpose, such as special clips to close bags of chips, a huge variety of shapes and sizes of storage containers, holders for your large number of remote controls, and so forth.

Advertising itself is a big enticement. There are hundreds of highly paid psychologists, statisticians, filmmakers, marketers, copywriters, and artists hired to influence your buying decisions

We are bombarded with TV ads, sales coupons in the paper, ads in the newspapers, brochures, catalogs in the mail, magazines, and even on the radio. They have spent years learning how to influence people, and it isn’t easy to resist some of these ads.

Retail people also know how to arrange their merchandise in an attractive display that is pleasing to the eye, along with their signs, which are meant to turn your browsing into a purchase. It works quite well for retailers. The only thing that is helpful to you is the fact that they know what type of items you like to buy.

For instance, in the grocery store, if you buy the same brand of cheese, you are probably going to get a coupon printed on the back of your receipt for that cheese at some point. If we went into the grocery store and actually only bought the few things on our lists the stores would probably have to close.

They count on our spur of the moment weakness to pick up several extra items, which is called unconscious buying, even if they are items you eventually use. They may have added up enough to put you over your budgeted amount for food that month. Of course, never go grocery shopping when you are hungry,

Another reason people buy things is the fast-moving pace of technology. VHS tapes ( I still own some) are now DVD’s, but wait, now they have Blue-ray DVDs. A computer that is more than 5 years old is obsolete.

Another product is the expensive iPhone where you can download movies, and I am still learning things about my iPhone. Also, CD’s are now becoming minidiscs for music that will also become obsolete.

The problem with all this pressure is how do you pay for these things if you are spending over your budget each month? Credit cards, home-equity loans, store cards, and even advances in paychecks are sometimes used to meet the expenses.

You will never get ahead living on borrowed funds. Make sure you prepare and live within your budget to gain financial success. Decide carefully before you make a purchase if it is necessary. This is the way to stop unconscious spending.