Purchasing habits we have difficulty curbing, and what we can do to curb them

[Neb Lleb]

Everyone has spending habits we all can't control. We all have those habits that all come back to bite our money in the butt. So I'd like to talk about it.

Let me start with mine: Gunpla. I would've said "videogames", but the gaming industry's pivot to $90 US dollar price tags is doing the curbing for me. When it comes to Gundam Plastic Models however, I'm addicted to them to a fault. Sometimes, I waste a lot of money on these buildable Mobile Suits, and it comes back to haunt my finances big time. So, after today where I had to order a replacement part for my new Real Grade Unicorn Gundam and wound up spending all my remaining money in total, I've decided to stop buying Gunpla until my birthday, when I will buy another Unicorn kit, the Perfect Grade, and then call it quits for the remainder of the year.

Now that I've gotten my dirty habit out of the way, lemme hear about yours.

 

[ObscureJigglypuff]

I don't even have enough money to have an spending habits.
I already said this many times before, but i only use money for my cheap dildos. Thanks to my cult.

This is my cult thread if you need context.

 

[Tonberry]

I have the habit of buying books I'm unlikely to read just because the covers and spines look nice. Though I've had to cut down on it lately because my shelves are all full.
This one I bought because Picard quoted Shakespeare in a really nice way in an episode of Star Trek, but I've only skimmed it (though to be fair, it's manuscripts and not proper literature so it's not exactly made for reading the same way). Absolutely gigantic.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

I have the habit of buying books I'm unlikely to read just because the covers and spines look nice. Though I've had to cut down on it lately because my shelves are all full.
This one I bought because Picard quoted Shakespeare in a really nice way in an episode of Star Trek, but I've only skimmed it (though to be fair, it's manuscripts and not proper literature so it's not exactly made for reading the same way). Absolutely gigantic.

View attachment 80222

AGH! Felt!

 

[Prism_Red]

Not me haha, I deliberately put on a restraining procedure on myself.
I usually only has around $50 on me, I have a safe and a card, anything I buy if I can pay cash then I have to do so.
I threw away the safe key so it can only be accessed with 6 digits code, and I don't remember it. To figure out each 2 digits I left out the clues around the house which might be randomly moved by my younger cousin every time he visit.
As for my card, two of my friends held one-half of the security number, I need to contact both of them and tell them what I'm gonna use it for, if whatever I'm trying to buy sounds stupid for them, then it's my job to convince them otherwise.
And if I still hesitate even when I got the money on my hands, I use it to buy gold instead. This all sound like a huge joke but no, I seriously do all this.

I collect lots of shit too and rarely in the red, all this is to teach myself a lesson that if I want to get something, I gotta really mean it.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

It used to be videogames, but the recent price increases and finding more avenues to "acquire" games has curbed that a great deal.
I'd say now it's collectibles, figures, and merch, particularly of the Vocaloid kind. I have a bad habit of saving up money for something only to spend it halfway through on a Miku figure or something. I enjoy collecting, so it's not a waste to me, but it has put a halt on me saving to upgrade my PC more then once.

 

[bigstinkie]

i grew up in a lower class family so i am very comfortable with the idea of not having much, so my spending habits are very frugal

 

[Cuestionador]

I like to buy comics and books, and some misc stuff (like cheap Digimon cards, or magazines for my collages) but recently i adquire the habit of reduce my to-read list and every time i adquire a new comic, i dispose of ten or twenty ones at least. This way, i have more control about the space. My country is a hellhole and my salary keeps smashing to the floor, it's sad but it's the reality: i enjoy the things more when i have less.

 

[bjork]

At one point in time, I collected enough games and toys that I needed to disassemble my bed because it took up less space that way, and I slept under a desk on a rug. The thing that changed for me was about 20 years ago when my mom died; going through her things made me realize that all this stuff you've collected over your life, is someone else's problem when you're not here any more. So I sold probably 90% of my stuff and have since had a hard time buying things that I don't need unless they're temporary or small. I still have more to get rid of, but knowing that I'm not adding to the pile in the way that I was previously, is kind of nice. And it saves money, especially with how pricey stuff has gotten in the last few years.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Everyone has spending habits we all can't control. We all have those habits that all come back to bite our money in the butt. So I'd like to talk about it.

Let me start with mine: Gunpla. I would've said "videogames", but the gaming industry's pivot to $90 US dollar price tags is doing the curbing for me. When it comes to Gundam Plastic Models however, I'm addicted to them to a fault. Sometimes, I waste a lot of money on these buildable Mobile Suits, and it comes back to haunt my finances big time. So, after today where I had to order a replacement part for my new Real Grade Unicorn Gundam and wound up spending all my remaining money in total, I've decided to stop buying Gunpla until my birthday, when I will buy another Unicorn kit, the Perfect Grade, and then call it quits for the remainder of the year.

Now that I've gotten my dirty habit out of the way, lemme hear about yours.

I can keep buying, but the problem stems on not having enough space. So i'm at that point were i just spend my money on my car or books. At least the books are so thin that they can fit in a container.

 

[gwardojones]

Everyone has spending habits we all can't control. We all have those habits that all come back to bite our money in the butt. So I'd like to talk about it.

Let me start with mine: Gunpla. I would've said "videogames", but the gaming industry's pivot to $90 US dollar price tags is doing the curbing for me. When it comes to Gundam Plastic Models however, I'm addicted to them to a fault. Sometimes, I waste a lot of money on these buildable Mobile Suits, and it comes back to haunt my finances big time. So, after today where I had to order a replacement part for my new Real Grade Unicorn Gundam and wound up spending all my remaining money in total, I've decided to stop buying Gunpla until my birthday, when I will buy another Unicorn kit, the Perfect Grade, and then call it quits for the remainder of the year.

Now that I've gotten my dirty habit out of the way, lemme hear about yours.

I never let myself start buying plastic models for this exact reason. I know it'd be my whole thing and I'd spend a fortune on them. I'm already bad enough about buying games, so I had to draw a line somewhere.

But, yeah, buying games is my vice. Getting dozens of games during a summer sale is my idea of heaven. I was even worse when I was still collecting physical games, but the upkeep and physical space it took up helped ween me off of and made me go full digital.

 

[Segadude113]

I buy my manga in those big "3 in 1" books now. It's much easier to catch up and i save about 10 bucks per book.

 

[_Lorenzo_]

I usually try to manage my budget as best as I can based on my monthly fixed expenses.
Then, every now and then, I treat myself to a little gaming indulgence to add to my collection...

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

I read fan comments on the internets. Then any itch to buy something usually disappear.

Same thing with Nutella. Watching videos of dumb people fight over it just instantly cured me of that addiction.

 

[Izzy]

Can't say anime as I have enough to watch on here and DVD. Video games, I have more than enough on my external drive than I know what to do with. I'm fine with books as I don't read much manga and the stuff I read, well, I wait til a good sale hit to get a few volumes. I'm not at a point where I 'MUST HAVE' or "ABSOLUTELY NEED' them.

 

[otogirisou]

I'm too poor to relate to this topic.

 

[MrPanda61]

I've been on a decluttering sprint in the last two years. I'm happy to share:

Smoking. During my university year I used to smoke. It was just an excuse to take a break from studying so I gladly incorporated it in my routine. However, at one point I realised how expensive and damaging was for my wallet and health and decided to quit.

Unfortunately, once you start it's not that easy to stop, and no method seemed to stick.

I then resorted to just throw away everything every time I resorted to smoke. This ment that every single time I bought a package and lighted up a cigarette I simply paused, took a few puffs and throw away everything into a public bin. This prevented me from getting back to them. It was painful and expensive, but it worked. I've been smoke free for almost eight years now.

Concerning games, I used to buy games on sale simply because I could, but ended up always replaying the same old stuff.

In the end, I restricted myself to simply not buying them. The trick was to associate a prepaid card that is always empty. Every time I would slip into tentation, the transaction will be blocked for insufficient funds, giving me time to avoid the purchase. This still works today.

I also had a similar problem with books. I used to buy expensive and technical texts (philosophy , philology, and so forth) as well as novels. However, I could never bring myself to read them both for a lack of time and because, in the end, I wasn't really interested with the topic all that much. The fact was that, in all honesty, I just wanted to appear smart and into heavy reading. It was about projecting an image of myself bot to others and to myself that wasn't true

A good solution for me was to simply sell my books and the library. Now I only have a smaller space where I can only put few texts that truly matter. If I want to read a novel I just go to the library or ask others to lend me book.
If these to options aren't viable I would surf the web for pdf versions of it. If still I can't find it I would look for an used version. This inevitably brings in time between me and the text I want and, most of the time, gets forgotten.

Off course, from time to time I will end up buying a book that I end up regretting. If this happens I just wait for a month. If in 30 days that text isn't touched I will simply resell it. No regrets.

On the other hand, If I end up really liking it I will ad it to my library. This isn't a problem because I'm now sure that it brings me value.

To conclude, I'm a faulty person and will alone cannot solve your problem. For me, putting barriers between me and products is the best course of action as I simply forget about impulsive purchases. This means no wish lists on sites and actively avoiding stores that could bring me into temptation.

Hope to be helpful to someone.