{"id":1678,"date":"2013-12-04T19:03:06","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T01:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/?p=1678"},"modified":"2013-12-04T18:38:11","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T00:38:11","slug":"temptations-of-purchasing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/2013\/12\/temptations-of-purchasing\/","title":{"rendered":"Temptations of Purchasing"},"content":{"rendered":"

About a month ago I became aware of the large increase of catalogs arriving.\u00a0 \u201cAha, it\u2019s that time of year again.\u201d\u00a0 From this point, I can have any number of reactions \u2013 from apathy to curiosity, sometimes I even feel annoyed.\u00a0 Of course, their job is to convince you to spend your money with them \u2013 at this time of year, with their offers of saving money and finding the perfect gift. \u00a0Yet it\u2019s not just this holiday time that we\u2019re surrounded with offers \u2013 their hope of being tempting.<\/p>\n

How do you think about the approaches and offers all around you?\u00a0 Do you consider the strategies they\u2019re using?\u00a0 Do you know what and when you are more prone to giving into the temptation?<\/p>\n

If only it were simple to have set rules for making intentional purchases and avoid collecting clutter.\u00a0 Which isn\u2019t to say that there aren\u2019t some strategies for doing both of these things \u2013 yet, with all the variables, they\u2019re not likely to be foolproof.\u00a0 The more we understand our own dynamic – the factors that impact our buying more things \u2013 the easier it will be to catch ourselves.<\/p>\n

There are times that the idea of an item being scarce can be a challenge for me \u2013 \u201cuh oh, I absolutely love that, it\u2019s on sale which means it might be going out of stock (or is less expensive), so I should just get it.\u201d\u00a0 Once I became aware of how this situation of an apparent scarcity (or \u201cgood\u201d deal) can lead me to impulsive purchasing, I can now catch myself most of the time from buying into the perception of scarcity.\u00a0 I realized that it was more important to me to be able to take the time to process and evaluate buying items, then that if it was in fact not available (if I even went back to get it) it was \u201cjust not meant to be.\u201d\u00a0 This is one of my strategies \u2013 in response to one of the marketing strategies that can entice me.<\/p>\n

For me with the idea of scarcity, it only applies to some things.\u00a0 When it is in the clearance area of a store, I practice skepticism about why something has made it there.\u00a0 Yet I learned that the hard way \u2013 I picked up too many things over the years that were flimsy.\u00a0 Just because something is marked down doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s really a savings to buy \u2013 if the item is poor quality, it won\u2019t work or last long anyway \u2013 so it\u2019s a waste of your time and money.<\/p>\n

The marketing aspects that can tempt me are not necessarily the same ones that lure you \u2013 just like the approach we take to handle it will be different.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t pay attention \u2013 learn from our experiences \u2013 we will spend money we don\u2019t need to and have that much more excess stuff around making more work for us.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just as simple as the marketing \u2013 the things retailers are advertising and trying to tempt us with. \u00a0We also have an internal sense of when something is too much \u2013 whether it would match anyone else\u2019s view or not.\u00a0 So, consider if you later regret how much you spent on x, y, z, etc.\u00a0 Do you need to adjust your internal sense or apply it only within certain limits?<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s also how our personality, mood, and feelings influence how we buy or not buy as well.\u00a0 For me, it also affects my tolerance for shopping at all \u2013 sometimes the last thing I have any desire to do is walk into a store unless I have an immediate need.\u00a0 Then there are other times that I want to look around and explore.\u00a0 Once I even said, \u201cI want to go into the \u201cclutter\u201d store.\u201d\u00a0 Then I chuckled \u2013 both at the desire to go into the store that seemed cluttered and how I labeled it \u2013 automatically.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the window that somehow drew me in \u2013 and after going in, I admired a few things, considered if anything wanted to come home with me, and left happy \u2013 exploring and not purchasing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"cluttered<\/a>

The “clutter” store I wanted to go into.<\/p><\/div>\n

We all have opportunities to buy things we don\u2019t need and end up not using or appreciating those things. \u00a0And more than the opportunities, we all spend on our money on these things \u2013 at least sometimes.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t about how much money you do or don\u2019t have \u2013 since you can collect clutter at dollar stores just as easily as higher end boutiques and the excess stuff still requires your attention, at some point.\u00a0 We can choose to consider the things influencing our purchasing and explore how we can do that in ways that are truly supportive of our life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re surrounded by opportunities and temptations for spending our money \u2013 the effects of marketing and our individuality. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,6],"tags":[10,8,13,5,15,17],"class_list":["post-1678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holidayhelp","category-personaldevelopment","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-gratitude","tag-household","tag-resources","tag-spaces"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-r4","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1678"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1682,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions\/1682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}