Should I Buy This?
A Quiz to Help You Decide Whether or Not to Buy Something Online.
Many of us are feeling the pain of increased prices.
While we might be trying to stick to a budget, online shopping is available at any time with the click of a button. Plus, this time of year there are so many sales.
It’s great to pay less for something we truly want or need but buying something just because it’s on sale is just extra money spent.
So, how can we make sure our purchases are conscious and intentional rather than retail therapy we’ll regret?
Take a deep breath. We’ve got you covered.
I partnered up with Clasp to bring you a fun, five-question quiz you can go through before making a purchase.
Our questions walk you through the most important emotional and practical aspects of making a purchasing decision.
You’ll get our recommendation in the results so you can feel good about your spending decision.
And, you can take this quiz over and over for each of your online shopping decisions. Here are some of the things we consider.
Our emotions.
How we’re feeling when we make a purchase isn’t indicative of whether or not it’s an impulse purchase, but we can glean a lot of information from it. If we know we tend to make purchases we regret when we’re stressed, feeling stressed is a helpful indicator that we’re making an emotional purchase.
Impulse.
Buying something on impulse is one of the most common reasons we regret a purchase. We all know the feeling: you all of a sudden desperately “need” something you didn’t know existed five minutes ago. This can be triggered by effective marketing tactics, sales, or imagining what purchasing an item could do for us.
One of the most effective ways to make sure a purchase is not an impulse purchase is to give it time. If we wait a day before purchasing, the impulse may wear off. After waiting a couple days, you might find that it’s not even worth navigating to the website to purchase it.
Alternatives.
Whether we’re aware of it or not, our purchases come at the expense of other financial goals. We’re unable to save as much as we’d like or buy other things because we spent the money elsewhere.
If we’re spending money that we’d rather allocate toward another goal, it’s worth exploring alternatives. Alternatives are other things that can replace or satisfy the same purpose as the purchase we’re considering.
For example, I could upgrade my headphones for $275. I could also keep the same ones or find a less-expensive replacement.
I can afford them, but I consider that $275 would make me happier if spent on something else, like paying down a credit card or going towards a vacation. When we consider where else we could be spending our money, we can be sure that our purchasing decisions are conscious and intentional.
If you’re deciding whether or not to buy something (or 10 things), let us help.
Want more tips? Follow along here.