Futureshop and Circuit City are the adult candy stores of today.
For many people (mostly male) who walk into these stores, our eyes widen with excitement… I find myself asking “Which items most badly want to come home with me?” So many new toys, gadgets and .. oh ya, they cost money… lots of money. But surely my pleasure and bragging rights will compensate for the high price, right? Maybe for a few days, but then you have to face the bill, or the other need that you now cannot afford. I find when I go into those stores, I go with a purpose and item in mind, and go directly to that item and then make my purchase and leave. Otherwise, the temptation can be too great :). This is all part of sticking to a budget. Its a true skill to avoid impulse buying and be strong in your determination to meet your long-term financial goals and sacrifice the short term pleasure. But if you commit to it and resolve to be careful in these temptation stores, you can do it.
My worst “impulse buy”? A projector as a replacement for a TV. My wife and I had talked about it already and had money set aside for it, but had not committed to a purchase. On a random visit to Futureshop with my oldest daughter (just barely walking)… I saw one on sale - and it was a great sale. I borrowed a sales clerks phone, called my wife and talked her into it, and came home almost $1800 poorer, but with a great toy. We get great use out of this device, so it was a great buy for us, but I look back on that day and think I’m lucky I did get a great deal rather than just give Futureshop my money on an impulse buy.
Whats your worst impulse buy?
September 11th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Almost 10 years ago, I saw a “great deal” on a laptop online. I had been watching the prices of laptops for a few weeks and was confident I knew what I was doing. This laptop was way out of my price range, but the deal was so good I bought it fully planning on turning around and selling it for profit and continuing to shop for myself in my (much lower) price range. Little did I know that it was days before a new line of laptops were being released by this particular manufacturer thus bringing the value down of the one I’d bought. After listing it unsuccessfully on eBay once, I was willing to settle for just getting my money back, but to no avail. I ended up losing $300 on the thing! Needless to say, I continued with my outdated computer for an extended period of time following that.