How to Avoid impulsive buying :(

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logistopath said:
Credit cards cannot be blamed for bad spending habits. After all, the cards don't do the shopping. It's the man (or woman) with the card that does that. Learning to resist, and learning good spending habits are more essential.

I am not perfect when it comes to impulse buying... I sometimes get things that I could have avoided.. But the value of my impulse buys are usually very very less. Anything beyond 500 or 600 rs. makes me think more than a few times. Rather, I tell myself that for such costly items, I need to read reviews, compare prices and then decide. In all probability, I won't be making any of that research when I come back home. :p Sleeping over it and postponing the purchase by a day would be the best way to know if the item was really essential or not.

Like someone said, getting married also helps. ;) But not always.
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Yeah that's what i do. I keep procrastinating it and sleep over it. Then sanity would dawn slowly and then i would think if i actually need that product. This alone must have saved me lot of money.

What if the person you are married to is an impulsive, reckless and imprudent buyer?
Thats like keeping keroscene and fire together and not expect combustion :D
 
What i do is to keep postponing the purchase of that item until i feel that i really need it, in the meantime i watch reviews/unboxings and such. This usually works for me in most cases.
 
raksrules said:
Call me OCD or finicky but i sometimes actually compare the prices of a smaller pack of biscuits vs a larger supposedly "Money saver" pack. This is almost never a money saver.

Eg (numbers might be inaccurate) : McVites digestive on my local dmart was something 16 Rs for 100 Gm or so and a bigger 500 Gm pack was 90 Rs or so. I do not remember.
But if i buy the bigger pack i spend 90 Rs while 5 smaller packs means i pay 80 Rs for the same amount of biscuits. I guess most people might not be calculating such things.
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That's interesting i'd have thought buying more product in a larger pack would always be cheaper. You've clearly found an exception compared to my experience.

I do the same thing you did but mostly for expiry dates. I was used to best before but in India we have the manufacture date and then you have to calculate the expiry yourself. Shelf life is different for each product so it can get tedious. This used to bug me for a long time until i realised our system tells you how to gauge freshness. It also is a good indicator of the turnover the shop has.

The more convenient best before date does not indicate freshness at all.
 
blr_p said:
That's interesting i'd have thought buying more product in a larger pack would always be cheaper. You've clearly found an exception compared to my experience.

I do the same thing you did but mostly for expiry dates. I was used to best before but in India we have the manufacture date and then you have to calculate the expiry yourself. Shelf life is different for each product so it can get tedious. This used to bug me for a long time until i realised our system tells you how to gauge freshness. It also is a good indicator of the turnover the shop has.

The more convenient best before date does not indicate freshness at all.
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It worked in this biscuit case because dmart discounted the smaller packets substantially and the discount on the bigger pack was very very less (may be 2 Rs or so)/
 
To all the people saying socialize more, that doesn't help much these days. In my case, I'll usually end up spending more when I socialize more as everything is getting so expensive (petrol, food, social obligations :P)

As someone mentioned the best way to save money is get a home loan. Once you do that, your entire focus would be on repaying it quickly, you wouldn't normally think of spending on something which you don't need :)

Ofcourse its not possible for everyone to do that, so alternately commit yourself to a fixed saving, a certain % of your income after taking in account your monthly income and average monthly expenses. Do take in account some headroom also for unforeseen expenses. Headroom is important as that lets you meet your saving targets with regularity. If you keep missing your saving targets on regular basis, in some months you would stop caring about it. So make sure to achieve them each month and if in some month you miss it, try to save more in next month (again headroom helps in that).

Next comes the question what to do with the saved cash. Although savings account have now started giving 6-7% yield PA but having liquid cash is a bad idea as it causes temptation. Better are fixed deposits/recurring deposits. Even better are mutual funds and shares, however its not everyone's cup of tea and it requires knowledge, effort and mental prepration to bear loss, if things don't go your way.

Once you achieve your monthly saving target you can spend your extra cash without feeling guilty about it. Also impulsive buyers switch to a debit card and do away with your credit card as its only designed to take advantage of your weakness.
 
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Nice to see such a thread. I have realized a few things that have helped me a lot. I was never an impulse shopper and I would never ever buy a mobile for 40 or 50 grand not unless it does my office work for me.

1. Try to use cash as far as possible. I have seen this behavior in me that if I have cash every morning I will just buy that half litre pack of milk. If I have a card I will buy something extra from biscuits, to tissues to maybe even the dishwash.
2. Initially I used to avoid taking credit cards when I roamed around in malls some few years back. Now I have got over that temptation. You can put a 70% sale (which they anyways have throughout the year) and I just admire, appreciate and walk out :p
3. Avoid buying bundled offers which you do not need.
E.g. Buy 3 deos for a dicount. Saleman tells me they are cheaper that way. I tell him, they are not. I just need one. You are making me pay for three and hence I am spending more. So I buy the single pack. Lasts longer and you do not waste it just so you can go to the second bottle.

4. Groceries, vegetables and even packed items like atta and maida are cheaper in mom and pop stores.
E.g. I stay in Bangalore and in BTM layout you can always buy branded stuff like ashirvad atta or sunflower oil etc and they will give you a discount on mrp. Better than racking worthless points on that credit card. I can also mathematically prove that in rupee terms the discounts are more than what the points will give you besides not having to spend it only on some more clothes that you do not need. Needless to say vegetables and fruits are also cheaper.

5. Use your head when you go online. Most of the discounts are bullshit. Sites like flipkart, snapdeal, infibeam etc show a discount of 50 % on hard disks say the 1Tb types. They show the mrp as 8000 (e.g.). When was it 8000 god dammit when mahatma gandhi was dating kasturba :p

I will conclude with what a good friend of mine said to a salesman. He was looking for a cheap mobile.
Salesman" Sir S4 le ligiye, emi bhi hain usme"
Friend" Saale, emi to log ghar pe leta hain aur tu mujhe mobile pe bol raha hain. :cool: Show me the one that I asked" and that's it.
 
@raj_pol

Yes things like maida etc are cheaper or on par with dmart etc in mom and pop shops. But with regards to aashirwad aata, we have noticed that it costs something like 300 MRP and in these big stores they sell for 265-275 rs while the nearby kirana does not give any discount. Same with simple stuff like dahi etc, there are discounts in dmart.
So if you know the price is local (in most cases no discount).
But most people are gullible when it comes to shopping in these big marts and seeing the discount will buy more than what they want. These big shop earn because of sales volume and hence they can afford to offer those discounts on almost all the products. 1Kg dahi from gowardhan is rarely seen in local shops near my home and the 400 Gm costs 40 or 45 Rs while the local dmart has the 1 Kg with MRP of 70, being sold at 55 Rs.
 
raksrules said:
@raj_pol

Yes things like maida etc are cheaper or on par with dmart etc in mom and pop shops. But with regards to aashirwad aata, we have noticed that it costs something like 300 MRP and in these big stores they sell for 265-275 rs while the nearby kirana does not give any discount. Same with simple stuff like dahi etc, there are discounts in dmart.
So if you know the price is local (in most cases no discount).
But most people are gullible when it comes to shopping in these big marts and seeing the discount will buy more than what they want. These big shop earn because of sales volume and hence they can afford to offer those discounts on almost all the products. 1Kg dahi from gowardhan is rarely seen in local shops near my home and the 400 Gm costs 40 or 45 Rs while the local dmart has the 1 Kg with MRP of 70, being sold at 55 Rs.
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I get my aata from Chakki and dahi made in home.
Costs even less :P
 
Dahi recipe for those who want to make it at home.
Making good dahi at home is simple. just boil 1/2 litre amul milk (don't add any water) in evening around 6. By 9 pm it should be cooled down. Add 1/2 spoon of any commercially brought dahi you have. Like amul etc. stir the milk well for a minute, so that any fat on top is mixed in the milk. Close lid and by next day around 7-8am you have almost 1/2kg dahi. Keep in fridge after that so that it does not go sour.
 
6pack said:
Dahi recipe for those who want to make it at home.
Making good dahi at home is simple. just boil 1/2 litre amul milk (don't add any water) in evening around 6. By 9 pm it should be cooled down. Add 1/2 spoon of any commercially brought dahi you have. Like amul etc. stir the milk well for a minute, so that any fat on top is mixed in the milk. Close lid and by next day around 7-8am you have almost 1/2kg dahi. Keep in fridge after that so that it does not go sour.
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On top of that if you want a solid dahi which comes out without being sticky then i suggest buying the dahi (the small amount you put to make dahi) from a local dairy rather than the amul/nestle etc. If you use the packaged dahi (especially nestle), expect the home made dahi to be bit sticky sort of, as in when you remove the dahi from vessel using spoon, you will find thread like forming from spoon to the vessel, not sure if i am making sense here. :P
 
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Another tip: Start reading books, especially book series :bookworm: Sometimes, I forget about everything when I am reading them and when it ends, I am back to reality :(

Cheaper than any entertainment option for the price you pay.
 
raksrules said:
@raj_pol

Yes things like maida etc are cheaper or on par with dmart etc in mom and pop shops. But with regards to aashirwad aata, we have noticed that it costs something like 300 MRP and in these big stores they sell for 265-275 rs while the nearby kirana does not give any discount. Same with simple stuff like dahi etc, there are discounts in dmart.
So if you know the price is local (in most cases no discount).
But most people are gullible when it comes to shopping in these big marts and seeing the discount will buy more than what they want. These big shop earn because of sales volume and hence they can afford to offer those discounts on almost all the products. 1Kg dahi from gowardhan is rarely seen in local shops near my home and the 400 Gm costs 40 or 45 Rs while the local dmart has the 1 Kg with MRP of 70, being sold at 55 Rs.
Click to expand...

Exactly my point. The big stores will offer you more than you need. You may not need the 25 kg bag or the 3 litres of areated soft drinks pack. What if you just want 500 ml or a kg. They will never offer discounts on those.
 
Since we were talking about dmart and all, I am just back from dmart and unless I am mistaken, here is an example of total ripoff

Check the attached picture, Kissan tomato ketchup pouch is at 77 Rs (Mrp of 99) for 1 Kg while the same thing in some fancy squeezo packing is a ridiculous 160 Rs for just 900 gms.
So double the price for less amount for ketchup.
ImageUploadedByTechEnclave Forum1377432300.609262.jpg
 
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