Impulse shopping

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Anyone else do this a lot?

I don't know why I do it, but I tend to end up buying things I regret later. Perfect example is I bought the new expansion for Warcraft yesterday and I already regret it. I have no idea why I do stupid crap like this, and I've bought enough games on impulse to say it's a problem. It's like part of my brain wants something really badly, then it ends up when I get it, it's not as good as I thought it would be.

I can't afford to "impulse shop."

I hate even stepping foot in a mall.

I can't afford to "impulse shop."

I hate even stepping foot in a mall.

I'm not much at being a modern consumer.

I basically buy what I need and forget the rest. Sure, there are somethings that would be nice to have but they are just not important enough to bother with.

I know how you feel. I keep buying books and material for tabletop RPGs when I know full well that no one around here plays them any more.

I impulse shop at thrift stores, so I don't really lose a whole lot of money. Of COURSE I need a VHS of 'Highlander 2', a still-sealed copy of "Trump: The Board Game", a plush dinosaur hat, a decorative winged skull and a red zoot suit! How could I possibly live without it?!

Yeah, it's like this sense of "I should get this and I'll enjoy playing it" when years later, I haven't even finished the well majority of these games, lest even started them.

It's stupid really, but it's a bad habit. I only wish I could train my mind in a way where I don't feel like I always need to purchase something. I've tried working on it before, but it's hard work.

I'm guilty of doing a lot of impulse purchases, though I was much worse for it in the past. I went a little crazy during the last Steam Christmas sale though.

I always buy things that I think I REALLY need and want, but when it comes or when I've used it I'm like - what the hell did I just buy?

Sometimes I think I might have Bi-Polar due to my excessive and unnecessary spending....

I sometimes do. I often think a lot and do research before buying something, but end up impulsively buying something totally different from what I was thinking to buy. I made a big mistake of impulsively buying something that cost me $6digits and it's not even worth that much. I absolutely hate it. I still owe a lot of money for that. I think I might have ruined my life.

I get a new special interest. I order every book I can find on the subject. I move on to a new special interest before reading the books.

It's gaming for me. Video games specifically, though if I COULD do tabletop games / board games / whatever, I would, but there's nobody to do those with.

Mostly, I'm a PC gamer, so if I'm buying something, it's probably from Steam or some similar shop.

And.... ugh, yeah, I cant resist when I see something I want. Not just on Steam though; if I'm at an actual store, or if I'm at an anime con, these purchases will still happen.

What makes it worse... or just more absurd... is that there's enough money for me to do basically whatever in the heck I happen to feel like doing at the time. I'm not like, running around buying helicopters or some damn stupid idea like that... no, not THAT insane amount of money, but for purchases that arent made of crazy, or for things like travelling to anime cons (or whatever), I can do what I want.

Because of this general lack of limits, I'll buy things WAY TOO FREQUENTLY. Or for amazingly idiotic reasons.

My 3DS for example. Did I actually want one when I bought it? Nope. Had I thought about it at all? Nope. What happened was I was at an anime convention, right, and I was in the vendor hall. I had brought a huge blob of cash with on the trip, to buy things in there. But there wasnt all that much of interest at that particular con. Logically, this should have been fine... plenty of other cons I go to, I can buy loopy stuff from those. But no, THAT would have made SENSE. Instead, possibly because of caffiene, I had this idea: "Well I'm carrying this around, clearly that means I need to do SOMETHING with it". A 3DS and a couple of games were at one booth I passed by, and I figured "hey, that's expensive and plays games, I'll buy that". And so now I have one.

And that's the kind of decision making.... or total lack thereof... that goes into it. It's not infrequent where I'll buy some game or whatever, and then the next day I cant remember what it was.

Real brilliant, eh? Ugh. Never been able to really stop myself from doing this sort of thing. Lack of a spending limit makes this just keep going, and going...

Maybe you're trying to buy happiness----you're thinking (subconsciously),: "THIS is the one, that'll make everything, alright"?

I used to do it; but, fortunately I can't afford to, anymore. I'm hoping that now I've been out of the habit, for so long, that when I DO get a little money, I won't be stupid, with it.

That's quite normal, I know a lot of people who do that.

I used to do it when I was a child but a vacation trip with my grandma cured me of it.

When we were passing a souvenir store and I seen a toy and said I want to get it grandma told me this:

- Ok, remember where it is. I promise will buy it for you if you still want it when we are going back. Maybe you will find something better further from there? There is still a lot of shops on the way. I am going to buy you only one thing today so if you get the toy right now, you won't be able to get anything else.

For the rest of day I was browsing shops and looking at stuffs but I remembered I can get only 1 thing. After seeing all the souvenir stores we returned to the first store and I got the thing I wanted in the first place. I managed to wait the whole day and I was proud of it. I also liked the toy even more because I knew I made a wise choice and there is nothing better than this around. And the whole day was fun because I had a goal - find the best toy. If grandma bought me the thing in the first place browsing all the stores would be pointless and frustrating because I wouldn't be able to get anything else.

The most fun thing in the whole story is... when we were walking along the street right after I got my toy I seen something shining on ground in front of me. It was money. It wasn't a huge amount of money (5PLN coin, the toy was 6 or 7PLN), but it was a lot to me since I never had my own money before.
It was a coincidence. I was simply lucky. Someone must have lost it.There is no chance grandma would put it there.

I asked my grandma what to do with it and she said I found it so it is mine. It was the first money I could consider my own and which I was allowed to spend on whatever I wanted. I don't remember what I spent it for but I remember that for a long time I wanted to keep the lucky coin and considered it my reward for being patient and wise.

I believe that day made my brain hardwired to thinking that making wise choices pays off and makes you lucky. I was never able to simply buy something without at least some doubts since then.

My money anxiety keeps me from doing this, same as being a money saver.