3 Questions to Ask Yourself before Making Purchases

We all have certain everyday expenses that we need to accept – such as putting food on the table, paying rent, and making sure that utility bills are covered.

At the same time, though, it’s also the case that we often end up getting trapped in cycles of compulsive spending, and buying things that don’t necessarily “have to” be bought, and that may not even do a lot for our overall quality of life.

In order to keep your spending habits healthy, here are a few questions to ask yourself before making purchases.

Will this purchase really improve my quality of life, or am I just excited by the novelty and branding?

Marketers are able to do incredible work these days – and you only need to look up a few adverts from the 1950s, in order to see that the general art of advertising has certainly become dramatically more sophisticated in the last few decades.

It’s important to realise that, as human beings, we are all attracted to novelty, in one way or another.

The neurotransmitter dopamine drives us to seek out exciting new things, and we get a rush of this feel-good hormone whenever we are confronted with something that seems new and exciting.

It’s entirely possible that you may be driven to buy a product, just because it seems new and interesting, and not because it will actually improve your quality of life in any significant way.

The first thing to ask yourself before making a purchase is, “is there good reason to believe that this thing will really improve my quality of life, or am I just getting excited by the novelty and branding?”

If you think it might just be the branding after all, probably best to give it a miss.

Is there a cheaper alternative to buying this thing right now?

If there’s a shopping centre five minutes down the road from you, it’s pretty likely that you’re going to do most of your shopping there, regardless of whether or not the prices are actually decent.

The same goes for all sorts of other expenses in your life. You’ll likely find that you end up buying certain things, at certain prices, just because you’re used to doing so, or because it’s “easy” to do things that way.

Try to break this habit, and ask yourself, “is there a cheaper alternative to buying this thing right now?”

It might be that you could find a better deal using a service, maybe it would be a better financial decision to wait a week or two before making the purchase, after all?

Does this purchase fit into my budget?

You do have a budget, right?

A surprising number of people manage their finances more or less “on-the-fly,” without budgeting, and without having a clear plan for what to do with their money.

It should go without saying, though, that budgeting is extremely important when it comes to using your money intentionally, and avoiding reckless “spur of the moment” expenses.

If you don’t yet have a good budgeting system in place, create one, or sign up to a good budgeting service. And always ask yourself, “does this purchase fit into my budget?”