impulsive buying

Corran · Post by **Corran** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 7:22 pm

Best buy must love me... Two years ago I bought a $300 video card on a whim. In January, right before I went on a road trip, I ran over to best buy and bought a $100 sound card, a $200 digital camera, and a memory card to go with it. (Granted those ones weren't on a whim though I probably could have bought them cheaper online. Then again, I wouldn't have the camera in time for the trip if I did that...)

While on the road trip, I overnighted a laptop power supply from Dell to be sent to my friend's place so I'd have it went I got there...

This past two weeks I've bought around $400 in military uniforms for my job. (They credit our accounts with a clothing allowance annually but it still feels like I'm spending my own personal hard earned money...)

I plan on buying a DX10 video card when benchmarks for ATI's currently unreleased chips come out. That will run me about $600 Not really an impulse buy I guess but normally (despite the first example I mentioned above) I wait till the prices come down a lot before buying a video card. >_>;

I'm also thinking about buying one of the next gen consoles soon. I have a feeling that this one will end up being an impulse buy one day while in the store just looking at them. >_<

I guess I've been trying to make up for the four months that I've been out of the country and not buying stuff.

SarahtheBoring · Post by **SarahtheBoring** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:18 pm

I don't have credit cards except the ones my mom tends to take out in my name and ruin my entire financial future with, and I won't count those.

So my "problems" are small ones. I can't spend money I don't have, and unlike a lot of my friends, I don't even have the urge to impulse-buy things like gaming consoles. So I fail on little things:

- Online sales from Rightstuf and the like. When DVD prices drop below $8, I get itchy. I won't buy random things, but I start encroaching on the "to rent" mental list. This is bad, bad, bad. Have gotten better, though; I haven't bought anything like this for six months.
- Manga. It's my crack.

Ten dollars is too much for how long they take to read, but I feel a bit better if I can lend them out to people.
- For a while there, some clothes. Cows can only shop at a few stores, so it was never out of control like girls can be, but it seemed excessive to me.

I also can't window-shop, which is reason #8 why I'm not a girl. I feel like I'm wasting my time, and then I get angry, so I end up buying some books or something to feel as though I have some earthly reason for going into an intimidating public place and getting accosted by cell-phone hawkers and killing my entire afternoon/evening. Which makes me angry at myself and the people who dragged me there.

But other than that.

Arigatomina · Post by **Arigatomina** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:07 pm

CHAMELEON_D_H wrote:Only thing I don't cheap out of is tips. As a former waiter and delivery man I can relate.

I splurge on tips. I have a standard $2 to $5 tip. If I'm at a bar that's $2 for every drink I order, which is funny if I'm ordering a soft drink. Restaurants is $5 standard - I make sure to order more than that so I'm not paying more in tip than I did for the food. Pizza deliveries are $2 to $8 - whatever's left out of $25, if he gets there fast I'll toss in some 1s as a bonus. I've never been a waitress, but my sister did for a while - she was paid $3 an hour plus tips. Just the thought of that makes me cringe. Doesn't even seem legal in a small town where you'll be lucky if you get 2 patrons in an hour who leave a tip.

I very rarely eat out or order in, so it doesn't make a big dent on my wallet if I pay for the services as well as the food. Hateful waitresses get whatever change is in my pocket, but I don't run into those very often.

SarahtheBoring wrote:I don't have credit cards except the ones my mom tends to take out in my name and ruin my entire financial future with, and I won't count those.

My mom has two of those. One of them is in my control now, I use it in the place of a checkbook - don't spend money with it unless the same amount is in the bank. She swears she only uses the other card on things for me, but I've never seen the statements so I have to take her word for it. She has some for my sister, too. It's scary how much blind trust credit card companies put in parents.

CodeZTM · Post by **CodeZTM** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:32 pm

Between gas money and the insurance, I rarely get to splurge. BUT! I did splurge on a Wii with Twilight Princess and Trama Center. I also buy a new anime series every month or two.

Kitsuner · Post by **Kitsuner** » Sat May 03, 2008 2:53 am

Speaking of impulsive, I probably should stop doing this.