impulsive buying

[Orwell]

Warning: Objects in statement may be further from truth than they appear.

I consider myself rather frugal though definitely not thrifty, despite the living at home/no bills other than car insurance. Usually when I do buy stuff I go buy a bunch all at once, for the free shipping since I haet shopping in stores. I can't recall a time when I went to go look and ended up buying something. There are times when I buy something and decide this has also become necessary, but why would you want to go to a store to just look?

But before I buy anything, I compare it to how long it took me to make the money that I'm going to spend.

Never did that. Ever. I look at money in a abstract, or perhaps literal, manner. Literal if you think about it, since your labor is going directly to whatever your recieving, with money acting as the credit for that labor. I see money as just a way to get things, I place no direct value on it. I'm sure I'd have a decent sum more if I collected all the change laying around, let alone all the greenbacks.



@Oto, what's the average blue collar worker wage for a ruskie?

[Shazzy]

And I've returned all but one pair upon remembering each separate time that I wasn't about to walk around grounds in 4" stiletto heels or lace ballet flats.

Seriously, how do you buy shoes without trying them on first? Depending on the brand, I'm anywhere from a size 5 to a size 6.5, and a size and a half off is awful to walk in.

[Flint the Dwarf]

I see money as just a way to get things, I place no direct value on it.

Exactly. The money I spend represents time and effort, that being the work I put into it. So when I buy something, I basically take money out of the picture. I think, "alright, $70 is approximately 12 hours of work, which is just over one day of work (I generally work 9-10 hours a day)." So if the entertainment + longevity + practicality of whatever I'm buying abstractly exceeds the effort and stress of 12 hours of work, I generally don't feel any remorse. I also consider, however, that spending that $70 is putting me a day away from my ultimate monetary goal, which is paying off college debt and then getting back in school.

[Otohiko]

@Oto, what's the average blue collar worker wage for a ruskie?

Err, hell do I know - none of my relatives have been blue collar workers, or post-soviet era anyway.

As far as my dad, I can sympathise with him but only to a limited extent - he doesn't make that much more money than I do, and yet he's certainly a far more remarkable professional (arguably, a unique professional who can play music in a way that noone else can, that's not just in artistic but also technical terms).


And, well, I don't agree that parents shouldn't invest in their kids - I certainly do blame my parents for allowing me to sink into student debt when they COULD realistically have invested into me instead of buying a damn cottage (though there will be return on that investment when they sell it, I think they're underestimating my potential a little).

On the other hand, I DEFINITELY agree that parents shouldn't waste money on kids/let the kids waste their money. This is probably going outside monetary concerns, but well - I certainly wouldn't ever trade my parents' approach for an endowed credit card. The one thing that was key in my upbringing is that even since my earliest childhood, I was always treated as an adult-in-the-making rather than a kid or teenager. "I'm stupid and immature because I'm young" was never an accepted excuse, even when I was still young enough to piss my pants; "let him do whatever he wants cause he's a kid and should have fun" was never an accepted approach. Crying and begging never worked to convince them of anything, only reasoned argument. It was part a cultural thing, but even more an individual family thing I guess. This has negative sides as well where I just can't relate to a lot of the 20-something-year-old 'kids' that are still running around having their fun - not to knock that or anything, but I frankly don't have any real common ground with the lot of them, and as much as I hate to admit it - their spending habits still shock me sometimes. This has been one reason for a sort of rift between me and my younger brother lately; he's gotten very irresponsibly 'capitalized' in his... social/economic behaviour shall we say, and it annoys the hell out of me.

[jasper-isis]

And I've returned all but one pair upon remembering each separate time that I wasn't about to walk around grounds in 4" stiletto heels or lace ballet flats.

Seriously, how do you buy shoes without trying them on first? Depending on the brand, I'm anywhere from a size 5 to a size 6.5, and a size and a half off is awful to walk in.

I donno, maybe size 7's tend to be more reliable than sizes 5-6 because it's more towards the average? I can usually get a good fit, and customer reviews on each pair help point out blatantly wrong sizings.

But the point is, I didn't exactly want these shoes for reasons of wearing them in a practical manner. There may potentially be occasions when I'll actually wear them, but mostly I wanted them for the same reasons that people collect coins or figurines or even DVDs. If I were rich, I'd totally "collect" shoes. How's that for frivolous spending?

[Flint the Dwarf]

I think I'll take this moment to a introduce an apparently-no-longer-friend of mine. I think our relationship epitomizes the rift between priveleged and under-priveleged.

We met in 8th grade, right before we started high school; we were lab partners. Both of us were big fiction readers, so we hit it off. And we were both smarter than the average classmate, but not too serious about school. That changed as we went through high school. I became more serious, and he started to hate school. We fell out of contact for a year or three, and when we got back in touch it was after I had graduated. He'd apparently dropped out of school, and I didn't know.

He had no idea what he was going to do, but I don't think he was that pressured, because his dad is the owner of a fairly successful business, and so he wasn't in any real danger. When I got back in touch with him, he was involved with a girl. Got her pregnant, and she wanted to keep the kid, but neither could support it financially. They had it, had to give it up after a few months, and then broke up.

Through all this my friend had had several job opportunities. He never stuck with them because it wasn't doing something he liked. Eventually his dad got him a job working with him, a desk job, computer, that type of shit. Making over $10 an hour. Course, he complains about it constantly, because it's not something he enjoys, and he ends up quitting. He makes an LJ entry asking people to put a good word for him so he can find another job, and I respond with a personal ad I wrote for him. Not verbatim, but as close as I can remember:

"Smart kid, looking for high paying job with minimal effort. Unqualified, will not like you. May or may not come into work every day, liable to quit without notice for another job I don't like."

Never heard from him after that. And I don't mind. Been friends for probably 7 years, and my only regret is that I could never get it through to him how good he has it. Wasn't even the most spoiled kid I came into contact with, but I think the main difference between us is that he doesn't see any value in work. It doesn't matter what kind of work it is, I can find value in it. It doesn't matter whether I *like* it or not. And that's what bugged me about him; he was so used to doing whatever he wanted that he couldn't stand doing something that he didn't *like*.

[downwithpants]

I compare it to how long it took me to make the money that I'm going to spend.

i used to do that, when i was in school, working either summer jobs or small-time hourly jobs like officiating soccer games. but i don't do that now, unless i would need to see how many weeks or months i would need to pay for something. working fulltime i don't really think about how many hours go by, as long as i can keep my self occupied. instead i think about what price competitors are selling the product for or what else i could do with that money - opportunity costs as my economics teacher called it. like instead of spending 6 bucks on a burger, i could buy new socks, which i badly need... on the other hand, i've been living at parents home and haven't had to pay rent or bills, so i haven't had to worry about budgeting, although this is to change soon.

recently i spent a good amount. i put 600some dollars deposit on an apartment, will need to put 1200 dollars in a month, and spent 600 dollars on building a new computer because my old one died. that figure may go up too because i didn't realize how many more ide devices i have than the motherboard allows for...

going skiing/snowboarding has gotten ridiculously expensive too. i've gone 3 times this season, twice it cost me over 50$. i try to reason that it's good exercise or good social activity, but there are plenty of other ways i'd rather spend those 50 bucks.

[CHAMELEON_D_H]

As much as I try not to spend money on little things, it all comes out on the big ones. A week ago I spent $275 for a monstrous UPS *pats*, and hopefully some Wiis will become available at the original $250 price...

Generally, I try to limit the amount the money I spend every month depending on my income. Only thing I don't cheap out of is tips. As a former waiter and delivery man I can relate.

[Otohiko]

I should, by the way, note that I have no problem with collectors. Having been a collector of sorts all my life, I do sympathise with people who do invest into that. But there's a difference, I think, between collecting and impulsive buying

[Shazzy]

As much as I try not to spend money on little things, it all comes out on the big ones. A week ago I spent $275 for a monstrous UPS *pats*, and hopefully some Wiis will become available at the original $250 price...

Generally, I try to limit the amount the money I spend every month depending on my income. Only thing I don't cheap out of is tips. As a former waiter and delivery man I can relate.

I have to say I hate the whole tipping system. Just make my up-front price for the food more expensive instead of making part of the cost subjective. If I'm going out to eat I don't want to worry about choosing a tip amount at the end of the meal. And if it's always 15%, then why give me the option at all? If the service is terrible, well, tips don't make a difference. With or without tips I wouldn't return to an establishment with bad service.