Do you ever find yourself looking at your bank account and thinking how much more would be there if only certain purchases hadn't been made? (Note the passive voice, absolving responsibility.)
Such blanket solutions as 'make coffee at home' get you nowhere, because you enjoy that mocha, and would notice if you gave it up. There's sometimes a perverse joy in eliminating something you'd miss, but let's assume non-perversion. What you should give up, then, are the purchases that add nothing to your life.
My own list would include: pants that fit properly that one day at the store and never again; certain books bought on a whim (although these were usually in the dollar range) or for classes I took freshman year of college prior to figuring out the library, grocery items or meals out that were sort of eh in the end, coffee that was hazelnut-flavored with no warning (ugh!) ... purchases that, in short, I could not have known would be mistakes.
With clothes, cost-per-wear is a fabulous idea in theory, but there's the slight matter of you don't know how long something will last, or how long you'll want it to last, until the time comes. I thought red Keds were a brilliant idea and at $35 so sensible a purchase, but morning after morning I wake up with no desire whatsoever to have red Keds on my feet. Looking back at apparel purchases generally, I find no patterns - according to practicality, price, or any other quantifiable - leading me to which turned out worth it and which did not. And of course with food, until you taste it there's no way to know. Failure to stock up on staples means the dreaded eating out, but doing so means overestimating how many times any one person will actually want microwaved edamame in a given lease period.
So, is there any way to systematically isolate bad-idea purchases? Or is the answer to learn to like red Keds, hazelnut coffee...
Thursday, September 24, 2009
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So, is there any way to systematically isolate bad-idea purchases?
With clothes misfitting, I've learned not to shop at certain stores no matter how much I like what they're offering and how much it's been discounted for sale, because it reliably will not fit me properly. I've even taken the trouble to write J Crew to get off their catalog mailing list.
With groceries, I've learned not to buy meat, fish or meal-type vegetables (e.g. salad greens, as distinct from snackable veg like baby carrots) until the day I intend to actually cook. I wasted about 10 lbs. of chicken, 5 lbs. of beef, a few heads of cauliflower and broccoli, and several packages of salad greens before I realized this.
I can't entirely regret purchases of books, even those that went unread, because I want to be supportive of the book buying market in a way that I don't feel any need to be supportive of the apparel buying market.
Going store-by-store doesn't work for me - my ill-fitting pants come from Uniqlo, just like my well-fitting clothing.
Don't say that about broccoli! I have some in the fridge now that I worry will meet this fate. As in, good suggestion. You're totally right on this one.
"I want to be supportive of the book buying market"
Does this include textbooks and books that are textbook-ish as well?
I think your regretted shoe purchases may be a recurring trend (silver boots? black platforms? why do I still remember these? actually, the boots are kind of hard to forget). Maybe you should appoint a shoe screener, someone whose taste you approve to whom you will send photos of shoe purchases you are contemplating and ask them to evaluate prior to purchase? That could spare you some, if not all, later shoe regrets. I frequently do this w/ dresses I'm considering.
With food, there is always the freezer. It's remarkable how invincible things become when frozen. Lettuce is, I agree, usually a bad choice unless you're going to make a salad THAT day, but I always buy meat on sale to freeze for the future.
I never regret book purchases I haven't yet read. There is always time in the future... On the other hand, I've never purchased any textbooks except my college calc book, which I promptly resold.
Per a conversation last night: The most problematic purchases are clothes that you're really into, but which have some niggling thing wrong. Like this dress: I love the fabric, the general style, and the fit. But it's just a tad too conservative for me, and I know I'd just stare at it in the closet and be bothered by that and not wear it. Sometimes you're better off getting something somewhat boring but well-fitting and nicely cut. At least that you'll use as a base for more interesting outfits.
Yeah, I've been guilty of all of those--food gone bad, clothes in the closet I've never worn. I think part of it is trying to be honest with yourself in terms of who you are, not who you want to be, in terms of a consumer. E.g. I've bought some really lovely clothes for great prices, but in order to wear them I would need to alter them in some minor way (e.g., hemming, button moving, etc.). While, theoretically, that is easy to do, and I have done it a few times, more often than not they hang in the closet or lie in the mending basket. Same with dry cleaning, I don't by dry cleaning garments unless I'm willing to risk ruining them by washing them at home.
Also, I find attempts to "extend" one's style are often failures. I've bought many styles that I wouldn't normally wear but I think I should become the sort of person who wears them (e.g., corduroy blazers). It always turns out I'm not, and instead about once every two weeks I take out some new piece of clothing, realize it looks weird and I'm uncomfortable in it, and put it back in the closet. More honesty upfront would save myself a lot of wasted money and closet space.
Same with food. I have a cupboard full of legumes that I have never cooked with, but when at a Middle Eastern grocery store, I think, "oh, I'll cook with bulgur wheat at some point..." or whatever.
If I were more honest about my laziness/habits/unwillingness to put in the effort to change, I could save myself a lot of money and anguish about having a closet full of clothes/food and nothing to wear/eat.
But it's just a tad too conservative for me, and I know I'd just stare at it in the closet and be bothered by that and not wear it.
Is "conservative" a typo, or is your office dress code really that relaxed? (I'm still pursuing the "Patricia" -- they keep telling me I've ordered it, then they're out of stock, then I see it's back in stock...)
I've kept all of my textbooks except the ones from law school that overlap my husband's (sold the extra copies). I even kept my Barbri books; they're handier for marital arguments because legal casebooks are terrible at definitions and indexes. It didn't happen so much in law school, but in college textbook-buying time was always more expensive than it should have been because I'd see something at the college bookstore that wasn't relevant to my courses, but that looked like it would be useful someday. (Haven't yet used "Justice, Gender & the Family" for any academic purpose, but still glad to have it.)
We have a lot of canned tunafish that no one ever eats, but I figure that sort of thing is always handy for things like riots, blackouts and charity canned food drives.
I find that going to the supermarket only after a meal vastly reduces the amount of groceries I end up lugging home. Never go to the supermarket when hungry, even if only slightly peckish.
Also, whenever I'm tempted to make an unnecessary coffee purchase, I think of my extremely long Amazon wishlist, am immediately reminded of how I'd rather spend that $3 on [part of] a book, and refrain.
These tips all make sense. My only disagreements would be:
-Going by dress that seems 'very you' might be cheapness-effective, but it means trapping yourself into a fixed style, fixed either by your own self-knowledge (Amber, Britta) or by your friends' interpretations (MSI). How do you allow your style to evolve without making oops-purchases?
-Coffee-versus-books (Ponder Stibbons): books can be borrowed from the library, whereas coffee cannot. This is how I justify my own pre-library $2.25 cold-brewed iced coffees...
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