Buying happy

Why shopping sometimes makes everything worse

Here’s a relatively common situation: A person is excited and happy to buy something, but, once purchased, the item loses its luster, even desirability.
Shopping and buying is enjoyable, but the consequences and subsequent guilt are often not.

Why do people shop when they can’t afford to and why don’t they like what they buy?Marketers and Psychologists have studied shopping and shopper extensively.

One of the many proposed reasons for this phenomenon is that emotional shopping trips reflect recent disappointments, according to the Journal of Consumer Research
The Journal study gives an example of an MBA student who is distraught that his fellows have received job offers but he hasn’t. He might well shop for an expensive watch or briefcase.

Sadly, the item he buys will not make him feel better The study found that the purchase will just make the buyer obsess about the actual problem, which is not having a job offer.
Another example is the compulsive shopper who can’t stop shopping, a person who even lies about shopping. According to Terrence Shulman of the Center for Compulsive Theft, Spending and Hoarding, about 5 percent of the population suffer from this compulsion. Even more suffer from self-control issues.

For extreme cases, therapy may be the only route to recovery. For those who just tend to overspend, there is no better starting place than knowing precisely where your money goes. There are apps for that.

Knowing what you can save begs the question of why you want to save it. Think about it and discuss it with you partner: Vacations, retirement, remodeling, savings for security? All these might be in your grasp with a firmer hold on monthly spending.
One study by Northwestern Mutual showed savings — not buying — translated to happiness. Savers are less fearful of the future, more certain of their goals and feel better about their lives.

Since savers don’t typically make emotional buys, they also don’t feel the let down that comes from an unnecessary purchase.