40. Rethink Your Buying Habits

Several years ago, Gibbs and I decided we needed to get a set of hand-held weights to use on our daily walks. So we rushed right down to the sporting goods store and spent fifty dollars on a set of Heavy Hands.

Over the next two weeks we used the set half a dozen times and then put them aside and never touched them again.

Six months later I gave the Heavy Hands to a friend who mentioned she was going to rush down to the sporting goods store to buy some hand-held weights. She has used them once and, if my guess is right, she’ll never pick them up again, except possibly to pass them on to the next person she hears about who is going to rush down to the sporting goods store to buy a set of Heavy Hands.

This is just one example of the dozens of things we’ve bought over the years that we really didn’t need and, after we’d used them for a short time, didn’t even want. You no doubt have your own list of similar purchases, some more expensive than others, but all bought with the same compulsive “I’ve got to have this now” syndrome. For the average American, our lives—and our homes, our cars, and our work spaces—are filled with the flotsam of our buying habits.

Once Gibbs and I could face the fact that we had yet again bought one more thing we didn’t need, we decided we should rethink our buying habits. So we sat down and drew up a list of ways we could do things differently:

1. We designated one day a week for shopping; this includes groceries and anything else we think we might need.

2. Now, before we buy something, we think it through. Many of the things we buy are simply momentary gratifications. We’ve gotten into the habit of asking ourselves, “Do we really need this whatever-it-is?” “How long will we need it or want it?” “Will this be just one more thing to end up in the back of a closet?”

3. We delay all major purchases—and many of the minor ones—for at least two weeks, or even a month. We’ve found that by the time the end of the month rolls around we’ve figured out that we didn’t really need the item, whatever it was, in the first place.

4. Or, alternatively, we see how long we can live without whatever it is we currently think we can’t live without. Making a game out of this gives an extra boost to our determination not to acquire more clutter.

5. We try to come up with a creative solution rather than a buying solution to a perceived need. For example, there were many ordinary household items—books, or a pair of socks filled with sand—we could have used instead of running out to buy a set of Heavy Hands.