Take a spending pause

The case for sitting out big sales

A few years ago, I took an inadvertent spending pause over Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In the interest of simplifying my life, I had only one credit card, and then that card got compromised. There was an issue with getting it reinstated. The result was a massive increase in friction (namely, I had to ask someone else to buy things for me) if I wanted to participate in the digital shopping economy during the most eye-catching sales of the year.

I won’t pretend I had some sort of huge epiphany on the nature of consumerism or anything like that. The whole thing was just annoying.

However, I was reminded of the truth that if something goes on sale once, it probably will again. Or something similar will. Or, if you truly do need or want it, and you wind up paying more than you could have, this is not the end of the world. Indeed, paying a little more for one thing probably comes out in the wash if you then don’t wind up buying things you don’t need just because they are on sale.

A prime occasion

Perhaps these realizations will be useful for some folks eyeing Amazon’s Prime Day sales this week.

Now, to be honest, I will admit that Amazon Prime’s fast and free shipping is quite possibly the secret to how my household functions. A camp announces that children will need two red shirts and two pairs of black shorts, and I might think why??? But my response can be “no problem!” It all shows up overnight. Possibly between 4 and 8 a.m. if need be.

However, the point of a sale is always to get you to buy the extra thing on the margin. An item wasn’t worth buying at $30, but a retailer hopes that you do value it at $20. A sale lowers the cost to try to match your utility for an item. But why didn’t you think it was worth $30 to you? We are not talking a $30,000 item here. If you are reading this newsletter, my guess is that you have $30 in disposable income, and the difference between $30 and $20 is not enough to have a measurable impact on your life. If you didn’t buy the item at $30, it’s probably because you didn’t truly want or need it. Instead of not buying something you don’t want or need, now you’ve spent $20…and acquired something you didn’t truly want or need.

Write it down and wait

Now I know this isn’t always true. I’ve certainly stocked up on items I’m willing to substitute during sales (for instance, birthday presents for kids’ friends). If you absolutely, 100 percent, did intend to buy something, and then it goes on sale, then go ahead and happily pocket the discount.

But if you think you might be tempted to buy things because they are on sale and thus spend more money than you would have, perhaps now is a reasonable time to try a spending pause. If you see something advertised this week that you think is cool, write it down. Wait a few days. If you still really want it, go ahead and buy it — paying full price. But my guess is that you’ll buy fewer things than if you just jumped on things as you saw them. The sale still saves you money — just not in the usual way!