Your guide to being a savvy shopper
Financial discipline does not have to mean you deprive yourself of the big and small joys of life. It means having enough control of your personal finance to ensure that even if you splurged from time to time on things you want to, it would not result in a financial setback or an inability to meet your monthly financial goals. This discipline that you have acquired as part of positive money management habits should not be forgotten when let’s say, you are out to shop. In fact, we are here to help you be a wise shopper with this blog. Read on to find out.
Set a spending limit
Be a responsible customer and ensure no salesperson can take you for a ride to serve their vested interests. How about a month-on-month plan for discretionary spending. Once you have defined that fixed sum which you can afford for your shopping, have only that much in your wallet at the time. Get all you can within that time, the rest can wait. Keep in mind that while your shopping list can be negotiable, your financial limit absolutely can’t be.
Compare deals before you spend
Costs can fluctuate starting with one shop and then onto the next, and in today’s day and age, from one e-commerce shopping app to the other. You must ensure that you have conducted thorough research on the commodity you are buying and seek out the best price deal. It’s also a common trend nowadays for the same item to be much cheaper on shopping apps than in physical stores.
Spend more when it helps save more
The research will go a long way in ensuring that you are able to get your hands on the best deals. Always try to align your shopping with the sale season when there are better offers and discounts everywhere. You can stay in the know about such offers by signing up and subscribing to brand newsletters so you are notified every time an attractive offer is doing the rounds. Another way is to buy in bulk, where you can usually spend less on each unit of the item you are buying than if you had only bought a single unit of it.
Pay with cash or the better credit offer
It’s okay to go the credit card route once in a blue moon on a shopping spree, but this shouldn’t be made into practice. Wherever you can, for your shopping, pay with cash. If you are in urgent need of funds for shopping that can’t wait, you can consider taking a quick online loan from companies like SmartCoin that will have much better interest rates and flexible payback options than credit cards.
Credit cards also have a psychological aspect coming into play, where shoppers tend to feel like they can spend more than they thought and pay back later, which often ends up with you affecting your credit score negatively. When you actually see the money debited from your savings account, it can be quite a wake-up call.
The bottom line
Dealing with your money better while shopping is unquestionably important. However now and then even purchasing something modest can mean a setback. Ensure the nature of the item you’re purchasing is absolutely something you can’t do without! Go after quality while shopping for things you need at all times to make sure the stuff you bought lasts longer and you do not have to spend a lot of money on the same thing in short intervals.
