Yahoo Finance When to Avoid the Mall
If you're aiming to take your frugal shopping game to the next level, you need to start looking past couponing and sales and at yourself. Your mental state has a huge effect on how you shop and what you buy. By avoiding shopping when certain spending trigger events are present, you can make life a lot easier and keep your wallet a lot heavier.
After something bad happens:
A break-up: Now is not the time to hit the mall. I know that trying on new clothes probably makes you feel pretty (or handsome), but when your heart is breaking, you're a lot less likely to pay attention to price tags or the quantity of items you're buying and even less likely to take time scouring for sales or clipping coupons beforehand.
Give it a solid two weeks or longer before you resume your normal shopping patterns. When you try on an outfit, your first thought shouldn't be about whether or not it will make your ex regret dumping you.
A death in the family: Making any large purchase right after someone you love has died is a bad idea. A new inheritance or a desire to just distract yourself could make a lot of purchases look appealing, but squandering money is never a good idea -- especially during a time when it won't seem like squandering.
There's rarely any reason you really have to rush into a purchase, so if it's more than $100, it wouldn't hurt to wait a month to make sure you really want or need it and that you've found the best price for it.
After getting fired: To begin with, when you lose a job you should really go on budget lock down and switch immediately to your bare bones budget to make sure your savings last as long as possible.
Shopping releases a lot of feel good endorphins for most people and after getting pink slipped, it's understandable that you could use a few of those endorphins. That being said, cheaper ways to find them include exercising, eating sugar and sex. Only one of those should be costing you any money and a candy bar is an acceptable splurge after being let go.
When you're sick: When snot is invading your brain, there's no real telling what you'll do. You may run into a drug store for some Robitussin and come out with six boxes of tissues, a massive jug of orange juice, some organic tea and a box of your favorite cookies. It's better to be prepared in advance for what you might need if you get sick and have an existing stockpile in your home.
This issue is compounded if you head out to the mall. When you're already tired and probably a little cranky, you're a lot more likely to make impulse buys instead of thoroughly thinking through your purchases.
After something good happens:
You lose a bunch of weight: Congrats! You're pants may be nearly falling off, but this is a time you need to be careful about what you purchase. You've certainly earned a moment to celebrate, but you need to consider a few things before refilling your closet -- are you sure you're going to keep the weight off or are you even done losing weight?
You probably want to wait a few weeks to make sure you keep the weight off before replenishing your wardrobe and if you're continuing to lose weight, you should limit yourself to a few versatile pieces that stretch well and will still work when you're even thinner.
A friend visits: Wandering the mall with a pal can be great fun, but it can also be dangerous for your wallet. Friends can inadvertently exert a lot of influence on your spending. You might always avoid stores like Nordstrom and prefer to stick to Marshall's, but your friend insists on shopping in there. They may also influence you to buy more than you intended or items that cost more than you meant to spend.
You may even find an entirely different set of events trigger higher spending. Once you take the time to recognize what those events are, you can consciously avoid danger zones, like malls, when they occur.
Mel Bondar blogs at brokeGIRLrich, where she explores topics including how not to totally panic over adulthood, working in the arts and retirement strategies that don't involve living in a cardboard box under an overpass.
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