Careless shopping can destroy your budget to a great extend. It can put you in trouble with huge credit card debt and spoil financial plan. Most people buying unnecessary items with “one moment attraction”. Little thoughts and understanding on “needs and wants” enable you to manage your money wisely at the time of day to day shopping. Read the complete article below…
Understand, “needs” are the items that you can’t avoid in your day to day life. Like water, food etc.. “Wants” are the items that doesn’t have full time job with you but you some time interested to have one but can postpone a buy, bargain the price or even avoid a purchase.Ask this questions yourself along with some simple actions before you decide to buy anything that may fall under the category of “wants”:
1. Affordability: You could identify the price and the affordability of the same. Will it affect your whole month budget? Do you have enough money to continue this shopping to purchase more “needs” based items? Will it add more burden to your credit card? Do this buy required you to withdraw any additional amount from your emergency account? These are the questions you must ask self before taking an immediate decision by one moment attraction.
2. How this item useful to you: You should ask this question to identify why you really attracted to purchase this product. Do you really require it? Or, can you go for something else that my have more advantages than this and cheap too? Or, do you have similar item in your home and will this be an additional one to that? You should ask this questions and able to find exact answers. You should think little deeply if the item is the symbol of posh, costly and that really not required to your life other than kept as a show piece.
3. How often the use of this item: Carefully think about how frequently you are going to use the item. How often you will use the same or is it a seasonal one to keep in a corner as a useless piece for long time till the next season comes. Identifying answers to this will be helpful to understand the real worth and value of the product for purchasing.
4. Thoughts on cost: Identify the item is available at any other place where it is cheaper than present one. You can utilize the sources like internet and also can check with other shopping outlets to get a correct idea on this. You can also check for any offer or discount that may associate with the product, to add more value to your money. Some items are seasonal and costly to purchase if you are looking for the same in its season. Be enough intelligent to identify the future needs like an ant, which is collecting food for winter. Remember, to not go for any cheap items that are not providing any guarantee or warranty. If you buy, you could buy a good, branded one with a bargaining price.
5. Identify the item is a seasonal one or not for a regular use. If such, you can have wise options to rent or borrow the item than purchasing one as your own. This is more economical and intelligent that helps you to use the item when it really required. Another advantage is, not required to keep such seasonal item as unused till next season. Remember, keeping anything unused for more time will damage the system. It is applicable to our brain too.
6. Requirement of patience: You can ask a question yourself “Do I wait a little before purchase this item?”. The idea behind is, any item that is coming to market as new will have a high price tag. The similar item can be purchased from market with a reasonable price once after the company launching new version of this product or the price certainly go down once after the launch of a similar product by its competitor. Apple iPod is a best example for this. People prepared to sue against the company because of the high price they had paid to purchase the item within after some days of its launch. Within weeks of time, the prices got reduced to a greater extend and those who bought the item as first got highly disappointed. Any way, apple returned the collected, excess money to their customers but we can’t expect the same in most cases. So it is worthy to take a decision to wait and see for some days before making any immediate decision.
7. Check and identify the product is a correct one based on quality compare with similar products available in the market. Quality and quantity should come under your consideration prior to put your buying order. A simple research on the qualities and features of similar product from various companies along with price will lead you to correct decision.
8. Identify the near season: Remember, festival seasons are the best time to buy items with cheap rate due to heavy discount. You can check and wait till the next nearest festival time to have a discount buying advantage. This will enable you to get the same item with more discounted price than present.
9. Service after sales: You could ask and confirm the possible and available service after sales facilities before purchasing any item. Availability of service centers, facility for free and on site service details should be collected. Generally items with more than 5 years guarantee, you can buy without worries.
10. Purchase points: Most of the reputed companies introduced purchasing based point systems for there customers. They are providing a membership card upon request and enter all the points that you are receiving from each shopping through there outlets. Later, these points will give you some discounts or free gifts. Find out apply and utilize if such facility exists. This feature is best for those prefer all purchases from a single shop in a day to day basis.
If all the above points are supportive to you to purchase an item and you still required to have the item as your own, this is the best time to move forward. All the above thoughts are the practices of intelligent buyers and I am sure the final decision will be a wise one.Avoiding small mistakes while shopping not only give you worth to your money but also give value and worth to the item that you are purchasing. Be a wise shopper and not be a slave of shopping malls or outlets.Your comments are most welcome. Please inform if you feel that I have missed any important points in this article which helpful to others. Your constructive criticisms are my best tool to add more quality article to this blog. You are also welcome to link this article if you have similar one in your blog to add more worth.