A system for impulse buying.

Posted by Paul
We all have our weaknesses. Some shiny thing that we see in a store that until we saw it we didn't even know it existed but we now feel like we need to have. My personal weakness generally tends towards the electronic, which often means towards the expensive.

I consider myself a practical person, so I don't often go out and buy expensive toys at the drop of a hat, but of course life is to be enjoyed and toys can be fun. So how best to practice moderation while still having some fun?

A system I heard about recently intrigued me. The idea is that you create a wish list. Which is just a list of things that you clearly don't need but would very much like to have, ordered by how much you would like to have them.

Once you have this list you are allowed to add to it, reorder it, and remove items from it at any time. The catch is that in order to BUY something an item has to have been at the top of the list for a solid month. If you move an item down from the top of the list for any reason the one month timer resets for that item.

The idea is that this system automatically keeps you from buying something that you discover you don't really want a week later.

Also you'll notice that it means that you'll buy at most 12 items from your list per year.

I thought it was an interesting idea. Perhaps a useful system if you are one of those people that often finds yourself walking into your favorite store and walking out with a cool toy that you had no intention of buying when you walked into the place.

Of course items you need shouldn't be on the list, and items that are REALLY expensive (new cars, expensive trips, etc.) should be given considerable thought, but for those little odds and ends that catch your eye this seemed like a clever system to put in place.