海角大神

One of my favorite places to visit is Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City, Iowa. It鈥檚 an independent bookstore with a wonderful atmosphere and I truly love the opportunities I get to browse through the books there.

The problem is that when I go into a retailer without a specific purchase in mind聽but with an intent to buy something, I鈥檒l usually end up buying something on the spur of the moment 鈥� or two or three things.

The last time I was in that store, for example, I wound up buying three books. When I walked in there, I didn鈥檛 actually have a title in mind that I wanted to buy. Instead, I was influenced by the store itself when I made those purchases.

(Thankfully, I had budgeted for this. I was anticipating some 鈥渟pontaneous buying鈥� on that day, so I budgeted that much cash in my wallet for just that purpose.)聽

Shopping costs you money. Shopping without a very specific purpose聽really聽costs you money.

If you want to save money on every single situation where you鈥檙e opening your wallet for an item, there鈥檚 a very simple rule to follow.聽Make your buying decision before you ever enter the store.

If you鈥檙e buying food, make a grocery list with as much detail as possible before you go there. Use the store flyer to make your grocery list so that it accounts for the sales. That way, you鈥檙e making as few decisions as possible when you鈥檙e actually in the store.

If you鈥檙e buying a car, do your homework on car models before you ever go on the lot. Know what features you want. Use websites to figure out what cars they have on the lot and research those models. Again, that way, you鈥檙e not making decisions while on the lot.

If you鈥檙e buying a book at Amazon.com, know what book you鈥檙e shopping for before you ever go on the site. Don鈥檛 use a shopping site as a recommendation tool 鈥� instead, only go there when the only decision left to make is whether to click the 鈥淎dd to cart鈥� button.

Why should you do things this way?聽Whenever you allow yourself to make decisions on the retailer鈥檚 home turf, you鈥檙e allowing that retailer to add extra information to your decision-making process.聽That information that they give you is going to be engineered almost entirely to convince you to buy the item that the retailer wants you to buy, which is usually the one that makes them the most money.

For example, if you go to an electronics store with the vague notion that you want to buy a camera, you鈥檙e going to be inundated with options. You鈥檒l be facing a ton of information without context and, to some extent, without reliability. Are these features you聽really聽care about? Are you able to actually evaluate things like image quality or battery life or reliability? Unfortunately, no, you鈥檙e not.

Instead, you鈥檙e going to get information about the features that the store wants you to know about. A salesman will probably 鈥渉elp鈥� you, in that the 鈥渉elp鈥� mostly involves convincing you to buy聽now聽rather than later.

Walking into a retailer or visiting a retail website without your decision already made means that you are going to be basing your decision on a set of information that the retailer gives to you. This is usually聽not聽the same set of information that will help you actually make the best purchase. If you base the decision-making process on the information provided by the retailer, you鈥檙e using a subset of information that鈥檚 not going to push you toward the best option for you.

I use one of two options whenever I visit a store of any kind.

翱苍别,听I have a very specific item or list of items that I want and have already decided on.聽I鈥檝e already researched the items in advance and made up my mind what I want to buy before I ever set foot in the store. That way, when I鈥檓 in the store, I am not making decisions, thus the decision-making process isn鈥檛 being influenced by the retailer.

罢飞辞,听I have a strict spending allowance before I ever go in the door.聽That money is usually money I intended to spend frivolously and it comes out of my personal allowance for hobby spending. In this case, I鈥檓 basically saying that it鈥檚 fine for a retailer to influence my spending choices.

Control your decision-making process and you control your money.

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