As humans, we have a tendency to be tad bit competitive, if not a lot. This was taught to us by our early generations from the hunter and gatherers period of time. Well, let’s not dive deep into that paradigm and take the example at face value only for our topic’s sake.
So, since we have an innate tendency to be competitive and this is too, culturally transmitted to us, we use this trait everywhere - career, social life, education, and even when it comes to shopping! We want to save those extra dollars each time we shop and then brag about how we shopped smarter than the rest.
However, sometimes we want to save because we are on a limited budget, but in any case, this competition is also coupled with the idea of ‘Sales’. Thanks to the concept of sales, the people on a budget can now easily shop and save more, but jt creates an urgency within human mind to purchase quickly so that we don’t miss out. Because of this some people spend the whole day shopping on a big sales day.
Ever wondered what’s the explanation for this in psychological terms?
The answer to that is neurological, which is dopamine. It’s a happy hormone that releases in our body each time there’s a rush of happiness travelling inside of us when we get good deals and shop smarter.
Regardless of whether we are on a budget or not, good deals and buying smarter makes everyone happy. It’s more like a win-win situation for us. So, in this article, we will be discussing some useful ways to shop smarter on a budget and help you save more on your purchases.
Top 7 Ways To Shop On A Budget and Save More
- Get discounts, coupons, and deals wherever possible.
This is a tell-tale sign of you being able to save more. You can easily get your hands on any, or in fact, more than one of them through external and official website, along with subscribing to the emails to get vouchers, etc. There are many ways to avail these.
Also, never miss seasonal sales, such as summer sale, clearance sale, etc. These are the ones where you may even get discounts up to 75% or more.
- Buy winter clothing in summer and summer clothing in winter.
Ever wanted those classy leather jackets or trench coats to rock in the winter season? Or wanted the floral midi dresses for summer, but just could not dare to look at the high prices? Your worries may end of you shop for winter clothing in summer season and vice versa. This is because what’s in demand, tends to be high in price – economically speaking.
Therefore, when no one cares about winter clothes in summer, you should know what to do. This can help you save more and at the same time, be prepared with your favourite outfits every season.
- Rent or borrow what you need only once.
Need an expensive prom dress? You might as well want to borrow or rent it for just a day as you’ll probably only wear it once. This will help you save that hefty amount you anticipated to spend.
- Make a list and stick to it.
If you want to save more on a budget, yet shop smarter, you’ve got to be a bit rigid with your spendthrift habits, and make frugality your new best friend. Your number one priority should be to create a shopping list and stick to it. You should be buying only what’s written on the list, and nothing outside of that, if you want to be saving more.
- Try thrifting.
What’s the need to get the new, high priced product, when you can easily get a cheaper alternative by buying slightly used, low priced product? Go to your nearest garage sale, thrift store, vintage shops to get your hands on pre-loved products at amazingly low prices, with little to no compromise on quality. This is sure to help you save more. Moreover, this also counts as a environmental protection move as you are reusing something and making good use out of it instead of letting it go to waste.
- Avoid shopping on your pay day.
We all have the tendency to spend away all our earned money once we get our pay cheques. But in reality, a week after all that happens, we sit down to a puddle of consequences – bills, mortgages, rent, etc.
Therefore, to avoid such mishaps, you should always shop a week after your pay day, so that you’re done with the necessary stuff like paying off the loans, bills, etc. This is because, you’ll know how much money you have left to spare for the extras.
- Avoid shopping by card.
You heard it correct – shopping by card not only makes you psychologically free to spend more recklessly, but also raises your debt over time. To save more, you should have cash in hand so that you realize the amount of money you are spending. Research showed that when customers handed in payments by cash, they started realizing all the extra products that they bought and therefore, regretted wasting money.
That brings an end to our article, we hope you enjoyed reading it and found it to be useful. Budget or no budget, it’s always best to shop smartly and minimizing wastage in any form – be it a financial aspect or a non financial aspect. Happy shopping!
