10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Buying More Stuff
And money should matter the least.
Last updated: May 10, 2022
With the holiday shopping season ramping up, there will be not only a massive increase in purchases to give as gifts but also items bought for personal use. In 2019, Americans spent an average of $155 on gifts for themselves, representing 13% of their total holiday gift budget.
Why do we do this?
- Save money. The holiday season has some great deals on items that we may have been saving for, so it makes sense to buy it at a lower price.
- Mob mentality. We go along with the crowd that is splurging over the holiday. It’s present when we have too many cookies and eggnog over the coming months, only to end up 10 pounds heavier come January 2nd. It’s also present when we see our friends buying presents for everyone, and we just want to participate in the free-spending joy of buying stuff.
- We are brainwashed. The entire marketing world is working to entice us to buy more than we want, and it has been brutally successful, especially with the reams of data we give companies every day. Basically, our psychology is being hacked without us ever realizing it.
Before you get nervous about the rest of the article, please know that I’m not here to preach about the financial sins of overspending during the holidays. There are enough articles about that.
Nor am I here to rehash the entire wants-vs-needs argument. We’re all grown-ups here. And again, there are enough articles about that.
Instead, this article is to help crystallize what it is we really, truly want as opposed to whatever is cheap and/or convenient. In fact, you may end up spending more money on your stuff, but you’ll probably be spending better.
1. Can I afford to buy it?
This is the cost that everyone knows is the most deceptive but also weighted the heaviest in a purchasing decision. It doesn’t make intellectual sense, but psychologically it’s our go-to choice.
We all know that barring deceptive pricing practices, quality and cost go hand in hand. The worse the product, the cheaper the price, and vice versa. So why do we seem to have an insatiable desire (or universal pull) to buy the cheapest thing?
Psychologically, it makes perfect sense. Humans are hardwired to avoid immediate pain. Forking over more money for a durable product while the price tag of the cheap-o substitute is boring a hole into you is immediately painful. You’re left second-guessing your purchase, wondering if it really is worth the extra cash or if you got duped.
It’s tough to buy quality things, which brings us to the next question.
2. Can I afford to maintain it?
This is the category that almost everyone claims to know about, but almost everyone ignores when it comes time to actually purchase something.
Vehicles are the most common example, with big SUVs being more expensive to maintain than small sedans.
- Lower gas mileage = more fuel to buy
- Higher cost parts for both standard maintenance and emergency repairs
- Larger, more expensive tires
- Higher taxes due to the heavier weight
Even cars won on game shows come with a tax bill since they are considered “income,” proving once again that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
You get the point.
3. Can I afford to get rid of it?
Disposal costs are rarely considered, much to the detriment of our wallets and the environment (more on that later).
For a financial example, several years ago, we bought a Honda Odyssey. Our first kid was just a few years old, and we thought we were going to have another three children. Well, infertility gave us different plans, and the Odyssey was much too large for just three people.
We decided to downsize and sell the Odyssey, thinking that it was worth $17,000-$18,000 for a private-party purchase. However, private sales take time and effort.
Before putting it out in the market, we went to CarMax for an immediate offer. They returned with a price of $14,500, payable that afternoon. After some discussion, we decided against CarMax.
It took a few weeks, but we sold the Odyssey for a total of $17,500 once everything was said and done, but it took time, coordination, and mental energy.
4. How long will I have it?
In the past century, pricing has been a race to the bottom, leading to the commoditization of almost everything we buy. The very notion of planned obsolescence would be anathema to consumers 100 years ago but is almost universally accepted today.
Since durable items are made with better material and craftsmanship than their short-term cousins, they also have a higher initial expense. Maintenance costs will likely be higher, too,
However, this higher cost is offset by longevity. Even when you combine initial price with maintenance costs, better quality items almost always have a lower cost-per-use than disposable stuff.
For cars, check out cost-per-mile.
- Our Subaru Impreza hatchback is cheaper to maintain than the Honda Odyssey minivan.
For shoes and clothes, look at the cost-per-wear.
- I calculated the daily cost of my work uniform.
For household items, find the cost per use.
- Some of our glass food containers are going on ten years.
These examples are not to point out just how good I am at finding the most durable items. In fact, I tend to buy the less expensive, less durable items. My wife balances me out, finding the better-quality stuff.
The best example from my life has been our daughter’s kindergarten lunchbox.
I wanted to just go with the plastic My Little Pony lunchbox for $40, as Aurelia was super into MLP:FIM at the time. On the other hand, Clementine found a stainless-steel lunch box, carrier, individual food holders, and a water bottle. I liked the idea of stainless steel vs. plastic, so we decided to go for it.
When she told me it cost almost $300 for two sets, I literally asked, “Does it come with company stock?” I was floored at the price, but we took the chance and bought them.
Here we are, almost five years later, and we’re now using them for our second child, who is going to daycare.
(For more great examples of when to spend big for a durable item, check out 9 Things to Pay Top Dollar For)
5. How long will I spend taking care of it?
Saying “yes” to something means saying “no” to everything else.
Said another way, when you choose to do whatever it is you want to do, you are forgoing literally every other option in the world at that particular moment.
Going back to the minivan example, saying “yes” to selling our Odyssey meant saying “no” to everything else. Selling the Odyssey included.
- The actual sale of the van
- Processing the warranty exchange
- Applying for the tax refund
In the end, the 20 extra hours was worth the additional $3,000 I got from the sales price. That works out to about $150/hour.
Financially that makes sense, but what did I miss out on, and was it worth $3,000? Let’s take a look at some examples.
- I could have finished the last season of Breaking Bad much sooner. Worth forgoing $3,000? Not for me. That extra money I could use to put toward a family vacation is not worth seeing a TV show earlier.
- I could have spent 20 hours writing Medium articles or learning copyright techniques. Worth forgoing the $3,000? Maybe, especially if I get a viral article out of it. However, I wasn’t writing at that time and didn’t see anything that could generate 3K or more in just 20 hours of work.
- I could have spent 20 hours spending time with my family. Worth forgoing the $3,000? Maybe, especially if you put a lot of weight on being a family man. The good thing is, my wife and I sold the Odyssey together, so it’s a shared experience that still comes up in conversation every now and then. Memories were made, and money was earned. For this particular situation, it’s a win-win.
The cost of time also applies to maintenance. Not only might you need to spend money for upkeep, but you will also need to spend time for upkeep and repairs. This can be a tough one, especially when there is a time savings on sides of the decision.
For example, should you get a shovel or a snowblower? The shovel is a cheaper, quicker purchase, but it takes more time to actually shovel the snow. The snowblower is much more expensive, but you can plow right through whatever Mother Nature sends your way.
To expand the decision, how could you use the time that is both spent and taken on the item.
- Could you spend the time it takes to shovel the driveway with your children, possibly leading to snowball rights and snow angles?
- Could you spend the time saved with a snowblower by playing games inside with your kids and making other memories?
- Could you bring your kids with you during the maintenance time of the snowblower and teach them to responsible ownership?
All of these depend on the individual, and there’s no right or wrong answer.
6. What am I passing up to buy it?
Similar to the theme of time, saying “yes” to a purchase means that your dollars can no longer be used to buy anything else. They are for this purchase, and this purchase only.
I’m not talking about the ever-present coffee discussion you find in personal finance forums, arguing for or against the immediate gratification of a latte (daily or sporadically) vs. investing that money for the long term.
What I’m talking about is the $300 snowblower vs. the $30 shovel.
Is there any other way you could spend the $270 difference that is more important to you?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
This is a judgement call on your part without any judgement on mine. If you’re struggling with this question, you might want to peruse the wants-vs-needs articles. If your needs are met, then you need to rank your wants-vs-wants.
7. Do I have a place to put it?
A booming personal storage industry is evidence that Americans typically have too much stuff in their house. That begs the question, do you have space for more? Even if you do have the space, are you giving up the bigger room or empty wall that you actually like?
Let’s use the snowblower example.
- Is your garage big enough?
- Will you need to keep the car outside?
- Sure, cars can withstand the weather, but are you really going to put a $30,000 purchase outside to protect a $300 purchase?
Another example is getting a bigger TV.
- Can your current wall mount or entertainment center hold it?
- Is the room big enough to be far enough away to comfortably see it?
- Will you need to remove family pictures to accommodate the extra 12 inches of TV screen?
In the end, you just need to know if you will be happier with something new taking up space in your home.
8. Will this hurt the environment?
The first seven categories were how our purchases impact ourselves. These next two cover how they impact others.
Unlike previous generations, we can no longer afford to ignore this category. Pollution is real and can no longer be dismissed as an “externality.”
The environmental impacts of our purchases can be found everywhere.
From the greenhouse gasses emitted by the power plant that provides electricity to run the machines that make our clothes to the microplastics that are shed from our fleece jackets when run through the wash and make their way into our drinking water, there is no escape from waste. The best we can do is to minimize it.
Reducing waste comes during the entire lifetime of a product, but it can be hard to determine where the waste is coming from.
- Is the extra waste from the overdone plastic packaging worth the more durable item it contains?
- Should I buy local to reduce transportation emissions?
- Is plastic or cotton clothing better for the planet?
The problem is that supply chains and manufacturing processes are almost entirely opaque, and we are left with so little information. We just need to do the best we can.
A great source of help with your decisions is The Story of Stuff.
9. Did this come from a sweatshop?
This is another category where information is hard to come by. Do our purchases support safe labor practices and decent wages, or are we getting our stuff some sweatshops, where kids who should be in school are making pennies a day.
Given the dearth of information, oftentimes, there is no clear way to know. Given the option, one of the best ways to avoid subsidizing bad manufacturers is to buy American made products.
Why you ask?
The reason is that the US has some pretty strong labor protections compared to the rest of the world. But it didn’t always used to be that way.
In 1911, there was a horrific fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a clothing manufacturer in Manhattan. 146 workers were killed (mostly women), and it made the front page of every major newspaper of the day. The tragedy spurred the passing of labor rights legislation, growth in union membership, and overall awareness of horrendous working environments across the country.
While the US has enacted and enforced labor standards over the past century, many other countries have not, leading to equal tragedies abroad. For instance, the Dhaka garment factory fire in 2012 occurred under similar conditions as the Triangle fire 101 years prior, but it just happened to be in Bangladesh.
I write about these events in a previous article about the cost of clothing.
10. Is this right for me?
This is the last category, but it is definitely the most impactful.
When deciding on what to buy, especially on higher-end stuff like cars, houses, college education, you need to determine if this product is the right “fit” for you. And truly listen to yourself.
For example, I went to Butler University, a private liberal arts college, right after high school. More details are in this article, but the short story is that I made a decision off of other people’s expectations because I never really examined what I thought was best. I let other people decide my future due to my own lack of due diligence.
- I could have gone to the state school extension right in town, Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis (affectionately known as IUPUI), and lived at home saving a ton of money, but I didn’t.
- I could have also taken a gap year, but I didn’t.
- I could have also joined an apprenticeship program, learning and earning on my way to becoming a journeyman, but I didn’t.
There were so many other choices, but I made the one that was the worst for me at that time. Lesson definitely learned.
For those who do know what they want, please don’t discount that voice in your head. The joy you feel from an otherwise illogical purchase my dwarf the impact of saving money on a less satisfactory item.
The people waiting outside the line to buy the latest iPhone don’t do it for Apple; they do it for themselves. The question of “What does this say about me?” might be a stereotype and come off as self-centered, but there is quite a bit of truth to this question. Does this purchase go along with your values, taking into consideration the other costs above?
The Takeaway
This wouldn’t be a personal finance article without warning you about the dangers of overspending. There is a happy medium between quality, durability, joy, impact, and cost that everyone needs to assess for themselves.
- Is the mental health and social aspect of buying a $4 latte every morning worth it to you (well, at least in non-pandemic times)? Then go ahead and lay that down. Every. Single. Morning.
- Could you care less about the look and performance of a car, outside of it having an engine that works and high gas mileage? Then save that money and buy a 4-cylinder compact car.
- Do you love the smell of a real Christmas tree but think the annual cost is too high? Maybe you can factor in that it takes 20 years for a fake tree to offset the carbon emissions of a real tree, and then you can rest easy while enjoying that real pine scent over the holidays.
As I mentioned before, there is not an absolute right or wrong answer when it comes to your purchasing decisions since you need to decide what is best for you. This is merely a deeper dive into the various costs of buying something beyond the initial purchase price.