5 reasons why we buy things

And sometimes regret afterwards. Look around you and the stuff you have accumulated all these years. How did it end up there?



“Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.” - Edwin Way Teale

If we really think about it, we buy things just because. Only just because.

We buy things…

Just because it’s on sale/discount: We may not need it. Maybe not now. But we buy it anyway because we think we wouldn’t get a better offer, or another just as good. So we hoard it, greedily as if there is no tomorrow. But if we really believe there is no tomorrow, why buy?

Just because it’s a bargain: It may not be on sale, but we judge the quality and think that it is too good to miss, saying, “For this same quality, I could be paying so much more elsewhere”. And so we think it is a good buy.

Just because it is nice/new/trendy: It looks nice in the magazine. It looks nice on display. It even looks nice on our friend. It looks like something we ought to have. So we buy it, thinking it would fill a void in our lives, bring it home and discover it is irrelevant and that we neither need it nor want it.

Just because it’s a (insert a brand name/character): We are not paid to wear certain brands, but some of us are proud brand ambassadors. I have a friend who is into BUM Equipment so much he has to have BUM t-shirts, BUM belts, BUM socks, BUM sneakers, BUM this, BUM that. He even bought a ring with BUM Equipment logo on it although he knew really well it wasn’t original. Oh bummer!

Just because we think we deserve it: This one is complicated. Most of the time we think we work so hard, we deserve a reward. And that reward is shopping, because we believe we have tasted success and nothing to show for it. Sometimes we are encouraged to shop. We even make purchases on credit. I guess it’s true the saying, “People spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they cannot afford, to impress people they don’t like”