Over my life, I've noticed that my expenses for living fall into one of three buckets:
- Exciting buys
- Wise purchases
- Necessary costs
But I'm mostly curious about that first one...
What is your favorite kind of exciting buy?
My exciting buy might be a new musical instrument even though I have plenty, a new video game, purchasing art, a vacation, a luxurious meal, etc.
And less on the fun side of things, my other categories would shake out like:
- A wise buy might be investing in a house or business, putting money away for savings, or spending a premium on a BuyItForLife kind of purchase to avoid buying a new one every year.
- A necessary buy is probably the same as most others: housing costs, utilities, clothing, household goods, food, transportation, etc.
Most of my purchases cover the first two. I used to spend lots and lots of time researching products that were the best I could get for the price. Usually with lifestyle goals - camping, traveling, tinkering. Things for my apartment to make it cozier. The best rope basket, the best rain jacket. The best onebag bag. The best travel sized everything. SFFPC parts. It honestly was actually out of hand. I was completely doing it to escape the stress of my job and life, spending hours looking at keycaps or pens or blankets. I have really particular taste but I've cut down spending a lot by just completely stopping my research and prioritizing paying off my credit cards.
So if anyone relates and needs help doing this.. pm me, you have my support! Lol. It was a likely shopping addiction. I love having a high quality thing to make my life simpler and getting it at a great price. Just have to remember that if you feel like you can't go without it, you probably can. The most valuable things to me now are the ones I intentionally save up for. :)