Dealing With Purchase Regret
Late last year, I bought two Mattemoiselle lipsticks from Fenty Beauty, the makeup line of the most important millennial of our time , Rihanna. While I love Rihanna and some of her other products, I really really dislike these lipsticks. They are difficult to apply, they don’t stick, and the colors don’t complement me. When I see them every day in my makeup bag, I feel guilty about the $ 36 I spent on them (I had a few more purchase regrets last year).
I know I’m not alone in this – most people bought things that they later blamed themselves for buying. A study published last year of over 2,000 UK adults found that 82% of people regret buying, with clothing, shoes and takeout food being the most frequently cited categories of regret.
(The same study found that fewer people in older age groups regret shopping than younger people, that white collars have more regrets, and that men regret shopping more than women, which is not very relevant for this article, but I believe interesting.)
So what can you do if you buy something and immediately regret it? Well, you can return it . You can try to resell it. You can force yourself to wait before making any purchases over $ 100, save the same amount of money you “wasted”, give yourself seven seconds, or something similar. If it’s a larger expense – like a trip – you can budget for it over the next few months to gradually replenish the lost funds.
You can also just relax a little.
Take a break
There is a big difference between spending money recklessly and spending money on an item from time to time.
This Reddit commenter , for example, wonders how to compensate for vacation pay when, in most months, his spending habits are what most people would take to be responsible:
I plan my monthly spending around $ 2,400, saving just under $ 1,200 a month. Distribution of my monthly savings:
- $ 460 in my Roth IRA
- ~ $ 600 to Ally’s e-fund (although now it looks more like a savings account for long-term purposes, since I have 3 months of spending and a great job guarantee)
- $ 150 short-term savings tied to my WF account for faster transfers if needed (acts like my year-end Christmas fund).
I recently spent about $ 500 this month on a trip this coming summer for my SO and myself. However, in doing so, I have significantly exceeded my budget for the month that I will not be able to achieve my overall savings goal for this. month. I keep kicking myself mentally, saying it’s bad, but some of my friends said I shouldn’t get upset about it because I made the money and it should be a really fun journey.
We are often led to think that if we spend money on secondary things, we have failed – and as someone who writes about savings and budgeting almost daily, I know I have some responsibility for bringing those ideas to fruition. But by and large, a one-time $ 36 purchase won’t make me any money. And if the redditor speaks truthfully about his expenses and savings, he will be fine too. I may continue to scold myself for buying lipstick online rather than in person, where I might know the shades are not for me, or I might move on.
As another Reddit editor answered :
There is definitely a certain amount of wisdom in saving money wherever possible, but at some point you leave the “reasonable” and go into the “questionable” area – for example, driving 10 miles on the road to save a penny per gallon of gasoline. In the end, this stress will cost you more than what you saved on paper.
Spending a little more than you have or borrowing is not a moral flaw. There are many circumstances that we simply cannot control (like paying medical bills) and others that take time to learn to control (like buying the wrong dress from Instagram ads).
For any goal, a small setback can seem irreparable . You did not start training on January 1, so the New Year’s solution does not suit you. You forgot to bring lunch to work, so your budget for the week is shot down. But forgiving yourself, fixing the problem, and moving on is a much better use of your time than committing suicide over a few trifles.
I am not saying this to dismiss all impulsive spending as wonderful and wonderful (which is why I mentioned some of the methods for overcoming them above). But if you generally remember where your money is going, give yourself a break from time to time.