It is incredibly easy to spend more at the shops than you planned to because of all the advertising and special offers you’re exposed to. You may go to the shops with the intention of buying one thing, only to see something else that is on offer or that is new to the market and you can’t help but pick it up. Before you know it you’ve taken the product to the checkout and are paying for it, even though you hadn’t even considered buying it before entering the store. That is why you have to be alert to the tricks and strategies used to get to spend more money.
It’s the same whatever kind of store you go into. The layout is always designed to highlight the most expensive products to consumers while making the cheapest products fade into the background. Consequently, when you go into a supermarket to buy your groceries your eyes are automatically drawn to the most expensive brands so that you don’t even notice that a couple of shelves down the same product is available for half the price.
It is clear that packaging has a role to play in this, since expensive items tend to come in more visually appealing boxes and packets. This makes you believe that if you spend the extra money you will be getting a better quality product, which is often not the case.
Of course, you cannot be tricked into spending more money than you have on you, in theory, anyway. The trouble is that if you carry your debit or credit card with you, you have access to more money and so even if you only take a certain amount of money with you to spend; it isn’t exactly difficult to exceed this limit. You don’t stop to think about whether you can really afford to buy a particular item because you just charge it to your credit card without any problems.
Thus, it may be a good idea to leave your credit and debit cards at home and ensure you take just enough money with you. It is also worth making a list of items you intend to purchase and try to stick to this list, so that you don’t get distracted by all the special offers and fancy packaging that can entice you to buy items you don’t really need or want. Everyone is guilty of spending too much when they go out shopping now and again, but if you want to stay in control of your finances you have to learn to resist the temptation to overspend.