How often do you buy something simply because it’s on sale? As we approach the holiday shopping season, I challenge you to reflect on how sales influence your purchasing decisions. Don’t get caught up in consumer marketing tactics because chasing deals is making you broke!
In today’s discussion, I emphasize the importance of reserving your shopping for items on your shopping list. I challenge you to follow your favorite brand or store and you’ll discover, there is always a sale! Learning to bypass isn’t about limiting yourself; it’s about reshaping your spending habits so you can be more intentional with your money and spend on things you value.
Join me in this episode for practical tips on recognizing your buying patterns when tempted by a sale or coupon. I’ll share advice on resisting the urge to buy something just because it’s discounted and highlight the significance of making a shopping list to ensure you’re spending on what you truly want rather than falling into the trap of impulse buys..
Learn how to recognize your buying behavior during sales season and make changes toward intentional spending habits…
- [02:10] Think about your buying behavior when there are sales
- [05:07] What was the last thing you bought on sale?
- [08:11] Was it a good buy?
- [11:22] Reserve sales seasons for things that are actually on your list
- [13:53] Plan out your spending
Tune into this episode of Money Files to understand your response to sales and how to reshape your spending habits to be more intentional with your money.
Are you ready to start asking for help with your finances? Apply to work with me, and let’s start working towards your financial goals.
If you loved this conversation about avoiding the impulse to unconsciously spend during the holiday sales season, check out my episode Aligning Expenses with Values: How to Conduct a Cost Saving Audit!
Transcript for “Don’t Be A Sales Side Chick: How To Sales Proof Your Finances”
Intro: Hi, and welcome to Money Files. I’m Keina Newell from Wealth Over Now. I work everyday with professional women and solopreneurs to help them get out of financial overwhelm and shame so they can experience more flexibility and ease with their finances. Are you ready to gain confidence and learn to manage your finances intentionally? Tune in and grab financial tips that will help you master the way you think about and manage your finances.
Keina: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Money Files. I’m actually really sad because I feel like this episode is going to catch you a week too late, but it’s still very, very important for this time of year. And I actually want to talk to you guys about the buying psychology behind sales. So I noticed that Amazon Prime is having another Amazon Prime Day, and I don’t actually watch the Amazon Prime days and when they are and where they are on the calendar. But the one thing I just noticed as a consumer and a buyer is that I think that there only used to be one Amazon Prime Day. And I know for a fact we already had an Amazon Prime day this summer because I actually bought something for a friend for her birthday and I noticed that there’s another one in October.
So it’s almost like they took the gift of Amazon Prime days and they’re like, it used to be once a year and now they’re training us as consumers to partake in it multiple times a year. And they’re selling us this idea that we’re going to get a deal. And as Americans, as consumers, I don’t even think you need to be American, just as consumers. And as my nephew would say, as humans, we love a deal. But the thing I’ve learned over the years, just like paying attention to my own spending habits is there’s always a sale. I don’t actually need to take advantage of every sale that there is. And this has just come from, like I said, years of just watching myself spend money and sometimes I can find myself going for a sale because I think that there’s like a dopamine hit when you think like, oh, I’m getting this on sale. It’s a deal. But I want you through this episode to really think about your own buying behavior when it comes to sales. And I’m talking about this right now because we’re getting ready to go into Black Friday.
We are getting ready to go into end-of-year sales. And so there are going to be a lot of opportunities for stores that you love to sell products to you that you didn’t know you needed it until they told you there was a sale. And you going after every sale is making you broke because you’re going after things that you think you desire, but you don’t actually desire them. Your brain is just, it’s on overload. It is stimulated by this idea that you are getting a deal. And it could be big stores, like it could be Nordstrom, it could be Amazon, but it can also be simple things like a deal that you see at the grocery store, a deal that you see at Target. And how often are we compelled to buy things simply because it says that it’s a deal and we’re not actually thinking about is this actually a need?
So I think the best time to prepare for a sales season is when you aren’t experiencing those dopamine hits. There’s not necessarily a sale that’s in front of you. Si I want you to take some time while you hopefully don’t have dopamine hits and think about what is my buying behavior and how do I want to make it through any sale season without feeling guilt, without feeling shame? Because I think that while you’re buying the things, you feel really good about it because you’re getting a deal and because you’re getting a deal, you feel like it’s a responsible money decision. I want you to also feel like you could pass up a deal because the deal is going to come back around for you. I also want you to feel comfortable, like what if you could also just feel comfortable being the person that pays full price for something because of how you manage your money?
That would be the ultimate goal. Is that, like I can pay full price for something because I manage my money well. And that really comes from being able to know that this thing that I’m buying, I’m going to value it so much. If I got it for a deal, great. But I can also just pay full price for it and feel really good about paying full price for that as well. So I just talked about, like I said, thinking about your buying behavior. So if you did just come out of Amazon Prime days, I want you to just think about what was the last thing that you bought on sale? Think about the sales that have been presented to you in the last month, in the last three months or six months. And like what did you buy? What did you buy that was on sale?
I can tell you one of the things, I have actually been drinking like Coke Zero recently and I don’t even know why I’ve been drinking it, so don’t judge me. But anyways, I’ve been drinking Coke Zero and I’m not really a soda person. I’m more of like a sparkling water person, but also soda’s like $8 a case or something like for a 12 pack depending on where you buy it, so I remember the grocery store had it on sale. Here we go with sale. I want to say they, I don’t know, they had some deal basically where you would get like three packs for $4. I missed that sale. I was like, oh my goodness, I’m not going to see it on sale again blah, blah, blah. So fast forward, that’s probably been at least six weeks ago, I have seen that soda on sale probably two to three times, both at, that was at Safeway, they’ve had it on sale at Target and they’ve been on sale at both of those stores.
But it’s interesting, even for me just watching my own buying, it’s like sometimes you can get the urge to buy something immediately because you feel like you’re missing out. I have to talk to myself and be like, it’s okay you don’t need that right now, especially like you just don’t need it. Similar thing, I actually eat a lot of Greek yogurt. It’s like one of my things that I eat for protein and it’s on sale sometimes. It may be on sale at Whole Foods, it may be on sale at Target, it may be on sale at Safeway. And I buy different things at these different stores. So I don’t necessarily go there every single week, but because I’ve been a grocery shopper for all of my life and I know the sales rotation, but it’s just interesting to watch that like, oh, it’s going to be on sale.
And so even just telling myself like it’s going to be on sale can make me not become a hoarder where I need like 10 Greek yogurts in my refrigerator. Similarly, I could tell you about hair products. I buy Aveda hair products and they’re not cheap. And sometimes if I am in a place where I’m like, oh my goodness, they’re never going to have a sale again, which is also not true, then I might buy too much product and end up spending more money than if I just would’ve just waited. And like, will I use the product? Of course I will use it eventually, but then it’s also taking up space at my house. But just thinking about everyday products that you buy or it could have been things that you bought at the store or like a clothing store or you bought on Amazon and just really being able to reflect on like what did I buy?
And then asking yourself, what was my ROI like, was it actually a good purchase, this thing that I bought on sale? And I think that happens a lot. I think about clothes a lot. I remember and I’ve posted this on my Instagram before, like I bought this pair of heels long, long time ago, like Ann Taylor, I bought them because they were on sale and I never wore them, ever. I’ve done that multiple times. You buy it because it’s on sale, it’s a good deal and then you ultimately end up giving it away. I mean, I’ve done it with, I bought a coat from like White House, Black Market. I’ve done it a number of times to know that I don’t want to just buy something because it’s on sale and in my head it’s going to be a good deal, but just taking some time, like I said to think about like what’s your buying behavior when it comes to sales? Like where do find yourself kind of being obsessive about needing to acquire something when it’s on sale?
Knowing that is going to help you understand where there are leaks in your own money management system, which you probably don’t have a system, but I’m going to give you the fact that you have a system and your desire to get a deal is causing you actually to be broke. It is causing you not to be able to pay off your debt. It’s causing you not to be able to save money because you are chasing a deal. I want you to get to a place where you can notice that you want to rush or that you have an urge about buying something that’s on sale. I want you to get comfortable being able to say no to yourself. You’re not saying no to yourself out of restriction. You’re saying no to yourself because you want to have control. I want you to have control over your spending. I want your spending to feel intentional because then when you go and buy anything, whether it is on sale or whether it is full price, you are going to feel in control of that. You are going to feel like powerful. You’re going to feel like you can manage it. Whether it’s something as small as like something that’s at the grocery store, or whether it’s something that may be at a bigger department store. It could be at Lowe’s, it could be at Nordstrom, it could be in a number of different places.
So it could be something as small as a thing of chips. It could be something as big as a $500 investment in a purse or a coat, any of those things. So like I said, I want you to be that person that can be in control. So as we go, like I said into this season and we’re thinking about the sales season, I want you to reserve your sales season for things that are actually on your list. I want you to notice that when you are down a sales rabbit hole, are you down the sales rabbit hole because of an Instagram influencer, because of a TikTok influencer or because this particular store like Amazon is now offering Amazon Prime three times a year or four times a year? I don’t know how often they’re doing it. But if you recognize like, oh, this store thinks they have control over my bank account and they’re presenting to me this quarterly opportunity to get a deal, you are going to be able to say no to those deals because of the fact that you are actually reserving sales season for things that are on your list.
And if you actually make a list of things that you want, like I had a client who I remember the last Amazon Prime day, she was like, Keina, I need an air fryer. So that was something on her list. I think she’d been looking to get an air fryer and because it was on her list, she did get it from Amazon Prime Day. But when things are actually on your list, you’re also going to know the price of it and you’re going to be able to actually verify whether or not it’s a deal. Like Amazon Prime, oftentimes you can find the same price a week later, two weeks later, their prices fluctuate so much that oftentimes you’re not actually getting a deal. But when you actually have a list, it’s going to let you know if you’re actually getting a deal or if you’re just falling into the psychology of stores offering a sale.
I want you to not just be unconsciously spending money, because if you don’t actually have a list that tells you the things that you actually want and something to verify that you’re buying something that you actually want, you are going to be unconsciously spending money, unconsciously taking advantage of coupons. Whether it is, hey, you get $20 off of a hundred dollars or buy one, get one free, or everything in the store is 20% off, like sometimes those are legitimately good deals. And other times you end up spending money because somebody told you they were going to give you $10. You would have $10 if you just didn’t go spend the $10. You spent $50 to get $10. That’s not real math. You didn’t save any money, you just spent money. So reserve sales season for the things that are actually on your list.
The next thing is, I want you to, after you have this list, like actually plan out your spending. If you know that you love to take advantage of Black Friday because it is a time where certain things are on sale and it is the only time of year they’re on sale. Maybe there’s a makeup brand that you like and they have things on sale, maybe you’re into electronics and Black Friday is a really great time to buy electronics. Know these things about yourself. That’s the first part. But if you know these things about yourself, you can start putting them in your budget. So now you can take advantage of the sale guilt-free. You’re not going to feel guilty because you’re going to have the money. So if you created a holiday budget, that can also include your Black Friday spending you’re going to get to Black Friday and you’re going to have the money to buy whatever you want.
It’s not going to be on a credit card, it’s not going to keep you from paying your next set of bills. But I want you to actually be thinking about what are the things that I want to buy during Black Friday? Write them down, get an idea of how much money you need and let’s start putting that in your budget. Let’s start planning for it. As someone who wants to manage their money well or someone who does manage their money well, like that is an intentional shift you can have in how you think about your money. I was telling someone I was like a great time to buy bras is during the Nordstrom anniversary sale. Like if you like an expensive bra brand like Chantelle or Notori, those can be like $80 bras during the anniversary sale.
That happens in the summer at Nordstrom, they could be like 50 or $40. But if you know that you like that brand and you like to take advantage of them during the Nordstrom anniversary sale, then build a more robust clothing budget so that when the anniversary sale comes around, you can drop $300 and buy six brass. And it won’t be because you’re leaning into an urge or that you’re doing it unconsciously. It’ll be something that you planned. So when I’m talking about understanding your own buying behavior and being able to think about the things that you actually want to buy and being able to think about the deals that you do want to take advantage of, as you’re analyzing your own spending habits and your own patterns, where that translates is putting that into your own personal budget. That right there is the ultimate win when you can start to know your own patterns, know your own habits and those start to craft your budget.
That’s why a list of bills is not a budget, because it doesn’t consider the other ways in which you like to spend money. So like I said, hopefully this episode is not too late. If you bought some things on Amazon Prime, you have now like three weeks to return it. If you’re like, actually Keina, I did not need to buy that vacuum cleaner. And I realized that was just an urge. You can still return it, girl. So just, go to Amazon, return your order, ask them to come pick it up or drop it off at UPS. But thank you so much for tuning into this week’s episode. And if you want to take this work deeper, you actually like want to make real progress with your finances so you can actually spend more money drama free, I would invite you to apply to work with me in my five-month coaching partnership. So once again, thank you so much for tuning in and I will talk to you later. Bye.
Outro: Thank you so much for listening to Money Files. If you’re ready to take the next step to reach your financial goals, head to www.wealthovernow.com/appointment and let’s get started.