How to be a better consumer.

Have you ever felt tempted to buy more stuff when you walk into the supermarket? It happens to me every single time, and I'm not proud of it.

There is a whole area of study -- consumer behavior -- that deals with how and why people purchase things when shopping, as well as how media and advertisements can affect someone who is about to make a purchase by altering its perceived value. I won't go into too much detail about this now, there's a basic article about it on Wikipedia here that I found useful.

Anyway, just some thought provoking questions that I asked myself when at the mall today:

• Why do I feel tempted to buy stuff that I like the moment I see it (aka impulsive purchasing)?
• Why does certain things seem more appealing when promoted on discount/displayed in a certain way?
• Why whenever passing by the snack or ready-to-eat aisle, my mouth suddenly gets 'itchy' (if you know what I mean)?
• Why do retailers always put the price tag of (quite many) items to .99 RM(or insert any currency here) instead of rounding it up to whole numbers? (well, I'll answer myself on this one: it's a sales gimmick to make people think that the item is cheaper than it actually is, i.e 23.99 is cheaper than 24.00 even though the difference is merely a cent.)
• Do friendly salespeople make a shopper more positive towards making a purchase? (even if I didn't buy anything in the end, I still like friendly salespeople :))

Here are some general tips that I'd learned whenever doing shopping of any kind. I've heard these things said many times my many people, but these things are easier said than done. But when we do practice them, we save a lot of time and money:

• Always shop with a list.
• For perishables, always check the expiry date, labels, and the condition of the item when purchased.
• If browsing for non-essential items (wants) and your budget allows for it, set a budget/limit to purchasing, i.e I'll only buy 3 clothing items so I'd have to choose the best 3. This one personally has helped me not regret my purchases later and get the quality stuff :)
• If something really catches your eye, jot it down. Then on the 2nd or 3rd shopping trip, if that initial interest is still there, then only consider it as a serious purchase. (Most items that catch your eyes do wear off after a while.)
• Try timing yourself whenever shopping.
• If really, really tempted to buy something, make allowances for it (the occasional splurge) but sometimes we do have to avoid that department alltogether, if that's what it takes.

That's all I can contribute for now, and I hope that the (costly) lessons that I've learned from my shopping trips can be of help :)