Why You Spend Too Much Money and How to Stop

2 minute read
money-bag-coins-falling
Getty Images
Ideas
By Eric Barker
Barker is the author of Barking Up The Wrong Tree

  • What our neighbors buy affects what we buy, as does our names, the weather, and the type of floor a store has.

  • Music manipulates us into spending in flower shops and restaurants.

  • Which products are next to each other on the shelf influences what we buy. In fact, one product can catch “cooties” from another.

  • Attractive salespeople mess with our heads too, especially if they touch the products. Truth is, we’re more satisfied after buying from good-looking people.

  • Stores use lots of tricks to get us to spend. Limits on how many items we can purchase make us purchase more. So does stocking fewer items.

  • The word sale makes us less likely to comparison shop and yellow tags fool us into thinking we’re getting a discount even when we’re not.

  • Retail therapy does work, but being happy can end up sapping our self-control in the face of tempting sales.

  • Materialism may be connected to unhappiness but buying generic products can reduce your self-esteem.

  • Luckily there are fast, easy tricks to avoid buying too much and breaking a budget.

  • Learn the key elements of influence, negotiation and persuasion.

    • Join over 190,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here.

    This piece originally appeared on Barking Up the Wrong Tree.

    Related posts:

    How To Stop Being Lazy And Get More Done – 5 Expert Tips

    How To Get People To Like You: 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior Expert

    New Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Be More Successful

    More Must-Reads from TIME

    Contact us at letters@time.com

    TIME Ideas hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.