I was in IKEA last night to replace a file cabinet. They didn’t have the right one but I picked out a close approximation. While I was waiting in line I thought, what the hell am I doing dropping $160 on a stupid box just to hold my hanging folders? So I got out of line and abandoned my flat-packed box and resolved to see what the nearby STAPLES has to offer tomorrow. Have you found yourself abandoning stuff in the checkout line more often? Or otherwise reevaluating and cutting back on certain kinds of purchases lately that in the past you might have made without thinking?
(Photo: Ben Popken)
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I find myself reevaluating going to the store in the first place. It wastes gas and I never come out ahead.
Cutting back? How about stopping all consumer spending on anything other than necessities? My house is full of junk, so I’ve been selling stuff on Craigslist. I cut my $80/mo. satellite bill to $45/mo. I’m taking steps to cut it completely out by using an old fashioned antenna. I have no home phone. I change internet providers often to get the new customer deals (I have FIOS, RCN, Comcast & some other providers to choose from). We don’t eat out often and even (gasp!) split a meal since they give such large portions at restaurants. I watch my bills like a hawk since almost every month I get charges on my credit cards I have to call about. Before I buy anything, I ask myself “do I really need this?” if the answer is yes, I only buy the model I need: no more high end junk. It’s not worth it. I bought an expensive dishwasher with all the buttons. Guess what? I only use 1 button! Next dishwasher will be the most basic one offered. No more hi-tech flashey model with buttons I will never use.
Find a filing cabinet for a LOT less money! [www.amazon.com]
I abandon online shopping carts a lot… usually after the shipping price is shown. I hate trying to order a spool of fancy thread and getting charged 7$ in shipping. It’s just not going to happen.
I do it in the market too, but mostly with “impulse” purchases. I walk around the store with them until they no longer amuse me, then I put them back.
I don’t have an Ikea where I live. I find myself only coming out of the store with essentials such as toiletries, food and other consumables which will be used. I am sure much of the population is thinking the same.
I don’t like buying the cheap stuff at walmart and target that everyone seems to load their cart down with. Seriously you can find a huge selection of knick knacks at the thrift for a fraction of the price (if you really must have them), yet people are spending 9.99-19.99 each on simple knick knacks at walmart and target that they don’t really need. Yard sales are filled with this type of stuff and most people will give it to you for 25 cents or less an item or give it to you for free. This quickly adds up to hundreds before you even realize it when you are paying full price for house decor. Not to mention you probably don’t even need another statue or figure in your house.
I do buy video games but I have now made a resolution not to buy any game until it hits 19.99 or less. Its simply pointless to buy them when they are released because prices are dropping so fast. At least I am saving money by waiting for the depreciation to set in before I buy. If it doesn’t drop in price then I can look for a cheaper used copy. Since I buy mostly Nintendo DS games that are cartridge based most used copies are in like new condition with basically the only difference being that they are missing the shrinkwrap. Even with disc based games most used games play the same as they would if you would have bought them new. The only reason to buy a game at release now is if your buying an entirely online based game and frankly I stay away from those.
If I buy anything outside of essentials these days it comes from the clearance rack and even those purchases are few and far between. I do tend to buy clothing on impulse but even those items have to be cheap and preferably on the clearance rack before I buy them as in the $5-10 range and it has to be something that I will actually wear and use. It helps that I live in a super poor area where if you have clean clothes you look good.
Typically with decent sized purchases, I:
- pick something out as soon as I get to the store
- wander around the rest of the store and do my casual shopping
- think a little harder about whether I need the thing I came for on my way to the checkout.
Sometimes I buy the thing, sometimes I realize that I can wait and buy it online or used, sometimes I realize I’m an idiot for wanting this right now and put it back and out of my head.
Sometimes (like Timmus above) I also put stuff back when the act of purchasing it pisses me off too much. This is a big factor when buying stuff online, as 9 times out of 10 I’ll pay an extra 5 to 10% for the convenience factor of taking it home (granted, that 5 to 10% would usually be swallowed up by shipping, but not always)
Craigslist. I am not in the market for one, but I can’t even look at Craigslist without seeing 10 of them for free. I will never pay money for a filing cabinet again, wait, i never have before.
Need file cabinet = Craigslist.
Absolutely cutting down on purchases- mostly due to the economy. I have been buying marked down toys for my two sons Christmas though. August through Sept/Oct is the best time since the stores are trying to clear out for the Christmas toys which arrive in November. I recently got an older Hot Wheels set -originally $17 marked down to $5.
I have pretty much stopped buying “things” but the focus has been on reducing the amount of stuff I have rather than not spending money. Over the last few years I have found that the less stuff I have, the happier I am, which is exactly the opposite of what most people believe. Discovering this has been a great source of mental freedom for me.
For example, when I needed shorts this past summer because none of my old ones were wearable, I bought one pair. If they got dirty before wash time, they got washed in the sink and hung up in the bathroom to dry. Five years ago this never would have occured to me.
The books “Hungry Planet: What the World Eats” and “Material World: A Global Family Portarait” made a huge difference in my life.” Check them out from your library or if your library does not have them, buy copies and donate them to your library.
[www.time.com]
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve left the line after picking out something and then left the store empty-handed altogether. Do the same thing online, too. My brain likes to enter this very deep and serious thought mode when it gets close to having to say goodbye to my money.
I may be in the vast minority but I actually prefer long lines when I’m ambivalent towards a purchase. I usually dart in and out of a store because I know what I want, but on those occasions when I pick something up that’s not on the list, I prefer to stand in a long line because there’s a physical point by which I need to make the decision. I’ve stood for hours at times near a product debating with myself. Most of the time, I find that I really don’t need it and put it back.
I’ve been cheap for ages, personally. Aside from a few exceptions (including but not limited to food and underwear), if I can’t find it second-hand I don’t buy it.
Furniture, dishes (where else can I find my vintage Syracuse?), books, craft supplies — you name it, I can probably find it used, in good condition, for next to nothing. Just last week, I found a full-size enamelling kiln on Craigslist for less than the cost of a brand-new portable mini-kiln. I’ve been wanting one for ages but have been holding back on getting one off the shelf in the hope that I could find one that needed a new home.
We can easily afford to buy things new, but between my love for vintage things, a desire to recycle what already exists instead of using resources to make new things and the thrill I get when I save money, it’s the thrift, the flea market and yard sales all the way.
My friends and I call this “unshopping”. We’ll frequently shop at Target or Costco and grab things, fully intending to “unshop” them later…editing the cart before we get to the checkstand…
Been doing that a LOT online. I get promotions from online merchants and often will bite. Almost bought something at Eddie Bauer with a free shipping code this week, but when I went to check out there was a $3.00 handling fee (the item was only $14.99 on sale). I hate those handling fees! So I abandoned the shopping cart. I’ve done that at other sites, too, recently. It’s actually good to put stuff in a virtual cart and then give yourself some time to think it over. You don’t feel quite as under-the-gun as you might at a real store.
I find myself doing this all the time.
I was going to buy a DVD box-set the other day at Best Buy because it was heavily discounted. I decided at the last moment that I didn’t really need it. Oh, I wanted it, but it wasn’t an expenditure that I could justify otherwise, so I just handed it to the cashier and told her that I’d changed my mind.
I was laden with items at Filene’s Basement yesterday and the utter lack of attentiveness or care of the staff working there while I was fretting over finding black slacks pissed me off so bad that I left everything except for two pair of shoes and decided I could do better at H&M.
I used to abandon purchases at Walmart all the time because there were only 3 lines open out of 20 possible registers. But I never just left the store, I’d ask to talk to a manager and when they arrived I would tell them that I was going to buy stuff but I changed my mind because I wasn’t going to wait for 15 minutes in line.
Surprisingly, about 6 months after that the store opened an express checkout line!
So basically it seems you don’t value your time. If you spent that much time, and all you save is a very small amount of money then you are saying you don’t value time. I could run around to every store in the world to find the best price on food, clothing, gas etc, but I value my time and include that in any “savings” I might see. I can see if it is a larger purchase where 100′s of dollars are at stake, but if you saved $10 and you ned up having to spend an hour to go get something else are you really only worth $10 per hour. That is your call to make, but my time is worth more than that.
@johnnya2: ever heard of “free time?” this is where you have an excess of time and are happy to part with it for whatever reason, sometimes for no other reason than because it is “free.” many people enjoy what is known as “free time,” when all of a sudden their time is not worth anything. some people enjoy spending this time hunting bargains on things they would otherwise spend more money on. sometimes your free time pays you.
Yes, I do this all the time with groceries but I always splurge on books and magazines.
It has happened to my wife and I on several occasions.
An interesting permutation of that was this weekend. We went looking for a part for our refrigerator and never found it. I went home, tinkered with the fridge some more, and eventually figured out I didn’t need the part. Similar, but not quite the same.
Yes… I too have abandoned carts full of crap I thought I needed, but while waiting for some snotty nosed store staffer to get off their F’n phone or end their social break in order to deal with me the customer, I realize I don’t need the crap at the cost of my time and dignity.
Auto parts stores are great for this one… you show up, wait your turn at the counter, get half way into your request and the store phone rings… The staffer deals with the phone not you… You made the effort to show up with your money to actually make the purchase, but as far as the store is concerned you are already a sale, no more real effort required. BUT, the bugger on the phone, who has made no effort beyond dialing the number is the potential customer and they get the service… This is where quick thinking and talking can get some response … “Deal with me, pick up the phone and my money is out of here!” Then follow through and leave all the stuff behind, start walking and if you see the manager on the way… give him a piece of your mind, it will be more mind than he has been exposed too in years.
Yes, I did recently have a poor retail experience… I will get over it.
I don’t abandon stuff at the counter… don’t make it that far. I might pick up an item (mostly clothes) walk around with it while browsing in the same department, then put it back if I don’t want it, because I don’t wanna lug around a whole cart of “maybe” items, and likely don’t need it.
I think the problem with Ikea and big box “destination” stores (as opposed to a Walgreens or Target) is that I go there so rarely, do so much window shopping on all over that huge store, that I almost feel like I need to buy something to justify the effort. If I’m good it’s a kid’s plate of swedish meatballs, if I’m not it’s another damn decorative knick-knack to clutter my life.
@ElizabethD: Yes, the virtual cart is a awesome, because it gives you that “mulling” time, and additionally wish lists/save for later option helps me mull over my “window shopping” patterns. Because there’s dates attached to the items, it’s almost like dieters with food journals. You can figure out why you started looking at the unnecessary items and avoid doing it in the future. Was I lured by discounts? Was it the holidays? Was I feeling down and trying to buy something to cheer me up?
I don’t generally abandon stuff in line, because I usually do my research and make my decision before I put it in my cart.
As far as file cabinets, if you don’t care what they look like, look in the back of your paper or on auctionzip.com for bankruptcy/ business closing auctions. They usually will have some, and they will usually go cheap, usually a couple dollars.
Lists Lists Lists. I’ve started using lists for non-grocery store purchases and it’s working wonders. I’ve got a list of high-quality professional clothes I want to buy, kitchen supplies I want to buy and other “if I have the fun money saved” that I might consider buying. When I enter stores (or the amazon marketplace) it keeps me focused.
I actually do this quite a bit, but it’s usually due to my indecisiveness. I’ll be in the line, or even meandering around the store, when I’ll think “I don’t really need this” or ” I have no space”, and I’ll just abandon it.
I’ve made it a rule that if I go into a store to buy a particular item & they don’t have THE one I want (or they have it but not at a price I’m willing to pay) I will just leave. It usually means putting back a few impulse items I had picked up on my way to find the original item & I think I’ve saved myself from a lot of mindless impulse shopping by doing it this way.
When I’m out on a big shopping trip (groceries, household supplies, etc) I park the cart right before the checkout lines & try to take at least a couple things out of the cart that I didn’t really set out to buy or that can wait for the next time it goes on sale.
At least have the responsibility to put the thing back where you got it, instead of just dropping it in some random place at the store, leaving it to some poor staffer to make up for your lack of financial restraint and inability to pick up after yourself.
I don’t have any problem leaving stuff at checkout…especially at Walmart when they have three lines out of forty open and I’m in a hurry..really pisses me off.
you would think the most important function of a store would be to take people’s money!!
The thing about IKEA is is that they always stick the store in the middle of bloody no-where, so when you’re in there, you kinda feel a duty to come back with something lest you go back there another day. Blugh.
@PlayerX: I think it depends on the area – Mine is less than 3 minutes from where I work, so I go in there all the time just to check and see what’s in as is (I keep a running list of things I need, but don’t want to pay full price for), and/or score a 99c breakfast.
What the thing with hanging file folders? Ikea, Staples, OfficeMax, Office Depot, they all only have file cabinets that are setup for hanging folders, usually with a backstop that is a piece of wire you fit in a hole.
None of these big box stores carry any nice Steelcase or Hon cabinets like the ones at my work that have the sliding divider that hold regular folders up.
The only reason I’ve ever abandoned anything at IKEA there was because of the 4-mile walk back to the registers and the sea of humanity waiting to check out looked like a gypsy caravan.
If it’s something frivolous, I’m too cheap to consider picking it up in the first place.
Recent Items I have walked away from:
Beef: so #@%&!! expensive now, chicken and pig are cheaper
CD’s: Piracy is cheaper
Cigarettes: Making your own via a top machine = $35 a month Vs. $100 a month.
Internet: I connect to someone else’s Linksys network!
Gas: Why drive when I could bike
Many more
I don’t see what is so interesting or ground-breaking about not buying a product because you believe it is too expensive, or because you don’t like it. That is just practical.
My problems with Ikea are that (in my experience) the computer that tells you what is in stock is only updated at opening (so when it says 84 of an item are “in stock and available” it might really mean “sold out”); and that (according to some employees there I spoke to) they don’t have a way to re-stock items without shutting down the entire floor.
I am definitely doing a final “go through” before I get to the register.
Yesterday I had ordered some stupidly expensive custom-blended makeup from the Prescriptives counter at Macy’s
($69 including tax, but I figure it lasts for about 6 months and at .39 cents a day, I’m worth it – I also made sure to get extra samples and the gift with purchase)
While walking to the counter, I noticed 50% off sales throughout the store with an additional 15% when using your Macy’s card. I found and tried on some blouses and picked three that were okay.
In the past I would have bought them without hesitation. But, when I went to the register, I realized that I didn’t LOVE them, so why was I going to shell out $75 for tops that were just “okay”?
Also, I used to go to Target at least once a week, but now I am down to once a month. My husband calls Target, “The Shit You Don’t Need” Store.
So yeah, I am trying to curtail my free-wheeling spending habits.
Nice photo, bad story.
My girlfriend and I, both avid readers, have stopped our rampant book-buying in favor of our local library.
While we might buy a paperback here or there, we no longer drop $100-$200 a month on non-fiction. With the opportunity to request as many free holds for pickup at the closest branch as we want, we’ve been borrowing more books than we used to buy.
And I’ve been keeping myself out of the malls and away from the shoe stores. Damned sales.
I checkout dealnews.com regularly for good deals. Just before Labor Day, I saw that Circuit City had a 50+” plasma TV for $1699 and my partner and I had a 10% off new home owner coupon. So, we went down and bought the TV. We figured we’d be able to fit the TV in his car. Oops. It was late, so the salesman offered to hold the TV overnight while we arranged to borrow a friends truck for the transport. We went home and slept on the idea of dropping 1450 on a TV when we had other stuff to do.
So, he went back the next day and cancelled the purchase. No TV for us.
Whenever I’m buying multiple items from a big box store, my final purchase depends on how long I wait on line. While I wait I pull things from my basket, one by one, in the reverse order of priority. When I lose patience completely I leave the cart and go. Rarely am I buying something in any store that I can’t get in one of my other stops. I live in NJ, home of the country’s worst customer service so I rarely get to the front of the line with an impulse purchase.
I have a cherry wood one that matches my desk from Staples. It was more to keep my papers in as well as to store my pens and be a stand for my scanner.
I don’t regret the purchase because it will be with me for a long time.
In an answer to the question, yes there are times I just go and put things back because I won’t spend the money. One isn’t obligated to buy anything but don’t be a jerk and leave it in the middle of the checkout line.
I’d love to do that but with about 50 board feet of files plastic file boxes are not an option. Arggghhhhh. Why did I become a licensed professional. I should have listened to mom and drove a truck. “There’ll be less paperwork,” she said.
So yes, I have a few of the ikea file cabinets with the file drawers/regular drawer combinations and some big asses industrial steel ones.
However I might suggest looking for a used office furniture place and checking out auctions for that stuff. Tons of people start businesses that fail within the first year and usually it is because they undercapitalized and outfitted their office with the ‘best’ of everything. And I buy it at less that 50% of retail.
I’ve always felt guilty abandoning items. If I decide I don’t need something, I retrace my steps to put it back where it came from.
This can be advantageous when, passing racks of items along the way, you glance at the price sticker of another item that’s in your cart and decide that you really don’t need that either.
Happens to me all the time in WalMart and Kroger.
Ways I’m conserving/cutting back…
Grocery shopping once a month…with a list.
Sure, the bill is huge since I’m stocking up for an entire month’s worth of food but I’ve found that if I shop every two weeks, I end up spending more money on snack food instead of eating what’s already in my pantry.
Car insurance- My insurance carrier offers an extra bit of savings for paying my bill in full. Up til recently, I paid month-to-month. In theory, I can treat myself and my gal to a nice dinner once a year with the money I’m saving.
Cellphone- I’ve been lazy. My phone usage has plummeted in recent months due to a change in jobs but I never bothered to lower my monthly minutes to reflect my decreased usage. Fixed that yesterday and am saving 20 bucks a month.
Cable/Internet- Next on my to-do list. Comcast will be receiving a call from me shortly. The Military Channel is cool, but not “shock and awe your wallet” cool. My promotional period ended too. As much as Comcast is the devil, they’ve been tolerable, so I’m going to try peaceful negotiation before resorting to the threaten-to-cancel tactic.
Weekly Drycleaning- 30 bucks for 7 shirts and 7 pants. One new DVD to watch while ironing in the living room…10 bucks. Just made the switch last week. Not a bad way to spend an evening.
I plan to use the other 20 bucks I’m saving as a justifiable reward to put towards other current (but unnecessary to life) expenses such as my MMO game subscription and my Paintball hobby.
Credit Card- My current APR sucks on the ONLY credit card I use. My credit score doesn’t. Time to do something about this. A new card and a balance transfer are in my future.
Morning Coffee- Starbucks was kicked to the curb a few months back. My coffee maker is happy I’m using it again, and the switch saves me enough cash to afford the escalating price of gasoline. Besides, I’m groggy enough in the morning that the difference in taste is negligible.
My weakness- Brand loyalty.
I occasionally get a nervous tic when my gal throws a generic item in the grocery cart because it’s less money. I have tried this sacrifice in the past with disastrous results. I call it “eating prison food” because the difference in taste or quality can be so noticeable at times.
I’m picky enough about what I will and will not eat as it is. While this additional pickyness in what BRANDS I find acceptable annoys my gal to no end, there are some areas where sacrifice just isn’t possible.
If I’m in the supermarket and wheel my cart full of groceries up to the front only to find that they have two or three (out of 10 or 15) registers open and each register has four or more people in line, I will by-god abandon that cart at the front of the store and walk out. Not only do they lose the sale, but they most likely have to toss any frozen or refrigerated items I wanted to buy. When the lines get that long, somebody (I dunno, maybe a “manager” or some such) should be calling employees from other parts of the store to come open registers. If they don’t have enough cashiers there, that’s bad management. And if they do have enough but they aren’t checking out customers, it’s just inexcusably poor customer service. Either way, I do not reward them with my business, even if it costs me the time I had spent filling up that cart. I can buy food elsewhere.
@You-Me-Us: How extraordinarily wasteful a practice, and it sounds like one that you almost take up gleefully and with pleasure, hell-bent on “teaching that grocery store management a lesson in customer service.”
I seriously doubt that they had 10-15 registers open when you walked INTO the store and by the time you reached the registers with your goods, they then whittled that down to 2-3. Abandoning a cartful of perishable goods does absolutely no good to anybody at all. You may be making a point to the management of the store — but the point you’re making is likely more that you are a Problem Customer. Why not just toss all the food on the floor before you storm out the door while you’re at it?
When I go shopping for clothes or to Target and I want something that I don’t need, I try to make a note of it in my head. If I remember it again at any point while I am still in the store, I’ll pick it up. More often than not, I won’t remember it until I’m at home or even the next day. Obviously it wasn’t that important of an item if I forgot about it, right?
I saw this tote bag featured in the latest issue of Vogue the other day and decided I wanted to buy it. But once I clicked to check out, I just thought about how I need to really look after what money I do have these days and just closed the window. Not even Barack Obama could get me to drop my money on a tote bag, but I think my vote for him is more important anyway.