I’m not a shopaholic.

Or so I tell myself.

In actual fact, I am. I do a lot of impulse buys, and it’s not hard for friends who have known me for years to hit my buttons. And in many cases, I generally end up buying things I don’t need but feel like I have to have or it will never come again.

They are not necessarily limited edition items either, but could simply be a “Oh, I may never have the opportunity to buy it otherwise,” and so the next thing I know, I’ve purchased it and am waiting for it to come to me.

I’ve discovered that online shopping is far more dangerous than offline. When the physical thing is in my hands, it’s easy for me to discount it based on tiny flaws. Or things that aren’t even flaws but simply personal preference. However, if it’s online, then my resistance is far lesser, because it’s a “YOLO” kind of drive that prompts me to pay.

Which is one of the reasons why I like mall crawling on my own but hate shopping alone, even window shopping. If I go shopping, I’ll always try to drag a friend or two, because hearing a physical voice say “No,” or give me advice on whether something looks hideous is much more effective than me telling it to myself.

So here’s how I scratch the itch when I don’t have money to do so, and I really, really want to buy something. I research it. I’ll start with a random Google search, go looking for information, fixate on something that seems really too good to be true, and then spend agonising days thinking about whether it is actually a good buy or not.

In most cases, because these are gadget stuff, it means there are tonnes of information and reviews out there. The challenge for me lies in ensuring the only thing I do is read about them and/or set a date to play with the items in a physical store with a friend. In most cases, I am glad to say that I end up never buying the items. The gadget lust is satiated when I’ve managed to convince myself that it would have been a bad buy OR that it’s not really that great a deal either.

I have had a few times when I’ve given into temptation and bought the item anyway. In most cases though, it’s less of a “I don’t need it but I want to have it” and more of a “I need to get something but can I really afford the high end name” kind of purchase (see: my phone). As it’s turned out, in those cases, I have rarely been disappointed.

TL;DR: Reading too much makes me stop lusting over a device. What’s your method to scratching your itches?

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