Did you know that the average adult in the western world spends, on average, $1,227.00 per year on things that they never open or use?
When I heard that news I thought to myself… “what a load of rocking horse poop! I don’t do that.” Then I wen’t along my merry way to the supermarket 🙂
I’ve just had a week off after Christmas and one of the jobs that I had on my ‘to-do’ list was to sort out a cupboard or two and re-arrange some of my work bits-and-bobs that I keep handy for everyday type activities. You know the type of things – liquid paper, pens, highlighters etc. etc.
Have a guess how many White-out dispensers I have? You know, the white tape that you roll over the mistake you just wrote? Bet you don’t even come close.
2.5 currently open and theoretically in use, 3 packets of 2 generic brand dispensers and 2 brand new Bic Wite-out with the nicely patterned casing. OMG!
How often do I write these days – with a pen that is? Not often. Not even if I include the shopping list! And if I am using a pen for any extended part of a day, I’m probably marking someones assessment I’m not allowed to use white-out anyway. That lot should last me until I’m 95.
It’s nasty when you wake up and smell the texta’s, realising that you actually are one of those people you were just astounded by.
Even only after a few hours of being really conscious of what I was finding I realised that while I don’t go off and spend money willy-nilly on things that are expensive, what I have created is a habit of seeing something on sale and if I regularly use it I buy it, no matter how many I have in the cupboard. You know, the little things like cans of soup or a particular jam I like. Unfortunately by the time I get to a few, well quite a few of these, they’re out of date or I don’t like them anymore.
Or, if I see a clothing on sale that’s a nice colour, or I think to myself that “I’ve been looking for something like that for a while,” or even “whoa, that is too cheap to pass up!” into the back of the wardrobe or drawer they go and then tend not to come out again until I have to send off a few things to good-will to fit in this years round of “Sales” purchases.
And if you men out there think that you’re immune and you’re smirking because this is what you’ve been saying about your girlfriend, partner, wife, for ages …. think again!
The statistics say that men are better, or worse, depending on how you look at it, than women when it comes to impulse buying. I think that one of the major differences between the sexes is probably the cost of the things they buy.
You know what I’m talking about guys. That ‘E-Tech Twin Oval Stainless Steel Exhaust Tail Pipe Tip’ or that brand new sub-woofer, the latest in fitness gizmo’s or the new dive watch that’s water resistant to 100m (but the only time it get’s wet is in the rain, and that’s only if you’re not being careful). Get the picture now?
My father has 3 sheds full of tools. When he’s at the hardware store and sees something that he uses often, or thinks might come in handy, or had been looking for that particular tool a while ago for a job he’s now finished but he’ll probably need it again later…. Get the picture here?
While I do it with stationary and t-shirts, he does it with tools.
How are you doing now?
Still think that statement at the start doesn’t apply?
You know, it’s actually okay if you have a similar habit as a lot of the rest of us, as long as you can afford it. And when you have a clean up like I’ve been doing, you try to send the excess off to a good home, don’t just toss it away.
It’s the beginning of a brand new school year here in Australia and one of my most dangerous times. Not only do we still have the Christmas sales still happening, all that brand new sweet smelling stationary is coming out. It’s time for me to leave the credit cards at home!
What’s you’re downfall? Shoes? Watches? Tools? Extra shiny and loud car parts? Or stationary, like mine?
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