you know – this is always represented in the news/etc as ‘a starbucks a day’ but i mean moreso a gadget or a shirt. i’m splurging on deodorant right now. is that immoral? are you meant to have a mostly austere budget until you’re a boomer with a house and a fence?
so uhh what’s the last little thing you bought to not go insane?
I am very stretched financially. I do surveys for money and have managed not to pay for anything on Amazon for two years this way. Things are hard right now and so being able to look forward to a package makes the days easier.
(Yes I will tell anyone how who is interested. It’s tedious but I really have made a lot of money, enough so pretty much everything I wear every day is paid for this way.)
I am fully disconnected from that mentality and do not miss it. I used to waste a lot of time around shopping for needless and pointless nonsense.
I will spend a whole lot more on things I really need or want, but I don’t feel like I am a target for marketing in any way now. My last major purchase was an AI capable computer which was likely due to YT and Reddit manipulated suggestions and visibility. I don’t regret that one. Since I quit reddit in June, I have also pulled way back with YT. I’m on Linux/Graphene and my primary network connection is though a whitelist firewall. That seems to be just enough to stop the subconscious motivations and desires for stuff I don’t actually care anything about like this.
It may be an unpopular opinion, but the best and brightest psych majors are going into advertising for a damn good reason, and it ain’t making prettier HTML banner ads like it’s 1999.
I recommend having a long think about that whole buying little things makes an emotion paradigm and start asking yourself what could be the causes of such behaviors and how they might have been intentional manipulation across platforms and information spaces. There is a reason why data stalking companies are so pervasive and everyone wants you to use an app where they have constant sensor data from your device.
ima be real chief it ain’t gonna fuckin matter if I go spend $30 or not on an electronic gadget once in a while, the chances of me landing in home ownership are still gonna be 0.0%. fuck it we ball, i might as well have toys to play with that makes the tism happy
Of course. If this is what reinforces other positive behaviors keep it up. I keep myself on a contract for larger items. (For every month I complete 100 study hours and meet my work hours, I get a pair of converse) :)
How many pairs of converse do you have lol?
None, he’s a terrible student.
I buy random things way more than I should. Always seems like a good idea at the time, even when 90% of these splurges ends up being something I definitely didn’t need. Alas, the dopamine hits from painstakingly researching and identifying the perfect, useless item are all too real. Bought a three pack (it was a crazy discount to buy in a pack of 3) of 6 outlet, low-profile plug, surge protectors.
Outlets in my house are somehow always on walls where I need something pushed against them. Anywho, you should not beat yourself up over some deodorant, is all I’m getting at.
Good little consumer, happyness comes from owning crap.
You’re just suckered into the opposite trap, thinking you’re noble and heroic because you deny yourself the pleasures everyone else enjoys
Keep choking down that copium eventually u will buy that thing u need and finally be happy.
Life isn’t as black and white as you want it to be, sometimes having nice things does help you feel better about life. You can’t buy your way to happiness but you won’t find it in austerity either.
