(no subject)

[jethrien]

I'm reading a book called Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, which is predictably shrill but interesting nonetheless. It is, however, crystallizing a thought that I've been aware of for some time but perhaps not blatantly thinking about.

I suck at shopping.

I am really bad at a)determining what the true value of something is and b)evaluating how much I want it. I can't remember prices, I'm terrible at haggling, and I regularly fail at predicting how much I'll value something later. Chuckro knows exactly what the normal price of butter is, what the normal discount on butter is, and at what price you buy six pounds of butter on sale and stuff it in the freezer. Me? Not a clue. Been buying butter for years, Chuckro repeatedly and patiently reminds me how much is too much to pay for butter, it doesn't stick.

I have a closet full of clothes, half of which I adore and are wearing out and I cannot find replacements for, half of which are kind of shoddy or don't fit quite right or aren't actually as stylish as they seemed in the store. I came home from Italy with a dress that's really cute but I subsequently realized isn't as appropriate for the office as I hoped, a wildly impractical but super awesome coat I know I paid too much money for because of the aforementioned sucking at haggling, and a purse that's of excellent quality but is turning out to not fit my needs as well as hoped. All of which I do really like but probably only bought because I was on vacation and I knew there was no chance of ever buying them again. Meanwhile, there were a handful of inexpensive trinkets that I didn't buy because I felt like I was spending too much money and now wish I'd gotten.

I make bad snap decisions. Aware of this, I will over research and dither until I get sick of myself and make a bad snap decision at the end anyway. (When I was a kid, this led to endless fruitless shopping trips. I've gotten better about settling so I get out of the store faster, but I don't think the actual success rate of acquiring things I love at a price comensurate with the value I place on the item.) Frequently things turn out well, but they also turn out badly frequently as well. I don't think I've bought a pair of pants I was actually happy with in three years. My coworkers seem to be able to dress themselves without remorse like grown up people do. Why is it that I'm so bad at this?

Comments

[oblvndrgn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm more or less ignorant of the price of staples like butter because I know what brand I buy and I buy it. If there's a yellow sticker by the package I might buy it before my last pack runs out, but that's the extent of my decision making. I'm more aware of the prices for items I only buy when they're cheap/on sale, like organic berries and various kinds of fish. I am, though, hopelessly bamboozled by 'now on sale!' stickers. I acknowledge this flaw. If Whole Foods were to say "50% off!" but raise the price $4, I'd probably buy whatever it is because I'm an idiot.

Maybe buying clothes that end up not awesome or purses that don't fit is a spatial thing? I don't buy new clothes all that often but I'm pretty bad at judging whether a large item will in a given spot in my apartment or not, and I have pretty poor spatial memory.