Impulse purchases

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

And I’m not talking about going to the store for milk and bread and grabbing some Oreos on your way out. I’m talking about relatively major impulse purchases.

So I bought a new car a few months ago. A 2000, which was kind of an impulse buy itself because I wasn’t planning on going so new. But oh well. It had a tape deck in it. A TAPE DECK! I don’t even own any tapes anymore. I can hardly remember what one looks like, so for the past few months I’ve been stuck with the radio. So I decided it would be a good idea to get a CD player. The plan was pretty well thought out, not impulse at all. So I bought a deck. It didn’t fit. So I bought a dash kit that I was told would make it fit. It didn’t fit. So I took that deck back and bought a different one. It was okay, a Jensen 25Wx4. But I needed speakers. So I ventured to Best Buy (in St. Cloud), somewhat less than sober, with a few hundred dollars in my pocket and the mindset that I would purchase a set of decent 6x9s and walk out.

WRONG! After handing the woman almost $600 I walked out of the store with two CDs (Staind’s “Break the Cycle” and Tool’s “Lateralus”), a set of 3-way/180 watt Sony Xplods and ANOTHER new deck, a Sony Xplod 52Wx4. FIFTY-TWO! Woo! But the “Installation Bay” was closed by the time I got over there, so I drove home disappointed because I couldn’t listen to my new deck or speakers.

WARNING More impulses ahead!

That night I called the Best Buy in Duluth (like two hours from my house, fer chrissakes’) to figure out when they opened. I got a recording stating their business hours and was waiting in the parking lot the next morning 10 minutes before they opened. They didn’t have the right speaker harness or something, but I could come back on Tuesday (I think this happened on a Saturday) and they’d have it and put it all in for me. But that just was NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!! (because I’m impatient and stuff) so I drove to Blaine (get a map; Mora to St. Cloud to Mora to Duluth to Blaine to Mora). They had all the parts they needed, and the time, so I threw $100 at them and told them to get started.

Three days, seven hundred spent dollars, many hours of driving and sitting and waiting, and about 1000 extra miles on my car later, from start to finish, I now have a very nice deck (with DVD and TV/VCR capabilities) that sounds really good with my new 6x9s, especially considering I don’t have a sub. Yet. :wink:

Other tiny little impulse purchases I can’t help making (as if this thread needs to be longer):

Shoes. I absolutely cannot go into a store that sells shoes without buying at least one pair. (In fact, I bought a pair of shoes while I was waiting three hours for the dude to install my system.) I currently own AT LEAST 25 pairs of shoes that I don’t even like, and probably just as many pairs that I do. I have 8 pairs that I haven’t worn since the day I bought them because I realized that they don’t look as nice on my feet as they did in the box.

Hair accessories. Funny thing about this is I don’t even do anything with my hair! I don’t EVER do ANYTHING with it, yet I own handfuls of hair accessories. Weird, huh?

Socks. Seriously, if the world ever runs out of socks, it’s because I bought every last one of them.

Tell me I am not alone. What are some of your impulse purchases?

2

When I impulse shop, it tends to be on a fairly small scale. Lately I find myself popping into Best Buy unexpectedly and walking out with small stacks of cds.

My husband, though…The best time was probably when he went to a going-out-of-business sale to look for a cd player for my car and came home with a DSS satellite thingy as well. Or the time he went to a business meeting and came home with a motorcycle.

3

Well…I went to the grocery store yesterday for basics, & came home with a HUGE, I mean Humungous stuffed tiger. $29.99.

OK, that doesn’t compare to a new car or a really nice stereo (bet it sounds great!)

Actually, now that I think about it, my last brand new vehicle was bought because I woke up one morning & said to myself “Self, it’s time for a new pickup truck.” Bought one that day. That was in 1995, though; last vehicle I’ve financed.

Bookstores…oh, I can’t go in without spending way too much money.

And I just bought tickets to visit my brother in Chicago yesterday on a whim. :slight_smile:

4

Hmmm… I don’t think I’ve ever made any impulse buys of more than 50 or so bucks. I have sort of a big-purchase list (sofa, guest-room bed, dresser, new house, etc.) that I don’t worry about very much until something sparks a need or interest. I’m not a cheap guy, but I really hate spending money on stuff I don’t really need. This lets me buy quality items that I do need. But I do know lots of people that charge the heck out of their credit cards doing exactly what you described.

I’m like robinh… I like small-scale impulse buying. You can do it a lot, and not feel guilty! :slight_smile:

5

I would be SO SCREWED if I had credit cards. I don’t. I don’t apply for them and I throw the ones I get in the mail right into the garbage. No thanks, I don’t need anymore bills. If I can’t afford to pay with cash, I can’t afford to buy it.

6

In 1993 we went shopping for a nice pop up travel tent and came home with a 26ft 5th wheel RV. (I’m pretty sure it was all his idea though.) A few months later we went shopping for a dining room table and came home with dining room table, 6 chairs, hutch, cabinet and buffet. (I’m pretty sure this one was my idea.)

If I go in a bookstore, I always come out with more than I intended to buy.

Abby

7

About a week ago I went into the local Best Buy looking for
a Game Boy Advance, and walked out with a Playstation 2,
PS2 memory card, and RFU adapter. Two trips later I also
had three [used] games [which later became two since one
didn’t work]. All together? $400+ on stuff I didn’t intend
to buy [at least that day]. And I didn’t get a GBA. :stuck_out_tongue:

And I can’t buy CDs - every time I go to buy one or two, I
end up with AT LEAST 3 or 4.

God help me when I start buying DVDs. :smiley:

8

Abby, I can’t figure out if this means 1993 was really bad for your family or really, really good. But it’s definitely a sign of something.

I can’t match those impulse buys, but I’m a sucker for really fresh, quality vegetables. I can’t resist them in the store, even if I know full well that we will not have a chance to eat them all before they go bad. I blame this on Inherited Grocer’s Instinct Syndrome. (My father’s mother’s parents were grocers.)

I always buy more than I should in bookstores.

My mother, though, is the queen of impulse buyers - there’s probably a statue of her at the Impulse Buyers Hall of Fame. Things she has bought on impulse, true impulse, THIS YEAR: a car (she also bought cars on impulse in 2000, 1999, and 1997), a dog (sad but true, and oh was I pissed), three different vacations, assorted home improvements, a scarily top-of-the-line barbeque (although she already had a nearly top-of-the-line barbeque), a bunch of wildly expensive china, and approximately 10k in toys for my sister’s kid. Oh, and a huge hot tub that seats 10, has about 20 settings, and plays CDs (I kid you not). And that’s just the major purchases, but there have been many others - going to the mall with the woman is a frightening experience. I should add: she is not rich.

This may be why I don’t buy much on impulse; my mother has covered our family impulse buying quota for at least another two decades.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by deepbluesea *
**

Does she use it?

10

Sometimes. She used it a lot right after she bought it, but now she’s more likely to go to the gym and use theirs.

11

Seems like just about everything I purchase is an impulse buy.

Except for groceries because I make lists.

It’s pathetic.

12

What is it about Best Buy and impulse purchases? I was looking around one on my way home 5 months ago and saw a bunch of Sony DVD players on closeout. I couldn’t pass up the price ($100!), so I bought one.

13

I s’pose the most recent impulse buy, other than books, which I refuse to count, would be a pair of auto-focus binoculars. Don’t really need 'em, but I splurged on the Steiner 9x40’s anyway. What the hell; it’s only money.

14

It was a really bad year.

Sorry for the hijack,
Abby

15

Okay, then, here’s a related question: do you spend more money impulse shopping when you’re doing well financially or not so well? I always seem to get more careless about money when I really need to be careful - some kind of act of defiance or something.