3 Pre-Purchase Questions to Ask

Happy Wednesday! 

What if I told you that you could feel great about the things you spend your money on?

Or that guilty feeling about buying stuff could be a thing of the past?

It’s not magic, but it does feel quite powerful. And freeing!

When we start to align our spending with our values, we can experience so much confidence in our money decisions.

There’s a lot to be said about this, which is why we wrote Buy What You Love Without Going Broke.

Today we’re stealing some ideas from the pages to help you put this into practice and experience greater peace with your purchases (Do ya like all that alliteration 😉).

Here’s how it goes.

📕 Ground Rules!

🔎 Start with curiosity. There’s no shame in wanting to buy something or having a desire for things we don’t own. What we’re drawn to is informative and can help us know ourselves better. When getting curious, avoid asking why and try questions that begin with what, how, or when. This will help us dig deeper in our understanding.

⏱️ Take 60 seconds before buying to consider what you’re about to do. We’ve found creating a pause before we buy helps us to push against a sense of urgency, impulsiveness, or marketing tactics that would get us to spend outside of our best interests. When we do this, we buy ourselves time (pun intended) to think and make an informed decision.

In those 60-seconds here’s what we can ask ourselves:

1. What is prompting me to purchase? Maybe it’s that something you already own broke and you want to replace it, or you have an upcoming event that you want something new for, or you saw a friend has one, or it’s midnight and social media is selling you hard on some new gadget. This is where we can begin to separate our own desires from what others are telling us we desire. 

2. Is there an alternative option or solution with what I already own? Can the broken thing be fixed? Can I wear something I already own? Just because my friend has it, does that mean I will enjoy it? Can I put this on a list and re-evaluate if I still want it tomorrow? Does a sale mean I have to buy it? 

3. Can I buy this pre-owned? It’s possible the thrift store, Facebook marketplace, e-bay, or even a friend has what you’re looking for and if you do decide after the first 2 questions you still want the thing, buying secondhand is the best option for our wallets and our community. 

It won’t be easy, but we believe in you. 💫

Have a great day,
Misti

⭐️⭐️ P.S. Want to share all this goodness with your friends AND earn cool Frugal Friends merch?

**Means this is a sponsored or affiliate section. We may earn a small fee or commission when you choose to try one of our sponsor or affiliate partners. But opinions are still 1000% our own.