Savings Addiction – Are You One of Those Spending More Trying to Save Money?

There is a popular British saying, “Penny Wise Pound Foolish”. A person is said to be “Penny-wise, pound-foolish” when he is careful (wise) with small amounts of money but careless (foolish) with large amounts.

There are people who have a habit of overspending and at the same time, there are people who overspend money while trying to save money. Now, you may ask, how can a person spend money while trying to save? This is what we call ‘Savings Addiction’.

Savings addiction is a tendency of spending money on inefficient things by getting attracted towards money-saving deals. It is an addiction to shop for best deals and for huge number of coupons. It is an intense desire to save money on the cheapest deals. This type of behaviour is fairly common to see in many people, especially in those who live in urban areas.

In the present competitive world, with shopping deals available at lowest prices possible, people are becoming greedier. They are making mistakes by purchasing things they don’t actually need or use. This is a kind of manipulation of their own personal finances. Here, in this article, we will now know how a person becomes savings addict and what he has to do to overcome this addiction.

Signs of Savings Addiction
There are many signs which indicate that a person is a savings addict. Finding coupons, discounts, bargains, offers, best shopping deals, etc., are different approaches by which a person gets addicted to spend money in order to save. He often goes online to purchase things like clothes, books, electronics, groceries, gifts, apparels and many more items. Thus, he gets habituated to use coupons regularly for buying things even though he may not need that product.

Sometimes he looks for free food stuff, which results in health problems and in turn incurs unexpected huge medical expenses. For instance, in order to get 10 eggs which were sold free for buying 2kg of chicken, saving addicts will spend more amounts on the perishable item (meat). Thus, many food stuffs like ripe fruits, leafy vegetables, seafood, milk, cheese, etc., are bought unnecessarily and in spite of their low quality, just because they are available at low price. The reality is, instead of saving they wasted money on something they do not use.

Money-saving coupons lead to money spending addiction
A savings addict usually shops for the sake of using coupons. He spends much in order to get coupons and thus, incurs expenses on things he doesn’t need or use. Most often, he spends money on highly discounted inefficient things which are not very useful.

But if you think practically, the person not only spends money on things he don’t need, but also spends his time more on shopping for those money-saving coupons. He/she is not considering the time and travel cost which is worth more than the discount offered. Thus, the person would miss this opportunity cost of using time for more important things.

So, remember not to fool yourself by the allure of money-saving offers or sales and buy things which you don’t need or won’t use. You are wasting both money and time. Remember marketers use your impulses to get you to make poor choices on spending. Buying what you really need at lower prices is a good choice. Buying something because it is on sale is most likely a poor choice.

Tips to overcome Savings Addiction

• Make sensible decisions – don’t buy things you don’t need or won’t use
• Buying on a sale or discount can be addictive. Understand it, realize it and avoid this addiction
• Consider unsubscribing daily/weekly deals via e-mails or SMS
• Learning to spend is just as difficult as learning to save. So, always make wise and efficient spending choices