{"id":8803,"date":"2024-11-30T02:28:53","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T02:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/applying-this-rule-is-the-secret-to-guilt-free-shopping-expert-says\/"},"modified":"2024-11-30T02:28:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T02:28:53","slug":"applying-this-rule-is-the-secret-to-guilt-free-shopping-expert-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=8803","title":{"rendered":"Applying this rule is the secret to guilt-free shopping, expert says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Shoppers carry their purchases on Black Friday in New York City on November 29, 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adam Gray | AFP | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When Bernadette Joy<\/a> graduated with an MBA in 2016, she and her husband had around $300,000 in debt, including student loans and mortgage balances.<\/p>\n

By 2020, they were debt free.<\/p>\n

As Joy sought financial independence, the financial tips she found \u2014 “eat beans and rice; don’t have any fun; shopping is terrible” \u2014 didn’t resonate with her.<\/p>\n

Instead, Joy found more creative ways to shop without feeling guilty. That led her to come up with a method she calls “The $1 rule,” which she details in her new book, “Crush Your Money Goals.”<\/p>\n

“The $1 rule is my twist on cost per use or cost per wear,” said Joy, who is a financial coach and debt repayment expert. “But I simplified it even more to say, it’s OK to buy something if it comes out to $1 per use.”<\/p>\n

More from Personal Finance:<\/strong>
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For example, when a friend was looking to buy an expensive couch, Joy used the $1 rule to help him figure out it would be worth it as long as he kept it for five years and used it daily.<\/p>\n

The rule has also helped Joy personally avoid buying low-quality items or things she won’t use often, she said.<\/p>\n

She had her eye on a warming dish to use when entertaining, for example, and realized the $30 cost wouldn’t justify the two times per year she would likely use it.<\/p>\n

The “$1 rule” can also be very helpful during the holidays when you are trying to buy gifts for people they will really enjoy, she said.<\/p>\n

Joy said she uses the rule whenever she buy gifts for people, thinking, “Is this something that they would use a lot?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a>Impulse purchases can lead to regrets<\/h2>\n
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A record 183.4 million people<\/a> are expected to shop both online and in-person in the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday this year, according to the National Retail Federation.<\/p>\n

More than half of consumers \u2014 57% \u2014 say they plan to shop then because of deals that are too good to pass up, the industry organization found in a recent survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Good deals can lead to impulse buying, according to recent research<\/a> from Bankrate, which found 54% of adults made at least one spur-of-the-moment purchase last holiday season.<\/p>\n

However, those impulse purchases can lead to regrets.<\/p>\n

A separate Bankrate survey<\/a> on online purchases prompted by social media found 57% of consumers regretted at least one of those transactions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It’s OK to indulge occasionally, so long as you have made room for it in your budget ahead of time, said Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate.<\/p>\n

“You don’t want to still be paying off this holiday season a year from now,” Rossman said.<\/p>\n

To that point, 28% of people are still paying off credit-card debt from the 2023 holiday season, Banking Herald found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Overspending can still be a reality for many households, since prices have gone up 20% since the beginning of 2021, while wages have only gone up an average of 17% in that time, he said.<\/p>\n

While interest rates have come down, the average credit card rate is still <\/strong>about 20.4%, according to Rossman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a>Take a pause before buying<\/h2>\n
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To help avoid expensive purchases that may lead consumers to carry credit card balances from month to month, it can help to take a moment and pause before making a purchase, Rossman said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, other shopping tips can help you get the most for your money this holiday season.<\/p>\n

Choosing an experience instead of material things can make the holidays more memorable, Joy said. For example, instead of a “Secret Santa” gift exchange, friends can plan a group outing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While retailers may put on the pressure with time-sensitive offers, “there’s a good chance there’s going to be another sale behind it,” Rossman said.<\/p>\n

When making a purchase, be sure to pay attention to whether the total cost works within your budget, particularly if you’re using an installment plan like buy now pay later, Rossman said.<\/p>\n

And be sure to compare to see whether a particular retailer is truly offering the best deal, he said. Price trackers like Camel Camel Camel<\/a> for Amazon can help show you how a sale compares.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shoppers carry their purchases on Black Friday in New York City on November 29, 2024.\u00a0 Adam Gray | AFP | Getty Images When Bernadette Joy graduated with an MBA in 2016, she and her husband had around $300,000 in debt, including student loans and mortgage balances. By 2020, they were debt free. As Joy sought<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[196],"tags":[1242,725,3168,75,2445,867],"class_list":{"0":"post-8803","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-finance-news","8":"tag-applying","9":"tag-expert","10":"tag-guiltfree","11":"tag-rule","12":"tag-secret","13":"tag-shopping"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}