Break The Brainwashing of Perceived Obsolescence
Sep 13th, 2012 | By Jen A | Category: Financial, Frugality, Top Headline | Print This Article
The economy thrives on people buying things they don’t need. Why would anyone waste money like that? It’s not because we’re natural idiots – we’ve been programmed to think that we need the newest, latest, and greatest things around us, even if what we already own is just fine.
You can call it upgrading – that’s what a lot of marketers do. Yet at the end of the day, the belief that you need a certain model of a given product is brainwashing – brainwashing that eats a hole in your wallet, wrecks your sense of self-worth, and derails your progress toward your real dreams. If you can break out of the brainwashed pit, you can rise above the marketing mess to get only what you need when you need it and have more money and peace of mind in the rest of your life.
Think of the money
An obvious start to breaking out of the brainwashing pit it to stop and really think about the money you’re spending. So much of the buying behavior in America these days is driven by impulse and instinctively saying, “Yes” to sales pitches, that simply stopping for a moment can snap you out of a shopping haze.
There are a lot of tactics you can use to help you stop and think before you spend. One is to make a thirty-day list of items you want and count down to buying them later, while another is to get a partner who you must call before you buy anything. Other tricks include not carrying credit cards, making yourself look online before any offline purchase, and making yourself write down a list of all your debts before making any new purchase.
Pick a method that works for you and stick with it. You usually don’t need a newer version of your current possessions – and when you pay the bills, you often wish you hadn’t bought most of what you do have. Why perpetuate the problem? Stop, think, and spend less.
Know the opportunity you’re trading in
Another factor in the “buy, buy, buy” mindset is that it limits what you can actually achieve and experience in your life. If you spend $400 on a new smart phone, that’s $400 you don’t have for a trip back to your parents, a new washing machine, or even your rainy day fund. The $80 you spent on an extra pair of shoes because they were on sale is $80 you don’t have for birthday presents or a training manual on home canning.
This isn’t to make you feel guilty about spending at all – it’s just to make you more conscious of your life choices. What’s really important to you? Having more apps on your phone or staying in a nice hotel while you’re on vacation? Spending time with your family or having a big night out with your friends? No one but you can answer those questions honestly, but being aware of your personal priorities helps make you immune to marketing messages that would lead you astray.
Marketers want you to believe that the new model of their product – or even just buying it in the first place – is going to make your life better and happier. You’ll be more content and more attractive with XYZ pants. You’ll be the envy of your friends if you install PDQ in your house. But your personal priorities and deep-seated desires get lost in all that commercial noise. Being conscious of what it is that you really want out of life will help you understand how the choices you make drive the opportunities available to you later, and help you keep the right doors open for yourself later.
Go for the green angle
If the money and your values don’t shift your behavior, look at what mindless consumerism does to the environment. Landfills are overflowing with perfectly usable goods that were tossed because they became “obsolete” in the eyes of the modern shopper. The minerals and rare metals needed for high-tech gadgets cause destructive mining around the world, and plastic litter is so ubiquitous that third world nations are using it to build schools. You can do the world a favor – literally – by holding on to perfectly good items even when marketers want you to get the latest and greatest gizmos they can create.
Breaking out of the mindset of automatic upgrades and constantly striving to own the newest things brings your personal goals back into focus. You stop living on autopilot and start only getting the things you really need in light of your personal priorities. This will help you learn to laugh at all the ways marketers try to separate you from your money – and help you feel like you already live a life of abundance.
©2013 Off The Grid News
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great website~!
How timely. I noticed a headline about the new i-phone 5 and was wondering why anyone would stand in line for such an item. It reminds me of all the hullabaloo over sneakers, which at the end of the day are just a pair of shoes.
I am disgusted by this. I own my home. How did my husband and I manage that? I was 44 and he was 51 when we got it paid off. We went without. We wore our clothes so long they came back in fashion. Our kids did not have full closets, they had what they needed and they bought what they wanted from money made from jobs (not allowances). They quickly learned if they spent it on clothes, they might look cool at school but they were on foot because mommy and daddy were not putting gas in the old truck they shared. We never paid for TV. Four of them are adults now and they too are fairly frugal.
I’m tired of throwing my hard earned tax dollars at people who choose to buy the latest, get fake nails-piercing-tats-shoes-phones-tv-game systems. They aren’t any happier than I am, in fact, probably less so. A coworker that lives a similar lifestyle had a husband (a disabled doctor) that was asked by his church elders to coach some families on making better financial choices, as he and his family never lived high on the hog and it paid off when he lost his ability to operate due to nerve damage. He finally gave up because not one parent was able to withstand the pressure their kids were putting on them. He told the elders that it wasn’t financial counseling they needed, it was parental counseling. How true. I bet many of the adults I saw in the picture of idiots standing in line for the new phone were spoiled brat kids. Their parents should be smacked.
So true SideTrackSusie! A lot of what is bought that’s junk comes from family pressure to consume because kids want to look cool or be cool in the eyes of their schoolmates. Yet when they get older, they can discover just how uncool debt really is and how not fun it is to regret blowing money on stupid things.
I remember when folks were dying and injured themselves standing on like to get cabbage patch dolls? That was the craziest thing ever! Now those same folks are probably our age with arthritis or some other ungodly issue (if they’re alive) related to an injury in the 80′s! All due to consumerism. It is disgusting — it really is.
And if I see another tatooed, pierced person talking about not having a job or how broke they are, I will scream! Those tats start at $50 and go up. So now you’re hungry??? Take a bite out of that tatoo or starve!
Only when we have a collapse, a SHTF situation, or some other calamity, will these people (maybe) get the big picture. Personally I doubt it.
I live in a trailer park where it booze/drugs/ gadgets/ but food? is the driving force. Gotta look cool, have cool things. Then the complaint is I don’t have any money for food!
When they would come to me through the summers for garden produce which I grow myself, to ask for things, I asked for help in my garden, (and I am disabled) watering, hoeing, picking for a share, the answer was “Naw, I’m too busy, I work, I, I, I, ‘s. MY answer was “NO”. No one has ever asked again.
I am amazed how people are swayed by the gadgets, and the phone. I have issues with the computer, but since I am disabled, I use the computer as a tool, for communications, paying bills, and staying in touch with others who live as I do.
Again, I likely doubt you will ever change anyone.
I was approached by the Health and Human Services in our community to teach welfare moms how to buy groceries on budget, cook, and other household issues. My first class was a disaster as all I had was drug-fueled anger from moms who were forced to come, and ended up needing several people to calm the situation down, all on a account someone wanted to teach. That was the last time I did or will do anything like that ever again.
I live in the city and container garden. After my growing season, there’s surplus, which I offer to folks and all I ask is that they PICK IT UP. Would you believe they expect it to be delivered? Know that they are still waiting!!
As far as those welfare mothers go, no one can change another person, but you can educate — if the receiver wants to be educated. Don’t give up on sharing your knowledge, the right “students” are out there somewhere. Peace.
Good article! We live somewhat frugally to the extent that we’re able to travel, maybe every 2 years. When we return from a trip, our family & friends comment on how well we look. When we tell them we were out of the country, they always say, “Mr & Mrs Money bags”, “It must be nice,” and all sorts of nice nasty comments about how much money we supposedly have or were “given” (yeah sure) LOL, etc. When we suggest that they travel with us, we hear the crys of poverty, “Who gon pay? “We ain’t got your kinda money.” etc., as they leave to play Lottery picks, buy liquor or get their cigarettes. This just freaking amazes us! We know people who actually rent the place they live BUT buy their children $300 headphones!
We weren’t always like this and are continually working towards living more frugally. We’ve always driven fully paid for cars until they drive no more. However, homeschooling our children, really opened our eyes when we realized a $15K windfall from the tuition we no longer paid! (You mean were able to pay 1 entity 15K?? Who knew?)
98% of our meals are eaten out of the home and together. There’s the occasional pizza or 2, but they are usually the result of being too tired to flip on a light switch in the kitchen! We have many other practices, but still, we can do better.
The truth is, people have no clue what they have when they are too busy sending it out the door!