Do you have a blueprint for your dream life? Everyone has a different imagination about their life. Whatever the imagination is, consumption is always a crucial way to support basic human needs and create an ideal life.

Post-purchase regret is a common human behavior. Fourdesire wants to share some of our miserable experiences and help you start your conscious consuming journey with bookkeeping so you can make your dream life a reality!

Avoid Unconscious Consuming!

What are the things that our team members most regretted buying recently? According to our internal survey, the list includes a well-known co-branded instant noodle product, online shopping clothes that don’t fit, monitor stands, blenders, standing clothes steamers, and desserts that look nice but taste ummm...

30% of our team think their purchases are impulse buys while 70% say they had considered buying the products for a long time. Why do people still regret their purchases even though they seem to have thought thoroughly?

We listed 3 common traps in the buying process to help you avoid unconscious consumption!

Trap 1: Shopping can relieve stress (?)

The concept of retail therapy appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1986. Retail therapy is not a formal psychological therapy; it emphasizes the relief of stress through shopping as a way to self-recovery. Shopping gives us a sense of control and can relieve our negative emotions rapidly, although the effect is short-lived.

In what situation will you decide to make a purchase? Stressed by work? Fighting with your family? Find out the emotional trigger and when you experience the same emotion next time, do something that helps you calm down and relax such as doing yoga or playing jigsaws to distract yourself and relieve stress differently.

Related Post: Develop Self-awareness using Fourdesire’s To-do App “To-Do Adventure”

Are you constantly chased by work like AD Man in Fortune City? Find out the emotional trigger to avoid anxiety shopping due to stress at work.

Trap 2: I will regret if I miss out on the limited offer or discount (?)

Anniversary sales and shopping festivals are the times when people are most likely to make a purchase. Half of our team members would make impulse buys for limited-time offers.

Limited offers and discounts create a sense of urgency which prevents people from thinking thoroughly. The best way to deal with it is to t-a-k-e it s-l-o-w.

Some of our team members address impulse buying by delaying their purchases. If they still want the product after a month, they will buy it. Let your emotions calm down over time or ask your most rational friend to save you from the impulse buy right away!

Trap 3: It looks awesome. I really want it!

Not every regret purchase is an impulse buy. Sometimes it’s because we don’t have enough information before making a purchase decision. Before you place the order, try to understand the product through different channels so you can determine if it is just a marketing gimmick.

This approach can also train your taste. The artist of Fourdesire says she would try to study and understand the artist’s style before buying a sketchbook, in order to make sure the book not only gives pleasure to the eyes but also provides added value as a reference book and thus encouraging her to browse it more often.

Conscious Consuming Builds upon Making Choices without Guilt

The key to conscious consumption is that you choose to spend money on something truly worthwhile or something you really love without feeling guilty. 

Think about something indispensable in your dream life.

Some team members say high-quality clothes are indispensable. Even though it might be expensive, it's value for money. If you know exactly what you need, you won’t fall for discounts or promotions easily. By setting a simple goal, you can improve your quality of life easily.

If you want to practice conscious consumption, you can start with bookkeeping. Using Fourdesire’s “Fortune City” which gamifies bookkeeping to provide a SimCity-like experience, every record of your income and expenditure will be transformed into a building to create your own SimCity. For example, if you constantly record your spending on coffee, a drink shop will be built. Visualizing consumption habits helps you identify blind spots in your consumption behavior.

If you plan to save money but your “Fortune City” is packed with restaurants and drink shops, then you should think about whether drinks and desserts will slow down your plan even though they bring you happiness. Maybe you can set a “happiness budget” to help you plan your consumption consciously and achieve your goals without sacrificing your happiness.

Set a budget for things that make you happy to help you relieve stress appropriately without holding you back from your goals.

“If you want to buy the best and the coolest thing, never ever go on a shopping spree,” says a team member. Can you think of anything cool and essential to your ideal life? How do you plan to get it as soon as possible? Share your ideas with us!