Pause Points – Activities

The activities in this topic are all designed to help you to increase your awareness of the internal and external influences on your spending behaviour. When you know what influences you, you have more chance of taking control and making deliberate spending decisions.

What kind of spender are you?

What do you love spending money on?

Share with your group:

Are there things you love spending money on?

Are there things you dislike spending money on?

What might these tell you about your spending behaviour?

 

Personal activity: What kind of spender are you?

Our habitual patterns tend to align with a certain profile.  the attitudes of Australian consumers towards spending, saving and investing their money, are broken down into the psychology of spending into 10 broad groups.

Go to What kind of spender are you? and review the infographic (that breaks down attitudes of Australian consumers towards spending, saving and investing their money into broad groups) and identify what type of spender you are.

Do you agree with the way your attitudes have been categorised?

Recognising your shopping behaviours through a simple stereotype increases your awareness of your money decisions.

 

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Share your thoughts

Share with your peers

Did any part of the shopper profile ring true for you?

Are any particular emotions associated with your purchases?

What are your views on ‘retail therapy’?

What strategies do you use to stay on track with spending?

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What are your spending patterns?

Note down all the things you bought over the last week and note whether they were necessities, planned spending, luxury items or impulse purchases.

Note also:

  • The different types of shops you purchased from – online, shopping mall, local small shops
  • When you buy – weekdays or weekends? Mornings, afternoons or at night?
  • Whether it is lots of small purchases or a few large ones?
  • How you shop when you are alone or with friends?
  • Were the goods full price or discounted?
  • What mood were you in and did your purchase affect it?
  • What are your trigger points?

Being aware of the reasons and emotions associated with your spending gives you a greater opportunity to make conscious spending decisions.

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Minimalism

Minimalism is an emerging counter trend to consumerism. 

“Minimalism is an approach that suggests people question what things add value to their lives, to focus on what’s important to them and make decisions more consciously, more deliberately.”

Source: http://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/

No matter what values you hold, pausing from time to time to reflect on what drives your choices and whether your actions line up with your values can help you to focus on what is important to you.

Here’s a thought: How might your life be changed if you owned fewer material possessions? What intangibles might you have more of instead?

 

What’s it like to be minimalist? Set yourself a challenge:

  • 30 days with no shopping (excluding essentials of course);
  • 3 months with no shopping for clothes

or play the Minimalism game

This month, each of you must get rid of one thing on the first day, on the second two things, three items on the third etc.  Donate, sell or (trash)? Each possession must be out of your life by midnight each day.

Or,

What do you think about the joyful decluttering philosophy of Marie Kondo?

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