(tales from an eighteen-year-old with a shopping habit!)
Pay-day yesterday and already I’ve spent over half of my paycheque….not even including the board I pay to live in my parent’s house. Why is it that I just cant save any money? Why am I so often heard saying, “Shit….it's Wednesday again….could ya buy us a coffee, love?”
But I’m not the only one!! Most of my friends also live in this state of perpetual brokeness even though we have jobs and earn enough money. Well, sure, we could earn a lot more, say if we had degrees, or were men (who incidentally still earn a dollar to our 72 cents). But the fact is: we spend. We spend like spending is going out of style. And don’t worry, it isn’t…. Every day there are more things to buy, and prices keep rising. Why, back in my day, coke was damn near a buck and a dollar worth of gummy bears really was just that.
Here’s the question: Why are we spending so much money? Where is all our hard earned cash actually going? OK, there are the basics: board/rent (whatever), food, bills, and transport, which takes out a healthy chunk…then there's the weekends. Going out on the town? Better take your plastic. Drinks & gigs are hideously expensive, yet spiralling prices doesn’t stop me going out. But it does make me wonder why I’m paying 5 bucks for a beer when it’s $15.95 for a dozen at the supermarket.
Recently I tried cutting costs. I quit smoking, and am therefore saving an extra $20-$30 per week (oh, and saving myself from lung cancer and other nasties while I’m at it!) Well, where did my extra 20 bucks per week go!! I never saw it!! Oh right, those shoes I bought…
This makes up the third and perhaps most unnecessary and wasteful way of spending my money. At shops. On things. Madonna was never so true as when she sang ‘we are living in a material world’. Everyday we are constantly bombarded with radio ads, TV ads, billboard ads, SO MANY ADS! All telling us to spend, spend, and spend. Glossy magazines reinforce the notion that material possessions will bring you joy and happiness. Everywhere you look, we are constantly being told to consume, to spend more money than we can afford.
As addictive as it is, keeping up with the latest styles keeps us out of pocket. The fashionable look is always changing, so, in order to stay ‘cool’, or ‘hip’, we’re supposed to change our wardrobe every season. And if we don’t?
Ads such as the Lee jeans campaign ‘fit in, stand out,’ promote messages that if we have what everybody else has, we’ll fit in, have friends, be happy. If not, you’ll supposedly have a life of loneliness. What crap!! Of course, we don’t actually need to buy so much stuff, but all these messages aimed at making us consume can be overwhelming.
It’s especially hard as a young woman, when so many advertisements are aimed at our particular demographic. Its hard not to be influenced by magazines on what or where to buy…it’s amazing to pick up a magazine like Cosmopolitan after a long time and realise how most of the magazine is made up of advertising!!!
Kids are also hugely prone to being influenced by ads….marketers are seeing children now as a prize group of consumers to appeal to. Toy crazes illustrate this, & now whenever something is successful in kid-land, out comes all the merchandising. Take the popular Harry Potter series…I’ll bet there are people out there who are unaware that it once was just a book!
Everyday our mailboxes are filling up with more and more useless advertising. All mediums try to tell us that material wealth & possessions lead to successful, happy lives, American sitcom style.
And all this is so blatantly unnecessary. The more we spend on things, the more waste we are making- for ourselves, & for the earth. There is a difference between what we need, and what we want, & and all this advertising makes it hard to distinguish the difference between the two. I’m speaking from experience. I am a complete ‘shopaholic’, often buying things when I feel I need a boost, only to come down feeling…poor.
One thing I’ve learned: Your stuff doesn’t love you! And as hard as it is for me to admit, I don’t really need three new pairs of shoes, a new bag and a new coat. Well, maybe just the coat.
But I’m learning to value my money & spend it on what I really need, not what some company wants me to buy. Think about it, you’ll be all the richer!!
(fingers crossed....)