What Are You Buying on Prime Day?

The way you spend (or do not) on Prime Day can tell you a lot about yourself.

Sales like Prime Day give insight into how we think. Our feelings about shopping and spending money can indicate how we feel about ourselves and how we perceive the world around us. One way we can learn about ourselves is to see how what we buy correlates with what we need.

Sometimes, you can purchase things you do not really need, just because it feels good to have a sale. What if you are buying something you do need? Then, it might be helpful to ask yourself this question. If that purchase is important to you, why did you not buy it sooner? Is the $20, $50, or even $100 that you save a reason not to have bought it? Maybe it shows that you did not really need it? Or perhaps you were just delaying your gratification until Prime Day. What might be behind your depriving yourself of those purchases until now?

Or maybe something different applies to you. You know you do not need something that you are buying, you just want it. Why are you only buying it on Prime Day? Does the world give you permission to want? Are you allowed to want something even at full price, or can you only have your wants gratified when you get a deal?

In addition, different people can have similar behaviors regarding finances, but for opposite reasons. For example, in some families, money is the currency of love. It either accompanies parents’ love, or is used as a replacement for it. That might create a next generation that either deprives themselves or indulges. Sometimes, they aim to continue their parents’ love by spending on themselves. Others might compensate for the lack of love they received by using money freely. Alternatively, if money was not emphasized, but love was seen as given a higher priority, people might deprive themselves to continue living the lives their parents set for them. Others might deprive themselves for a different reason. They  internalized the message that “you are not worth it.”

In addition, if money used to be tight, some people perpetuate that family situation in the next generation by having a life where money is tight, too.  Some might craft a life in the opposite direction, where they need to make a lot of money to counteract the way they were brought up. 

These ideas can come out on a day like Prime Day, where savings can make some of us buy. Aside from the feelings above, perhaps we feel that they are not totally “worth it,” but at that price – maybe we are. We are full of both feelings.  Or maybe we feel that we usually deprive ourselves. But on Prime Day, since it is a sale, we can both buy something and deprive ourselves at the same time. Deprivation is on sale! 

Alternatively, we might want to perpetuate our parents’ struggle with money and break away from it. We buy, but during a sale. Or maybe we aim to keep the financially comfortable lifestyle our parents had, but at less cost. A sale helps that goal. 

Money cannot buy happiness, but understanding your attitudes toward money can help you have more insight into yourself, bringing you clarity and self understanding, which might be even more important. 

Which of these ideas about money and spending feel true to you? There are a lot of things on sale on Prime Day. Perhaps being in touch with ourselves is the greatest thing we can obtain. There is no financial cost, but it is still very profitable!