The Writer’s Coin

A recent study shows that people are willing to spend more on a given product when they are sad and focused on themselves. From the study:

Sadness leads people to become more focused on themselves, causing the person to feel that they and their possessions are worth little. That feeling increases willingness to pay more—presumably to feel better about themselves.

The study may be talking about something different, but I went through something similar a few times in my life. Being from a different country means people butcher your name, think you are very interesting, and that you don’t see your family as often as you’d like.

One of my birthdays in college hit me pretty hard when I realized no one even knew about it being my birthday. Sure, I got a phone call from my family bit other than that it was just another day, and it was incredibly depressing. So I decided that I needed to buy myself a birthday present: $100 dollars worth of books on baseball. I was having them shipped to me but already I felt that thrill of blowing a lot of money on something that would soon be mine.

A few years ago my M went on a trip with her family and I was left alone for Christmas. It was the strangest Christmas ever because I was alone and no one else was in town. So I went to the mall and bought myself Christmas presents. A whole bunch of books.

Starting to see a pattern?

To me, books represent learning and self improvement (as well as entertainment), so buying a ton of books made me feel like I was accomplishing something or at least moving in the “right” direction.

From a purely spendthrift or frugal point of view (which is only part of the equation), one way to fight the spending is to have a plan before these types of feelings get to you. I usually find that good music and looking at pictures I’ve taken are pretty quick to pull me out of the doldrums. But I also think there’s something to be said about letting sadness just run its course.

What do you spend money on when you get sad? What does that say about you? 

Tags: depression, feeling sad, spending money