Emotional spending & how design can help
#1 Financial Style
Aren’t people good at design? I mean it’s not hard to see how good design made me buy one of those bum bags everyone is wearing across their bodies these days. I’m not even kidding, I am a practical person who loves my new accessibility to my phone and keys. But I can’t deny that I also loved just buying something new. In those moments, I genuinely convince myself that new things will change my life and I will be happy. The only catch is that my ongoing happiness then rests on my ability to spend. Gosh, well thank god I have an endless supply of mon…. Nope, this is so untrue I can’t even get through that joke. Neither money nor emotions are endless but why do we convince ourselves they are? So many of us spend to feel good instead of seeking to spend on good, well-designed products that will last. I think there is something to be said for controlling your emotional spending with style instead of buying style to control your emotions. So how can pretty design reign in your spending? This post is about emotional spending and how design can help.
Firstly, the emotions. Many people worry about their spending habits but never crest the emotional hill of why they spend. If you thought about it (and I think you should) there might be sadness before you spend or elation afterward which may be disguising a central fear. It might be good to think about the eclectic combination of feelings you might have about spending money on things and where they come from. The answer might be preventing you from doing anything about it.
Design might also help facilitate change and encourage new behaviours through its power to make you feel cool and in control. This fact was capitalised on a few years back when Apple released a new iOS update that allowed people to customise their screen including the app images. No one needed to be able to do this but the fact that you could go on Etsy and buy a new theme for your iPhone was cool. So how can we take those same principles for our spending habits?
To start living a more stylish financially sustainable life you could:
Diarise your spending: I would start by writing down the situations where you spend (particularly on large impulsive purchases) and looking at all the factors that led to this outcome on the page. Write down the shop, time of day, who you were with, and what was bought at the same time or intend to buy. I have used a paid app called Clarity, a CBT-based diary app, to help me re-think past situations that have bothered me and it has helped. I would also consider buying a pretty hard copy journal from your local art gallery to spark joy when you reach for it. With design, you can therapize yourself fairly inexpensively and potentially change harmful behavioural patterns.
Download a pretty listicle app: Create a pretty list on your phone of things you feel like buying right now and challenge yourself to not buy these items for one month. I put mine in Google Keep with all my other lists but there is always the Notes app, List, MinimaList, and millions of others. Or you could just make a word document to ensure it is customisable with colours, fonts and font sizes. Train yourself to add to this list every time you want to buy something big and then force yourself to wait one month until you buy it. The chances are that you won’t want it by then.
Marie Condo your phone: Delete all clothes-buying apps or just put them all in a folder at the very back of your phone on another page where you don’t look regularly. I called that folder ‘don’t look at me’. I would also put all the ‘ubers’ in there, and any secret spending triggers you know you don’t need. Cleaning out your subscription emails on Gmail is another great thing to do. This suggestion is about only keeping emails/apps that bring you joy - always a good design choice. Eventually, you’ll forget all about these emails/apps once they’re not there and you’ll appreciate how tidy your phone looks.
Facing up to my emotional spending felt boring, painful, and finally, a little comforting. What a lethal combination. It was boring because it took a LONG time to pull all my finances together (and is there anything more exhausting than looking at a budgeting spreadsheet?). It was painful because I had to look at how much I earned and my spending and feel some/a lot of regret. And finally, it was a comfort to have a complete overview of my income and expenses. I wish it felt more rewarding to sort yourself out financially… but it doesn’t. For me, it was just a warm but dull feeling that I was finally an adult with some control over my life. It turns out that facing your fears leads to financial sustainability. So pedestrian, so you might as well make it pretty…
A dose of wonder this week
Auckland: Learn how to pour acrylic in Grey Lynn https://allevents.in/auckland/learn-to-acrylic-pour-dutch-pourtechnique/200026169683259
Wellington: ‘Marvel: Earths Mightest Exhibition’ in Wellington link here
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