第1748期：Are You an Under-buyer or Over-buyer?

刚读完Gretchen Rubin的 “The Happiness Project”，作者提到了两种消费观念：under-buyer和over-buyer. 我对照了一下，确定了我的确就是一个over-buyer.

引用作者的释例如下：

You’re an over-buyer if …

You buy several summer outfits for your as-yet-unborn baby, then it turns out he outgrows those clothes before the weather warms up.

You often lay in huge supplies of slow-moving items like shampoo or cough medicine.

You often make a purchase, such as a tool or tech gadget, with the thought, “This will probably come in handy.”

You have a long list of stores to visit before you travel.

You find yourself throwing things away—milk, medicine, even cans of soup — because they’ve hit their expiration date.

You buy items with the thought, “This will make a great gift!” without having a recipient in mind.

You think, “Buying these things shows that I’m responsible, organized, and thoughtful.”

You’re an under-buyer if…

You buy saline solution, which you use every morning and night, one bottle at a time.

You often scramble to buy an item like a winter coat or bathing suit after the point at which you need it—and often, these items are sold out by the time you show up at a store.

You’re suspicious of specialized objects and resist buying things dedicated very specific uses: suit bags, special plastic plates and cutlery for children, hand cream, rain boots, hair conditioner.

You often need to come up with a makeshift solution, such using soap because you’ve run out of shaving cream, because you don’t have what you need.

You often consider buying an item, then decide, “I’ll get this some other time” or “Maybe we don’t really need this.”

If you must buy something, you buy as little as possible—say, by putting $10 of gas in the car.

You think, “Not buying these things shows that I’m frugal and not a consumerist sucker.”

*https://gretchenrubin.com/articles/are-you-an-overbuyer-or-an-underbuyer/

对照上面这些消费行为和心理，你觉得你属于哪一类？

用佛老的话解读，Over-buyers like to stock up and hoard everything. 什么都要买大份量超值装的，最好买一送二的，有的没的看见了就买回家一大堆，什么都喜欢囤，大多放坏了都还没拆封或者根本早就忘了。他们主要不是图便宜，而是喜欢拥有很多东西在家里的那种“世界末日唯我幸存感”。我觉得这类消费者特别适合生活在去年的上海——封城不怕没有卫生纸。

Under-buyer would rather save money than their lives. 很多老年人都那样，为了便宜可以牺牲其他一切，什么都能凑合着用，完全不考虑质量，只要便宜、省钱，能不买就不买，能不花钱就不花钱。用郭德纲的话说“零钱凑够一块就不破了，钢镚儿拿铁丝儿穿肋条上，花钱时用老虎钳子往下㩐，每块儿铜板上都带着血筋儿……”

大多数人是介于under-buyer和over-buyer中间的某个点，很多人都有过一掷千金的时候，也都有抠抠索索的时刻。反正，钱这个王八蛋，就那么回事儿吧。

Are you an over-buyer or under-buyer?

今天文中提到的书全名是：

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

很有趣很有货很有爱的一本书，受益匪浅。