Are most of your purchases planned, or impulse?

[DJUNGELSKOG]

Almost all of my purchases tend to be impulse purchases, and so are the most of my library loans.

Yesterday I went to a used bookstore to buy a copy of “His Dark Materials” for €12. I left the store €70 later with the book that I wanted, but also with a beautiful copy of Wuthering Heights (it’s really pretty!), a hardcover edition of Max Hasting’s Catastrophe (no longer available in my language in hardcover, woohoo!!) and a book about daily life in Ancient Greece (for absolutely no reason).

A week ago I went to the library with an intention to deliver the books that I have borrowed despite my commitment to focus on reading books that I already own. I left the library with a firefighter’s memoir, why would I bother finishing those dull fantasy books when I could learn about a daily life of a firefighter, right??

[DiapDealer]

I almost 100% plan to buy books impulsively.

[DNSB]

Failing to plan is planning for failure.

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Failing to plan is planning for failure.

OTOH, some of my favorite purchases of the past couple years have been impulse buys. This is the joy of thrift store browsing!

[JSWolf]

My purchases are both planned and unplanned. Sometimes I see a book that looks interesting that's on sale and I'll buy it. The threads here with books for sale are where I mostly see the sales.

[drofgnal]

It's a mix. I sift through the amazon deal of the day books and see if there is something I might like, so those are my impulse buys, even though irritating amazon sends me emails of things it thinks I may like. I've bought a couple that way. Planned purchases are authors I've liked with new books coming out. I'd say I'm about 60/40 ish impulse/planned. Sometimes an author from an impulse purchase moves up to the 'planned' category.

[annvonhagel]

I generally wait for 'double points' periods at Amazon. Sometimes grab a free or super cheap book on impulse. Or if something on my with list is on deep sale. Most of my reading is of borrowed books, either from one of 6 libraries I have access to, or via Kindle Unlimited.

[Lavender]

I’m too poor for impulse purchases. If I buy something it’s because I already know it’s worth owning. There are plenty of ways to read before you buy it. I’m also of the opinion that impulse buys are likely to reward poor works not worth your investment.

[drofgnal]

New releases are more planned for authors I know and like. There are four coming this year that are planned. Ken Follet, Dan Brown, Ellen Marie Wiseman, and John Scalzi (Old Man's War Book 7), all are planned purchases.

[LostHisMarbles]

Originally Posted by Lavender

I’m too poor for impulse purchases

Yeap

I wish i could say otherwise, but same here, impulsive moves are a luxury i cannot afford; pun intended.

Now putting aside the obvious issues stemming from that one, there are some positives:

- I know, know, really but really know what i want in this life. In excruciating detail.
(you see something, you may believe you want it; being unable to just go ahead and get it, you end up thinking about it, turning it over and over in your head; is it really what i want? Better than something else? The optimal for me to do 'x' or 'y'? Will it last me? You have time to re-analyse it; ultimately, it becomes a stance in life; what wisdom i may possess, a good portion of it stems from this one alone)

-I additionally know, in just as much detail, what, how and when i shall come to acquire it, if ever.
(learn to plan, learn to commit, learn to execute; focus)

Overly philosophical, but, it really does have its positives
Not discounting the joy of just having all the options in the world mind, good for you if you earned that.
Just.. often enough this leads to a lot of surface and not much depth i've come to find..

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by LostHisMarbles

Yeap

I wish i could say otherwise, but same here, impulsive moves are a luxury i cannot afford; pun intended.

Now putting aside the obvious issues stemming from that one, there are some positives:

- I know, know, really but really know what i want in this life. In excruciating detail.
(you see something, you may believe you want it; being unable to just go ahead and get it, you end up thinking about it, turning it over and over in your head; is it really what i want? Better than something else? The optimal for me to do 'x' or 'y'? Will it last me? You have time to re-analyse it; ultimately, it becomes a stance in life; what wisdom i may possess, a good portion of it stems from this one alone)

-I additionally know, in just as much detail, what, how and when i shall come to acquire it, if ever.
(learn to plan, learn to commit, learn to execute; focus)

Overly philosophical, but, it really does have its positives
Not discounting the joy of just having all the options in the world mind, good for you if you earned that.
Just.. often enough this leads to a lot of surface and not much depth i've come to find..

I've never been financially well off; by western yardstick I'm quite poor. It's just that aside from books, I live a very modest life. I don't travel, I have no car, I live in a small apartment (owned, not rented). I have no expensive home appliances or electronic devices, and I don't own a single expensive item of clothing or footwear. I never eat out, and very rarely visit any events or entertainments outside my home. Most of my disposable income (aside from the usual household expenses, food and cat stuff) I spend on books, and because I'm frugal in almost every other aspect of my life I can afford quite a lot of impulse purchases of books. I have no kids or anyone else depending on me financially (except the cats).

For me, it all comes down to priorities. I prefer to spend a lot on books and as little as possible on everything else (well, I don't feed my cats cheap stuff, but that's about the only exception). Others do the opposite, or prefer to be modest in everything, including books; or, of course, are rich enough to spend as much as they like on many things.

[LostHisMarbles]

Yeah, given the effort, we all find our way eventually, make it all fit

For me it's music; books, they used to be first, but give it a good combo of education, cultivation, critical thinking, experience and having read thousands, i'm finding fewer and fewer worth my time. Up to a point, now, where it's literally bliss, picking an unread one up and not throwing it away 20, 30 pages in. Ultra rare.
(won't even begin discussing "movies"; for the love of god, no more holywood; at all, won't even bother anymore)

So for quite some time now, music.

Not because i've everything else sorted and dump money on a hobby, more because i'll never have enough to have the house i want, the furniture i want, etc. So, might as well focus!

With you on going out. Used to be that hurt, a lot. But, the way it is now, verbotten this, verbotten that, offends me this does, offends me the other, science is optional?
I legitimately, hand to heart, not only don't care to, i actually do not want to.
Like away with people, no more, thanks for all the fish

* i would however definitely like to be able to impulse buy a new amp, or a new turntable; i mean, yeah, i could see that working out for me ^^

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by LostHisMarbles

Yeah, given the effort, we all find our way eventually, make it all fit

For me it's music; books, they used to be first, but give it a good combo of education, cultivation, critical thinking, experience and having read thousands, i'm finding fewer and fewer worth my time. Up to a point, now, where it's literally bliss, picking an unread one up and not throwing it away 20, 30 pages in. Ultra rare.

Funnily enough, I've not found it to be like that for me. I still enjoy a lot of books, but then again the objective quality of writing has never mattered to me. I actively avoid anything considered even remotely "literary" or "classic", because it's almost never something I like or enjoy. I just want simple escapism, a good story that takes me away from myself, that's all.

But then I'm not an educated or cultivated person (unfinished high school is the pinnacle of my education), so I can consume lowbrow genre fiction and take genuine pleasure it .

I rarely watch movies or TV, but not so much because there is little good stuff out there, but because I've always preferred pure text to any kind of visual media. And I don't listen to music at all; I have chronic depression and music makes it worse. I feel better when I don't listen to it (and no, it doesn't matter what kind of music - any kind).

[LostHisMarbles]

Sorry to hear that Sirtel