Impulse Purchases.

Golly Desmond, I think I'm glad I'm a klutz and can't use spread sheets and that I'm useless at math's. Luckily I live fairly simply through choice and don't want a lot of stuff, the things I find hard not to spend loads on are plants and books. If a plant looks sad I want to take it home and care for it and nurse it back to health, books are just brain candy, something that can't be lived without, although I do force myself not to buy a book over £50 or that many under that. I live in terror of my kindle packing up and not being able to get all the books I've bought off it and onto a new one and I need new book shelves too.

Yes, I research most things for hours, days or longer before buying, but unlike for you, it’s not problem for me as I enjoy doing it. I wouldn’t be able to settle without researching. Also, I make lists and spreadsheets of the attributes, features, contents, price. I make use of specialist websites, ‘Which Magazine’,  magazines such as ‘Autocar’, ‘Good House Keeping’ etc. Fortunately, most of the magazines are available online from the public library. I also read retailer’s online reviews, although these can be unreliable. If I needed a shower pump, I would definitely research it. It’s a positive thing and I get great pleasure from it. 

I'm pretty good at resisting the 'invitations to treat'. However, I have a svant knowledge of price values; across various shops, for various items.

I have a spreadsheet of annual spending, divided into 52 weeks; and my OCD wants to have a multiple of £20 notes, precisely, in order to keep up with spending records. I even separate cash from non-cash payments.

But the '72-hour rule' - of how long to mull over a potential purchase? Forget it.

Roy said:

I ordered a new shower pump today, that was after 2 days of looking at performance, reviews, type of components in it, connection type and cost. My wife just decides she likes a product and orders it. Can autistic people just impulse buy?

Compared to me you are an impulse shopper ~ it takes me months to decide on and buy things.

I've never seen it as problem personally. 

I think being very detail orientated is just a good life skill, that many, if not most seem not to possess. 

I do do research if it's a significant purchase, but if I see something in a supermarket that's reduced for example and it's something I know I will use then I don't have a problem buying it straight away.

I find people who impulse buy make a lot of mistakes, get the wrong thing, a poorly made thing, or one that looks good but performs poorly. I've always been of the "buy cheep, buy twice" mentality and I've always though that one should buy the best one can afford, rather than the cheapest, so I get things in sales and shops like TKMAXX. I'm also a big one for seeing something I like and walking away, if I still want it 30 mins later then I'll go back and buy it, most of the time I've forgotten about it. I also think to myself about whether I prefer the company of my money more than the company of the item, most of the time the company of my money wins out.

Roy said:

Can autistic people just impulse buy?

I have a tendency to want to over analise prospective purchases but because this can consume a lot of time I don't have I will use mindfulness to set a deadline on how long I can research for then I take whatever has the best score.

This means I need to very quickly set a ranking system for the features, whether they are essential, desirable or nice to have then give the score in each of these subject a weighting based on how important it is.

For example if I was buying a car I would rate the fuel efficiency (no electric cars for me - way too limited) as an essential category, the performance in the desirable category and safety in the nice to have category.

So if it scored 5 out of 10 for fuel efficiency I would multiply this by 5 to give it 25 points

If it scored 7 out of 10 for perfrormance I would multiply this by 3 to give 21 points

If it scored 8 out of 10 for safety it would get multiplied by 1 to give 8 points

So this car scored 54 points and I can compare other cars with the same methods to give a quick but fair comparison and can make a decision as quickly as I can find the facts.

I cannot afford to waste time on this as I buy a lot of stuff for my renovation business and need to save time by being efficient.

Maybe a version of this could work for you and free your time up. Trust the process and it can stop your mind from dominating you on this.

I fully understand not being able to stand up for yourself. I finally changed phone contacts recently after being out of contact for about 5 years, this was because I could now do it on the internet and not speak to a salesperson.

I recently hired a van, the salesman had an iPad in the car park and started telling me all the things that could go wrong if I didn’t buy the extra insurance, the extra insurance was nearly as much as the hire cost, I was ready to say yes, just so he wouldn’t talk to me and pressure me anymore, luckily my wife stepped in and reassured me.

I have note books full of findings and references for purchases, a coffee machine would warrant a lot of research. My kettle broke this week and off I went down a rabbit hole. Argos tend to change their stock items after Christmas, I found a good brand which met all my specifications with a good discount and it was in stock at my local Sainsburys.

Here in Northern Ireland, it tends to be women who research what they intend to buy. Mainly because us Blokes were so used to Mammy buying things for us.

Oh yes. This is something I brought up during my assessment.

I never buy anything significant without creating a spreadsheet with lots of criteria that I then research.

Just before my assessment I had wanted a coffee maker and had researched all the manufacturers, different types of machines, the cost, reliability, what Which had to say and so on.

While it is a compulsion, the truth is I love researching things. It gives me a temporary special interest from which I emerge as an expert in something ridiculous like coffee machines.

I impulse buy, as does my Artist friend; though he window-shops out of habit.

My comorbidity of Bipolar/Schizoaffective means that I have a tendency to buy things on a whim. Though, the Autistic side means that I catastrophise when things go awry; as well as find it hard to stand up for myself.

Though, I have been more discerning with contracts. Next month, I believe, is the window for renewing my PlusNet contract. I must mind to negotiate a better deal. ONly problem is that I have ZERO intention to watch TV. They may shoehorn a bundle.