How to stop buying things you'll regret

De-influencing you from buying things you don't need, with some crowdsourced most regretted purchases, plus a chart to guide you through your next purchase

Welcome to Ten Dollar Latte! I’m not a financial advisor, just a 27-year-old trying to afford life in NYC. I write about how I spend my money while enjoying a $10 latte. This post might get cut off if you’re reading on email—click the title or Read in App button to read the full length version on Substack.

I’ve made a lot of regrettable purchases. I’m staring at one right now on my desk—blue light glasses I bought a few years ago and hardly ever used. I bought them online and they didn’t quite fit right, plus I usually wear contacts anyway, so I can’t wear my prescription blue light glasses on top of that.

I asked on Substack Notes what you all regret spending money on (and you all came through! Shoutout to everyone who shared a reply!), I reflected on it myself, and I polled my trusted group chat with friends. In an effort to figure out how we can avoid buying things we’ll end up regretting, I narrowed our regrets into 4 categories:

Things we don’t use

Those blue light glasses I mentioned earlier fall directly into this category. I asked my group chat about their most regretted purchases, and one stood out:

I’ve made the same mistake—buying shoes I think I’ll love, wearing them once or twice, getting blisters, letting them collect dust in the back of my closet, then dropping them off at Goodwill a year later.

I saw a few similar replies on Notes:

Things that weren’t worth the price (even if we use them)

I still regret buying some things that I do use often. I’ve regretted renting an apartment before when I realized there were better deals out there later—a classic example of something I still used every day!

You all had examples big and small of things that weren’t worth the price:

From my group chat, my friend had an even smaller example that’s so relatable:

Things we cheaped out on

I’m very guilty of this. Fast fashion is one of my biggest purchase regrets—there are many times I’ve bought something because it was the cheapest option, only to realize it totally would have been worth it to spend more to get the best option. One example that comes to mind for me is bed sheets—I used to only use the cheapest sheets, and then started to buy nicer sheets (still not the fanciest, but definitely nicer). It’s a small taste of luxury everyday that dramatically made me more comfortable!

You all had similar examples, including a case where something cheap didn’t last as long as an investment piece:

Things we impulse bought

I’m guilty of this one, too. A lot of impulse purchases are built on emotions—an influencer posting an outfit, and I think I’ll look as thin as her if I buy that dress. A pretty picture of a cocktail on a menu when I wasn’t planning to drink but everyone else orders one, and I think, well, I’ll have just one with friends. A cute decor piece in a gift shop, and I think, maybe that’s just what I need to make my apartment look like pictures I’ve seen on social media.

Your examples here were so good, and so relatable, I had to include 3 instead of 2:

It’s still really hard to decide what’s worth it and what’s not (yes, I have also had regret from not purchasing something, like the Momofuku spicy noodles I had sitting in my Target cart that sold out overnight before I ordered them).

So, I put together this chart:

When I say Do you really need it? I mean, really need it—like, your electric bill, shoes for work to replace ones with a hole in it you can’t repair, bread. Those sorts of things. You might have other questions you’d add, or some of mine you’d rephrase—but I think stopping to think through these questions before making a purchase is important, especially for more expensive items or items you’ve never spent money on before.

Let me know one thing in the comments you might skip buying after reconsidering, or maybe one thing you’ve bought in the past that you plan to never buy again after reflecting. And if you found this helpful, I bet a friend will too—forward this email to a friend and subscribe for more pieces like this one (including my monthly spending recap August 1st)!

And, one more reply that didn’t quite fit into any category, but I had to share because I think this one is also very relatable to a lot of us:

Thanks for reading! I post weekly about personal finance and lifestyle in NYC. I also post a monthly reset on the 1st of each month sharing everything I spent money on the previous month and goals for the next month. Subscribe so you don’t miss it!

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