Shop Smart

Women in general love to shop.  Some even consider shopping as a sport... (ooooops, like me!).  However lately people have seem to change their shopping habits.  Shall I say conservative buying?  Recession - No Recession shopping can always be enjoyed if we have the right attitude and become smart shoppers.

Oprah.com shares 6 habits of a smart shopper.

1/ You'd Better Shop Around


The image of an angel and a devil sitting on a person's shoulders is not a bad metaphor for shopping. Using brain scans, researchers have shown that the nucleus accumbens, an area associated with pleasure and reward, lights up as people consider a purchase, while the insula, a structure that plays an important role in pain, is activated when they think about the cost. The two brain areas compete with each other to determine whether you will buy something. Your typical tightwad, feels the pain of paying for things more acutely. Spendthrifts may not register it enough.


Buying a lot in one store can decrease your sensitivity to the pain of cost... recommendation: going to various stores for different purchases.


2/ Don't Buy Into Bargains


Another factor that can tip the brain's pleasure-pain dynamic is a bargain. Knutson and Loewenstein have shown not only how the brain weighs making a purchase but also how it reacts to price. The researchers gave subjects $20 to spend on a series of products they saw on a computer screen. When the shoppers considered the prices excessive, the insula became activated; when they saw discounts, their accumbens lit up like a Broadway marquee. The prefrontal cortex, associated with weighing gains and losses, also became active along with the accumbens—and this pattern predicted a shopper's decision to buy.


Sales, markdowns, two-for-ones, and outlet stores are all designed to hit our bargain-loving Achilles' heel. So are retail tactics we should be wise to, like buying an item for $29.99 because we tend to discount it to $20 instead of $30, says Ellen Ruppel Shell, author of the new book Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture. "Even psychologists confess that they've been seduced." The anticipation of getting a good deal, says Shell, is what drives us toward the cash register, not the object itself—and as a result, we end up with stuff we don't particularly want.


3/ Cash and Carry


If paying for goods causes pain in the brain, credit cards are aspirin. Unfortunately, cards also create bigger headaches later on. "When you pay in cash, you see your wallet getting thinner," says Dan Ariely, PhD, professor of behavioral economics at Duke University. But when you use a credit card, the spending is abstract, "and that makes you trigger-happy."


Using cash is the number one antidote to overspending, according to experts. If you do pay with a credit card, beware of the trap "I've already got this debt, so it won't matter if I pile on more." Prelec compares it to the diet-blowing excuse "I ate one piece, so I may as well eat the whole cake."


4. A Bad Mood Can Cost You


That's what new research suggests. Jennifer Lerner, PhD, director of the Emotion and Decision Making Group at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, had participants view either a sad video (a clip from The Champ, in which a boy cries at the side of his dying father) or an emotionally neutral one (about the Great Barrier Reef). Afterward, she asked how much they'd be willing to spend on a sporty water bottle. Those who watched the poignant film offered almost 300 percent more. Sadness devalues one's sense of self, explains Lerner. The urge to pay more may be an attempt to elevate your own worth.


5/ The Fall of the Mall


Who does not want to go to the mall?


With so many of us now depending on these places to socialize, de-stress, even exercise, what can we do when the local mall is shuttered? Mary Gresham, PhD, a clinical psychologist in Atlanta, suggests several alternatives. "When people shop, they almost go into a trance, a pleasurable state in which they lose their sense of time and are oblivious to other things," she says. But crafts—knitting, jewelry making, and quilting—create a similar response. And you still end up with a new material good.


A trip to the mall is great! Just try to limit it, and not making the mall your new home. =0)


6. Ration Your Willpower


"Our ability to fight temptation weakens, almost as if we get tired," says Duke's Dan Ariely. After engaging in activities that require willpower, you won't have as much energy left for other challenges, explains Kathleen D. Vohs, PhD, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota. So if you're using every ounce of discipline at the food court because you're on a diet, or you're trying to quit smoking, you'll be less able to pass up a pair of pumps in a display window.


Although Vohs says there's no easy way to build self-control, she suggests practicing it in small doses: Try sitting up straight, using your nondominant hand, and not swearing for a week. "I'm not willing to bet the farm," she says, "but we've seen small improvements."

SOURCE: Oprah.com

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