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When you go shopping these days, you have to pay attention to things like fuel usage and make the most of what you’re putting into your tank. When you fixate on going a long distance from your home to do your shopping, you tend to spend a lot more overall than you would if you kept it more local.
One way you can save some money while you shop is to plan like you’re going to ride a bicycle. On a bike you can’t carry as much as you can when you’re planning to take your car. It also forces you to plan out what you really want, so you don’t just buy things for the sheer purpose of making some kind of purchase. When you buy on nothing more than instinct, you sacrifice one of the best parts of the shopping experience- the actual choice of what to purchase and really wanting it.
Genuinely wanting something in particular is the best way to really escape from the compulsion to shop for no great reason. Once you get over that, you won’t have to spend a bunch of money on gas. You can often find shops that aren’t far away from you and just shop there. You don’t even necessarily have to buy anything in particular to get the same enjoyable feeling. You get a pinch of supplementary exercise and the kind of joy that comes from doing something that’s both physically easy and intellectually stimulating at once.
