Sheltered from Black Friday, the first Christmas offers crowd our inbox when barely a few days have passed since the umpteenth COP and the evidence of already irreversible climate change. That the planet is not ready to be shaken by another wave of exacerbated consumption is something that some brands are beginning to understand, but it is the consumers who have the last word to transform what is merely 'black' into something much more 'better'.
Opportunities to carry out a responsible consumption with the planet -and the pocket- there are. As many as days cleverly designed by the market to encourage consumption in the final stretch of the year. Before Black Friday, Single Day took place (as opposed to Valentine's Day), while it is the turn of Cyber Monday and its older sister, Cyber Week. Days that, presumably, concentrate the best offers and discounts, but it is precisely in their collective nature, where the danger of going from savings to waste lies.
To avoid damaging our financial health in a scenario marked by inflation, BBVA shares some advice with which to put a stop to compulsive buying and make way for the responsible one. That is, one that responds to needs and not just impulses or passing whims. To do this, first of all, we must pay attention to some cognitive biases -or systematic errors in our brain- that this type of offer triggers.
There is, for example, an anchoring bias that leads us to consider a high discount (for example, 50%) or a price that is considered very low (for example, 5 euros) when not necessarily that apparently low price or that apparently discount. high are reliable parameters to evaluate the purchase as intelligent or not. There are others that should be identified, such as scarcity (last units) or the power of free (free shipping costs).
Two 'magical' moments converge these days: the wardrobe change -which the climate crisis has delayed-, and the arrival of Christmas. If you want the discount to show in your bank account, take a good look at what you really need and what you will need to gift wrap in a few weeks. Black Friday may be the key to reducing an almost mandatory expense on the calendar.
As necessary to go down to the greengrocer as to launch the online market, making a list according to inventory is a basic step to order what is really necessary from what is not. Is a short-sleeved t-shirt necessary? Are you really going to take it or is it only attractive because the discount seems so? Make a list according to priorities and in the last place, only if the budget allows it, leave those whims that in normal circumstances you would not buy.
To increase savings, know and determine the expense. Do it by hand or with the advantages that digitization offers, such as with the My day-to-day functionality of the BBVA app. It is a very complete, intuitive and easy-to-use tool that allows you to see your income and expenses ordered by categories and subcategories. A way to easily identify where you allocate your money.
Although you need some time and foresight, what we try to avoid is falling into discounts that don't really exist, since the price may be inflated due to the Black Friday effect. If there is something you need, regardless of the time of year you are in, buy before or after, so that hyper-consumption fever does not affect its final price.
Always choose products that do not require long-distance transportation. The same product can present a radically different carbon footprint depending on the materials chosen in its preparation, the location of production, the profile and conditions of labor, transport, packaging, etc. A product may have a higher RRP, but saving on certain parameters is more expensive for everyone.
"Made better than perfect" is a Mark Zuckerberg maxim that applies as a rule for responsible consumption. The second-hand market is not only competitive, but it is especially indicated in moments of consumption agitated more by marketing than by necessity. According to the latest report from the second-hand portal Milanuncios, this year, at least 75% of consumers state that they are considering the second-hand market, either for reasons of price (19%), sustainability (17%) or both (29%).
With English punctuality, dozens of offers, codes, discounts and countdowns appear in our email inbox. They don't fail for a day, because they are part of a funnel-shaped strategy that has one goal: to get you to checkout. Do you really need to be subscribed to so much offer? To avoid temptation, apply good hygiene to your inbox and unsubscribe from newsletters that do not respond to your needs.
