Bye-Bye, Buyer’s Remorse! 4 Ways to Escape Budol Culture

“Naku, nabudol na naman ako!”  

If you feel the dreaded buyer’s remorse as you look at your empty wallet or bank account, it’s time to take a serious look at your spending habits and why you find yourself trapped in budol culture. 

One reason could be FOMO. The Fear of Missing Out has always been around, but seeing all the latest trends and must-haves on social media has amplified this feeling. Even if your finances can’t keep up with the trends, you can’t help but try anyway, especially since online shopping has made it easy to buy things in just a few clicks. 

When you have trends like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt and online sales every payday, coupled with installment deals and deferred payment schemes, the temptation to spend is very strong. 

But that doesn’t mean there’s no escaping budol culture. Here are four things you can do: 

Set a budget. When you work so hard, it’s only right to want to reward yourself. But thinking “I deserve this treat” every time you check out is not wise. Before you know it, you’ll have spent more than you intended.  

Instead, set a budget for your online purchases. An easy way to do this is to load only that fixed amount into your e-wallet. When you open the online shopping platform and see exactly how much you have left to spend, you may think twice about checking out so quickly. 

Use the Add to Cart button. Having the Add to Cart and Buy Now buttons side by side makes it very tempting to just keep clicking Buy Now. But clicking Add to Cart instead can help save you from buyer’s remorse later. 

That’s because when you add items to your cart, it doesn’t mean you have to buy them immediately. After adding the items to your cart, close the app and only open it again after a few days. Chances are, when you see many of the items in your cart, the initial excitement you felt has already faded away and you can now assess which items you truly want to purchase. 

Have a bigger financial goal. Budol culture encourages instant gratification, and that’s usually why budol comes with some buyer’s remorse. After all, you wouldn’t call it “budol” if it was a purchase that you truly saved up for and thought about for a long time. 

Coming up with a bigger financial goal helps you practice delayed gratification. Whether it’s to buy a new car, go on an international trip, or save up an emergency fund that’s equivalent to a year’s worth of your salary, having such goals makes you think twice about all the little items waiting to be checked out of your cart. 

Be aware of how deals truly impact your finances. Free shipping and discount vouchers, installment deals, deferred payment schemes, and the like are all designed to entice you to spend more.  

 For example, you want to buy an item worth PHP100, and it comes with a shipping fee of PHP40. But then you will see a free shipping voucher for a minimum purchase of PHP250. To avail of the free shipping, you end up purchasing more items and spending at least PHP250, when you could have spent just PHP140 on your original purchase with shipping. To resist these deals, you must be firm about the items you want to purchase. 

Installment deals and deferred payment schemes can surely be helpful in buying big-ticket items like new appliances or gadgets. But you need to be aware of how the monthly payments add to your regular expenses, so you can properly assess if you can truly afford to make such payments before you go through with the purchase. 

When you make more informed decisions about your purchases, you no longer fall victim to budol culture. Follow Salmon’s Pera Serye on TikTok for more tips on financial literacy.