This is Optable Finance Daily, Episode 2341.

Beware of the frivolous purchase threshold by Chris of Keepthrifty.com

And I'm your host and personal finance enthusiast, Diana Mariam.

For now, let's jump right into today's post as we optimize your life.

Beware of the frivolous purchase threshold by Chris of Keepthrifty.com

Do you ever get to the end of the month and wonder where all your money went?

There's a negative force at work against your journey to financial freedom called the frivolous purchase threshold.

It'll steal your money and leave you with worthless trinkets you didn't need.

Let's learn how to identify this bugger so we can exterminate it from our lives.

Origin story.

A few years back, we gave the store Target a nickname.

We called it the $100 store because it seemed impossible to walk out of Target without spending at least $100.

You could run in to buy one bottle of shampoo and walk out with a new kitchen gadget, a decorative serving tray,

and some great looking throw pillows that you never knew you needed.

Target is an expert at this.

In marketing circles, the work they do on optimizing store layout, lighting, and product placement to maximize your purchases is legendary.

But I think the biggest trick that merchandisers have pulled is convincing us that below a certain price, a purchase is negligible.

Have you ever seen something in a store and said, well, it's only X number of dollars?

Self-justifications.

Whatever number you use in that statement, whether it's $10, $20, or $200, is your own personal frivolous purchase threshold.

Items below that amount live in an alternate reality, where we define their value not by what they offer, but instead by what they didn't cost.

That $20 serving tray was a good deal because it didn't cost $50.

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