Daily Practice ·
The practice of buying for value: today, distinguish what you use from what you display
A brief review of what you buy to use and what you buy to show, with a rule of your own to decide before the next purchase.
By Pedro J. Pérez
Almost no purchase is decided in front of the shop window: it is decided beforehand, in the conversation we hold with other people's gaze. That is why we spend on things that look better than they work, and then work more hours to sustain that image.
Today you are going to do something very simple: separate what gives you value from what only gives you appearance, and leave written a small rule to accompany you the next time you have something in front of you. You don't need money or to buy anything; it is enough to look at what you already have and the environment around you.
The practice Duration: 15 minutes
Gather three objects
Walk through a single room for four minutes and choose three things you bought thinking about how they would look: a garment, an accessory, a device, whatever. Place them together on the table, without judging yourself. Don't look for culprits or reproach yourself for anything; just put them there, in sight.
Ask who was going to look
Spend four minutes going through the three. For each object, answer in writing with a single line: how many times you have used it this month and in front of whom you wanted it to be seen. If the answer to the first is zero and to the second is a name or a specific scene, you already know what kind of purchase it was.
Observe your shore
For four minutes, think about the people and spaces you share your day with: your group of friends, your coworkers, your neighbors, the accounts you follow. Write down two expenses you have taken as normal without having chosen them yourself, just by being surrounded by those who make them. The environment pushes more than it seems, and seeing it already gives you back part of the control.
Write your rule of value
Use the last three minutes to write on your phone or on paper three brief lines: what I look for when I buy something (that it works, that it lasts, that it leaves me calm), what simpler or second-hand alternative I would accept without drama, and in what environment I want to live. Add below a rule for the next purchase: wait forty-eight hours and read that rule before paying.
To reflect on today
Tonight, before sleeping: how many of the things I have did I choose for what they give me and how many for what they say about me?
To finish
None of this is about depriving yourself or living worse, but about stopping paying a high price for an image that does not sustain you. What you save by pretending is not only money: it is time, calm, and the freedom to choose without consulting anyone. Today you have started with the cheapest and the most difficult: looking honestly at what is already in your house.