Aadrita Chatterji

E-commerce saves time and energy; on the other hand, it has its temptations.

The writer bought skincare the other night, one of the usual pharmacy brands she uses. Given her acne-prone skin, she doesn’t like to experiment. She looked at the list of coupons to use, which required her to buy a few more products to get the discounts. Our skincare enthusiast thought for a moment: did she need more items? She needed to save money for larger expenditures in the next couple of months; shouldn’t she save it? Also, hadn’t she heard that experimenting with too many different products and brands can wreck her skin barrier?

The Mental Gymnastics To Qualify For A Discount

When we check out, we raise our eyebrows at the delivery prices. However, we are ready to spend INR 500 on something that we didn’t even know we needed. We call it preparing for the future, while these extra items will hang around the house and be forgotten in the next couple of months. The urgency of qualifying for a limited offer works against us; the algorithms are perfectly calculated to entice us to buy more while keeping the temptation low and discreet. When we think of it, it makes sense. We share a history where our ancestors bargained with the vegetable-seller for five rupees.

Of course, the guilt settles in soon enough. We tell ourselves that we’ll need that extra tub of moisturiser soon enough; by the time it’s time, we end up falling in love with a different brand and clutter our home with even more skincare products. Most women, younger and older than the writer, like to follow a ten-step skincare routine, which means ten different skincare products to achieve what they call ‘glass skin’. To blow one’s own trumpet: our skincare enthusiast is extremely choosy about what she buys and uses up what she buys.

The Race To Save More Impacts Our Living Spaces

Perhaps the best thing about buying something new is receiving new packages at our doorstep. When we hold the extra tub of moisturiser that we didn’t need, we ask ourselves: what do we do with this? And why did we buy it? Apart from spending unnecessary money, we also end up cluttering our homes with junk we bought from the marketplace. For the writer herself, it used to be journals. Today, it is skincare and makeup that looked good online. For a tech enthusiast, it is hardware that doesn’t plug anywhere. For a home chef, it is a condiment they have no idea what to do with.

Here’s another thing the writer has observed: most Indian homes are full. We inherit furniture, utensils, clothes and jewellery from our families. Sentiment is in our veins, and we hold on to them, except that we buy things that we like as well. As a result, our home becomes a museum of furniture and clothes, both old and new. Our cupboards are filled with utensils, inherited and bought. Our bathroom shelves are crammed with half-used skincare and haircare products friends recommended, which didn’t work for us.

It’s Time That We Say No To Ourselves

When sales, limited offers and discounts happen, we tell ourselves we save money. We end up buying things that we otherwise wouldn’t have noticed. It’s human desire to want more and more. The only way to curb a compulsive shopaholic is to control ourselves, to ask whether we really need what’s being shown. It’s okay to take time, to think, then finally close the tab. Our writer leaves her items in the shopping cart for almost a week, then she decides what to buy and what to remove. It saves her money, keeps her from wrecking her skin and helps her to declutter her space.

Also, owning unnecessary things doesn’t make us a smart person – there is a reason why social media influencers are often accused of promoting overconsumption, often through their promotional codes. We are not competing against people online, who might be spending more and saving less. Though it seems radical, let us give ourselves time and patience not to be swayed by sales and discounts, but to buy only what’s within our budget and truly necessary. Of course, it’s fine to splurge on little things now and then.

Of course, everybody loves getting their groceries, skincare items and luxury products at a lower cost. The writer got her skincare as a combination pack, and she doesn’t recommend denying what we need in the first place. Instead, she recommends being frugal with our needs and wants. We shouldn’t buy everything that the internet sells us, which our skin barriers, office organisers and living spaces would thank us for. Though we would always miss the constant anticipation of delivery boxes, what we would gain is the relief of having only what we need.

Thankfully, she is not buying anything else right now. Besides, she doesn’t even buy journals anymore.