The money diet challenge

We’ve been talking a lot recently about how easy it is to confuse a “want” with a “need”. The fact is we need very little – food, water, somewhere to shelter and rest. Everything else is a want (yes, even new shoes and fast cars). Christmas spending is just around the corner (Black Friday, identified as a pre-festive spending peak, will take place on November 27 this year), so how can we get fighting fit and avoid wasting money on purchases that don’t really bring us any real, lasting benefit (or joy)? Welcome to the money diet challenge The aim […]

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Why spending money feels good

There are various ways of slicing and dicing consumers according to their psychological profiles. Instant gratifiers and deferred gratifiers is one broad cut. Deferred gratifiers are prepared to wait. Instant gratifiers less so. Fine when it comes to chocolate, more of an issue when it comes to high end consumer durables and credit cards. Why spending money feels good Chocolate and money are not so very different in terms of the impact they have on our brains. Think about our response to chocolate as it melts in our mouths… Long before chocolate has actually started to act on our body […]

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New rights in time for Christmas shopping

From today we all have new rights under the Consumer Rights Act.  This new legislation bolsters the Sale of Goods Act and should make it easier for all of us to get a better deal if something we pay for is faulty.  The new shopping rights arrive just as the shops get busy for Christmas. But it will still be up to us to shop well as there will be plenty of cowboys trying to pass off substandard goods to the unwary.  It will also be up to all of us to use these new shopping rights whenever something goes […]

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