You've probably heard of the book Atomic Habits where small positive habits can compound into meaningful results in one's life. It's similar to the Japanese concept of Kaizen.
I read about these and figured the learnings wasn't enough. They were good, no doubt about that part. But sometimes my head is just wired to tune into cost aversion. Let's just say some people are more receptive to having the messages delivered positive to change their perception while others will be pessimists but still arrive at the same conclusion.
I heard the message the first time but figured it was best to reinforce the lesson from another angle which is cost.
In my post about Reduce the Entertainment Time, I talked about how much time is wasted on entertainment where the returns don't lead to productivity. You spending hours on Netflix or going to the theaters often sounds fun. But it also sounds like you spending more money, your time, and those things generate little to no return to your life. It's fine if it's done once in a while but there are people or average people that really made it a routine to watch a few drama episodes spanning 30 min per episode every night just cause. Imagine that viewing time x 365 days.
This is my distorted way of viewing how costly small things can be. You buy 4 items, only 3 of those are essential and 1 item an optional luxury. You can excuse yourself telling how much you deserve the 4th item and it's only happening once in a while. But multiply that to x number of times per week / month = to the total cost of that excuse.
I like to use the food delivery apps as an example. Some co-workers never bother to pack their food because of the added delivery fee + food price is still affordable. They can't be bothered with the time spent preparing for lunch/dinner. Plus the variety of options make going through the app attractive than home cooking, it's functioning as designed.
If they are willing to spend 80-150+/- PHP on average delivery fee x number of times per day/week/month. I'm only talking about the deliver fees and not the food ordered. How much would that value look if it's a daily x365 days? that's ridiculous because nobody orders daily and that's fair except majority of the time, if people can get away with it because they got extra money and are teased by convenience, they will order and it's costly non-essential habit.
You are being sold the convenience of getting the food as delivery fee on top of paying for food items that has priced in a higher mark up + 12% VAT (taxes in the Ph). And people go through their business doing this routine for x number of times a day in an x number of times a year without minding this simple spending habit.
It doesn't help that you're surrounded by people reinforcing this habit because it's normalize.
This is the reason why I rarely open the app. I use it for office events but to say it's the answer to my regular meal, I'd just make my own sandwich or find whatever's near me.
Whenever I spend on something that's non-essential, I think, how often will I find myself buying this daily? in a year? and how much will it cost me total?
Then I imagine what I could buy instead if I came up with the x amount for that nonessential item. Maybe I could buy a few stocks or gold instead? I don't really need to think hard since I already tagged the item as non-essential. If I don't spend it on investment vehicles, maybe I could spend that accumulated money on experiences like paying for significant others for quality time.
I just changed how I viewed the purchase and multiplied the cost of habitually purchasing items I don't need. This includes choices like subscribing to products and services in the long term billed monthly. We are conditioned by marketing systems around us to spend because we can on things that we are convinced we need but don't. And this happens so seamlessly that it's been unconsciously operating in our heads that once we have money, we can easily shell it out just cause we can.
If atomic habits is about adding things that help you build value, my version is cutting off things that losses you value long term.
I'm not rich and I have a limited resources available so I better be mindful about what spending habits I tolerate for peace of mind.
Thanks for your time.