W
hen asked the ques-
tion of sale shopping
or couponing, many
coaches teach that this is a part of
a scarcity mindset. Many feel that
using sale prices and coupons to
extend one’s budget is out of fear
that there isn’t enough money to
go around, or in fear of scarcity.
And, if that’s WHY you’re shopping
sales, they aren’t wrong.
I’ve always been a sale shopper,
because long ago I was taught
that we couldn’t afford the “nicer”
things otherwise. So, walk into a
store, beeline to the sales rack. See
shirts for $1? Awesome! Grab them
up! Who cares if it’s a weird col-
or, or the collar isn’t sewn on quite
right, it’s X Brand, and that’s good
quality. We couldn’t afford it oth-
erwise. Or, we couldn’t afford so
many otherwise. Better to build a
quality closet!
It’s a strange narrative, and one
that was so ingrained in me that
it took a LOT of work and a long
time to revise. This narrative was
authored by my mother, who was
taught by her mother, a baby born
during the Great Depression in the
1930s. I understand that during the
depression, everything felt scarce,
and no one was there to coach my
grandmother and her family into
noticing abundance and realizing
that there was plenty to go around.
That’s all changed, however, and
there really and truly is plenty of
EVERYTHING to go around. We
just have to understand that on
levels that my grandmother still
can’t seem to grasp in 2017.
The question isn’t whether or not
sale shopping is a symptom of a
mindset of lack and scarcity, but
rather, WHEN is sale shopping a
symptom of fear and lack?
Put simply, it’s a matter of inten-
tion. Are you shopping sales so you
can donate more of what you have
today? For example, i first noticed
a shift in my own mindset the day
that I went to the dollar rack and
said, “Wow! I budgeted twenty
bucks this month to donate to the
charity closet at school! I can get
far more if I shop the sales rack
than if I shop the regularly priced
items!”
That day, I was able to fill a HUGE
bag with brand new clothing to
give the nurse. Some of it was su-
per bright colors, or strangely pink
leopard print, but it was giving
back on a different level than I had
been able to give back previously.
Are you shopping sales to extend
your budget and buy higher quality
food items? I work with a single
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