[Closed] How long do you agonise over purchases?

That's rapid, couldn't do it, I like to ponder, and then have a few mind changes, and definitely go and try them on.

Months can drift into years.. I am quite shite at making decisions sometimes.

Depends. Have been thinking (rather than agonising over) one of these for months:

[img] [/img]

Might get a large table saw instead now though....

Nah, I just usually buy stuff. OH, on the other hand, will research any purchase in minute detail, including exactly which fat balls to get for the bird feeder or something like that.

generally I know what I want and/or need, therefore it only takes as long as a google for the cheapest price, max 10 mins then 😀

I take adages then say "**** it" and buy the wrong thing!

The only time I agonise is when the wife's reaction to said purchase may be a negative one.

The dilemma is usually based on whether the purchase is worth weeks of agro!

Up to about £30 I usually just buy whatever catches my eye. Over that I force myself to wait until I know I definitely want it.

If it's something I actually have a need for like a helmet I buy more or less the first thing that fits the bill and seems an OK price.

Depends on cost. Being a crazy impetus fool I splashed out on a new headtorch from Alpkit only this morning after mulling it over for only a few weeks!
My Camper van purchase however has been in gestation for over a decade and is only really likely to happen when I take a lump of my pension in 5 years 🙁

I tend to buy big expensive things quickly (house, camper van, bikes, spa pool !) and then take forever to decide on tiny inconsequential things !

then take forever to decide on tiny inconsequential things !

I'm with you there, I've been agonising over a Topeak Ratchet Rocket for months now!

Depends what it is, but if it's a say over £40ish quid, and if it's something *I dont really need*, I do this thing whereby I wait a month, and if I still want it, I'll buy it then and there.

You'll be surprised at how many things you really fancied 30 days ago, you don't really care much about a month later.

Saved me hundreds towards my new car, which i've been after for far too many months 😥

It also enables you to justify certain purchases if it's passed the "month wait" test!

Months. I often end up buying stuff to save all the time I'm spending researching the options. I only bought a tablet to stop myself agonising over whether I needed one.

Houses, Cars, minutes.

Suspension forks for my new Ripley... weeks. Literally weeks. Wheels, well I'll get to them in due course. Then tyres...

Holiday, minutes.
Kitchen, minutes.

New digital camera... woah, now don't rush me there.

Things I don't need or need to upgrade means I would have to consider hard before parting with my money.

Days which turns into weeks which turns into months, and then sometimes years.

I hate buying stuff, as I spend so long weighing stuff up.

At work it is different, need a new bathroom built for the new nursery - get it done. Interactive projectors, go get us three.

He didn't even post a thread on a forum asking what helmet he should buy!

Did you post this on the "think you know someone" thread?

I'm glad it's not just me. I've been 'looking' at a pair of motorbike boots for about two months .......

Depends what it is and if I actually really want/need it or not! Generally if it's something in an area that I know about and really want it then I'll buy very quickly. If it's something I'm unsure about then it takes weeks of research and half the time I'll then decide that it's just too much hassle and not bother...

Depends what it is.

A Tripster frame? Been agonising over whether or not to buy one for months now.
My current roadbike and FS bike? Saw the bikes, liked them, bought them. Took a matter of minutes.

No real logic behind it, just depends on how I feel at the time.

Always buy on impulse, must be a girl thing.

Started asking myself - how long should I / would I like to spend on this purchase? It's been a great help. With the internet it's become too easy to research everything to the nth degree.

I usually think about if I can afford something until it goes out of stock, and then want it even more

I usually spend as long as I need to research and ensure that the thing I buy is the best for the price I'm willing to pay. This process can take any length of time...also, the price I'm willing to pay will incrementally increase.

I think I still have the spreadsheet I put together when I last bought a bike.

I bought a house recently...we decided to spend 100's of thousands of pounds in after viewing the house for 10 minutes. The state of the market at the time meant we didn't have the option of a second viewing.

I like the research side of it so generally spend a lot of time thinking, mulling and talking things over. Currently a new road bike is occupying a good chunk of my thinking time and in truth, I quite enjoy this part.

under £30, on impulse. If I see it & I like it, I tend to buy it.

over £30 (sometimes over £20) I'll umm and ahh over it for days. If it's still there when I go back, then maybe I'll umm and ahh a bit more

over £80 & under £200, I tend to take a couple of days and then say "sod it, let's do it". Unless it's something like a games console. I still haven't got one of those & they've been available in one form or another for over 20 years

Just now it is a house I am contemplating, a seaside house with decent rental, but I find it so hard

I spent ages looking at various washing machines before realising it was a bloody washing machine and will inevitably be fine for several years then tank just like any of them do!

My wife eventually broke when I was looking at new TV's (had been over several years, I'd just decided when stood looking at a unit in JL when it spontaneously switched off, that threw it all out of whack and had to go to option 2) in the end she just stood there and went "... will you just bloody well buy the thing!" I've been very happy with the Panasonic purchase by the way 🙂

Current agonsing purchases; a new commuter (Arkose 2 or similar?) and a new lawn mower, moving to petrol as cutting out the front is a pain in the butt with a lead and I lunched the old one when it sucked up a water isolation valve cover and got jammed in. I know NOTHING about petrol mowers!

I can be bad and buy on impulse, or in other cases take weeks.

I can take weeks about whether to buy something for £20, but then buy something else for £150 on a whim!

Worst I've done was a few years ago after a bad day in the office on a Friday, headed home at lunchtime which was finish time, drove past the BMW dealer, stopped, traded in the family car for a Z4 Coupe all without really thinking about it or mentioning it to the missus. Then had to trade in her car for something slightly bigger a week later. LOL

I tend to agonise over whether a purchase is actually better than what i have or am i just falling for marketing spiel. My current wheels are the basic heavy shimano ones which came with my cheap bike so have agonised for months whether to buy a lighter set but i keep thinking will i even notice half a kg and am i even good enough to feel any difference,suffice to say the heavy wheels are still on there.

I used to impulse buy stuff all the time, not so bad now.

last one was a Hope Chainset pre-order. unfortunately Hope took so long to get it ready to ship, the impulse wore off and I cancelled.

If I fancy a computer game, I'll just buy it, but anything else I'll consider it for a week or so.

Depends on how much spare cash I have. If I'm flush, I literally almost cannot pull the trigger on things. i procrastinate for ages.

Depends if its need or want...if its a need purchase, then not long, if its something I just want...could be months.

I usually find that by the time I decide to buy something it's been out of production for at least 5 years. It saves me a fortune.

Ha! In the last couple of weeks I've bought a new helmet (after deciding I needed one [i]and[/i] which one I was probably going to get about 4 months ago) and just the other day a half price Rab jacket to replace a 15 year old Gore-tex (probably about 6 months after I seriously started thinking I could do with a new one).
Usually the research doesn't take me long, it's just pulling the trigger!

I don't really do impulse buys above £20 or so.

http://www.erarayong.com/en/object/obj20417_1379508002

This is one of the places I am staring at day in day out.

I can get an ok mortgage on it. It ticks all the boxes, and can be picked up freehold easyily enough, but do I need a pool when it is near the beach.

So then I look at this.

http://www.erarayong.com/en/object/obj20417_1375519305

Which I can get freehold without any issues, for a lot cheaper, but the neighbours were a bit mad, and selling the place.

Which takes me back to this place.

http://www.erarayong.com/en/object/obj20417_1377943693

We have already stayed here and it is lovely and safe, but what happens if in 10 years like a lot of things here it is falling apart.

So I go back to the one with the pool.

Sometime in 2030 I may have bought one by which time our daughter, who the house will ultimately be for be old enough to own it anyway.

And don't even get me started on the 50+ bookmarks on chinese carbon wheels, or the child car seat bookmarks with reviews for each one.

The one with the pool!!!!

Actually price does have an impact. Under a tenner and I'll just buy it. 10 - 150 and I'll research for ages. 150+ (very rare!) and I'll usually just buy it!

My meither in law can take literally years over things like sofas, curtains etc. It took them 18 months to buy a new telly once, and for 1 new carpet there were about 15 sample books there for weeks.

It winds Mrs Tthew up no end as she has to hear in minute detail about all the options, choices, differences etc. the whole time, and because of this she's exactly the opposite. She chose all the curtains and carpets for a new house once in 10 minutes.

Choose my car in about 90 seconds, although we had weeks in work of working out budget etc - I almost ended up with a Nissan Leaf!!! Sod that.

Bike stuff, weeks, months even years - I know my next bike will be a Capra - but I don't I'll see it this year. Saying that I KNEW my current bike would be a Evil Uprising, but it's a Cove G-Spot, which is also linked to why my Car is a big family car and not a little electric one - funny old game life, it does like to laugh at my plans.

Can it be justified? If so it will take a long time before I buy after plenty of research. if it's not justifiable than I will probably buy it on the spot.
Bike, watch and photography kit takes me an age, I have been considering an Orange 5 since it was a choice between the 5 and a Mr XC, I have gone to buy several times and ended up with other bikes, and bought several others used, I have test ridden several and one day will get one, but not sure when.

Been thinking about buying a proper downhill bike for the best part of a decade. Might be taking a trip to Koblenz next week.....

I extensively research nearly every purchase, not a problem over £50 but I can waste hours on low value purchases or trying to save 2 quid. For some reason I can't seem to put the same effort in to actually earning or investing money.

Saw a jump bike on ebay at about 10 last night... Now in bits in my workshop and have no idea where it will fit when back together.

news breaks of sc nomad being released at 10 am. Order placed at 1030, after a 20 min chat with the lbs about what options I'd like.

For me the decision is pretty instant, it's finding the funds that takes the time.

Oh years and years

I'm very lucky. I love the research and know that mainly its toys that I will be get bored so don't mind not buying.

I've wanted a compact camera with RAW for years. I think its taken 3 years to make a purchase. Saving at least 70% of the purchase price..

I have been pontificating about buying a new full susser for so long, that in the meantime my boiler has broken down, so now I'll be getting one of those instead.

I only agonise for as long as it takes the Other Half to transfer the necessary money to my account - not long normally 🙂

the-muffin-man - Member

The only time I agonise is when the wife's reaction to said purchase may be a negative one.

The dilemma is usually based on whether the purchase is worth weeks of agro!

This +1

Apparently if I get a fourth bike, it means I don't love her or my children and will be the end of our marriage and our family.

Frankly, I wouldn't get this amount of grief from a fourth bike! 😕

From actually seeing something to saying YES/NO on buying? Anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 years!
I keep up to date on so much "stuff" that I know the prices and the tech so can normally know a good deal within seconds and have a pool of stuff that I would "like"/"need" and when presented with a price can buy ridiculously quickly.
However on stuff that I buy infrequently, and changes in tech...suspension forks or graphics cards I can ponder and research for days/weeks before I buy a particular thing.

Worst I've done was a few years ago after a bad day in the office on a Friday, headed home at lunchtime which was finish time, drove past the BMW dealer, stopped, traded in the family car for a Z4 Coupe all without really thinking about it or mentioning it to the missus. Then had to trade in her car for something slightly bigger a week later. LOL

Kudos that man! Now that's impulsive...

Can it be justified? If so it will take a long time before I buy after plenty of research. if it's not justifiable than I will probably buy it on the spot.

This is very much the approach I've started to take. If it needs to be justified, it has a lot of criteria to be fulfilled, including value for money, potential cost of ownership, depreciation, performance/£ ratio in relation to what it is replacing etc. this can take months!

However... When I want something, simply because I just want it, the buying decision is almost instantaneous. I've usually decided I want it within seconds, and the ability to afford it (or not as is usually the case), then becomes the deciding factor in how long it takes to get one...

I extensively research nearly every purchase, not a problem over £50 but I can waste hours on low value purchases or trying to save 2 quid. For some reason I can't seem to put the same effort in to actually earning or investing money.

I've been the same for years. Would agonise over saving 10p on a pint of milk even up until recently! Possibly as a result of parents who were both ridiculously impulsive purchasers, but my Dad doesn't think before spending money even now, he just buys something. Even if it was £10 cheaper in the shop next door, he wouldn't walk the 20 paces!!!

I've improved drastically within the last year or so since I started my own business though. I've had to look at things less in terms of their cost to my wallet, but more in terms of opportunity cost. For instance, the GF's car needs new rear brake pads right now... I could buy them, spend a couple of hours fitting them myself using my trolley jack and some borrowed axle stands, and be proud... Or I could take it to the garage over the road, who will only charge me about £20 labour anyway, and the car will be in and out in half an hour, and I can use the two hours I would have spent fixing it far more productively myself...

By spending it typing on this forum of course... 😉

In all seriousness though, struggle with enough time to follow up all of my current leads in the normal working day as it is, I've learnt to buy things a lot quicker in order to just be able to get on with my life...

Forever 🙁 . It's the downside of the internet, just too much info. and most of the time it doesn't actually apply to me. If I actually valued my time properly I'm sure I wouldn't mess around so much

but... the other problem with modern life is that some products are put out there waaaayyy before they are ready so a bit of investigation can be worth it. If only I know what a 'bit' was

Depends.

Cars and bikes normally months, over 6 months on my next car.

Weeks for car or bike parts and any thing expensive

But the other day seconds on a TNF parker, even with £100 off it was still over £200

Been debating a NAS drive for about two years, but talk myself out of it by the time I've priced up all the drives and a suitable back-up drive.

Same with a wireless speaker...

Not often that I don't have a good look around before buying stuff and ponder for [s]a while[/s] ages...

Just bought a flat (subject to ontract etc.) about half an hour after seeing it. Normally I'm a bit less rash.

Price and cashflow for me.
Got a new bike before christmas, deal was too good sorted in a few minutes.
Helmet? As long as it takes to try it on.
Previous bike took longer as it was part of the saving up process.
Seeing the amount of [s]crap[/s] & [s]uninformed opinion[/s] buy what I have that appears on a what what for what thread I only post one if I really need some feedback.

After many many years wanting a kayak I finally decided to get one last August. Received the go ahead from the head of finance shortly there after. Still not actually decided which one to get. So many choices. Tried a few. They're all good.

Often spend so long researching and procrastinating that a new, upgraded model has been launched and the process starts again. This has happened in the last year with both a tablet and a new road bike.

I also buy some stuff which I am likely to need in the sales and don't use it for months. I've got a pair or walking boots and a pair of trainers both still in their box after buying them in about 4 and 8 months ago respectively.

Things that are needful for something fun I want to do and that I can reasonably afford: near-instant

Other things: often delayed until I forget about them

🙂

How long do you agonise over purchases?

Just long enough to do a quick check online to see if it is really what i'm after and to possibly read others opinions, as to whether or not i pay heed to those opinions is in direct relation to how much i want/desire/need the product.

I don't tend to **** about , i only have myself to answer to and no gf/kids to drain my £ 😉

Road? Forever and a day.

Mountain bike? Hunch/go for it.

Depends on how much I actually need the item for me. If i really need it it takes a few minutes, on the other hand if it is a luxury or non necessary buy then I agonise over it for ages. I don't really research it as if I want something I normally want something specific, the wait 30 days thing is really good though as I normally stop wanting said item after a week or two.

Iain

I'm terrible for analysing every item I intend to purchase. It took me 15 months to decide what kitchen sink and tap combo I wanted.
However, I decided I wanted a new road bike and after looking online for a weekend I decided I needed a cervelo s3 in my life. The decision took moments but finding a deal took another month 🙂

Ah, just remembered I picked up a nobis jacket last week after a year of deciding if it's the right thing to do 🙂

Colours- dont get me started on colours. If I'm given too much choice thats it. I'm stuck.

Not long enough. Anyone want to buy a load of computer parts?

Dunno, can't decide. Give me a few months to think about it 😉

I'm agonising over a new road bike. Did loads of research, looked at geometries etc & narrowed it down bit by bit until there was one left. Then someone said have you looked at "X", then "Y" & so on and now my original choice is out of the window & I looked at no less than 9 different bikes yesterday alone!

I think it's now between two but not so sure.......

I don't spend too long agonizing/researching and I can be quick to hit the buy button. Only then to experience that sinking feeling of guilt that I'm going to receive another CC bill.

After my experience with STW I don't have much faith in reviews and reports for products. One of my main reasons for no longer subscribing.

Friend of mine in the office spent 2 weeks researching tyres before buying. Drove me nuts.

Just think of all that riding you could do with the time!

It has taken me 19 hours to decide whether or not to read this thread.
Such a dissapointment to find that Kryton wasn't the second post. 😀

[i] fasthaggis - Member
It has taken me 19 hours to decide whether or not to read this thread.Such a dissapointment to find that Kryton wasn't the second post. [/i]

More a relief, I'd of thought.
😉

cheers_drive - Member
I extensively research nearly every purchase, not a problem over £50 but I can waste hours on low value purchases or trying to save 2 quid. For some reason I can't seem to put the same effort in to actually earning or investing money

Christ! I thought it was just me! 99p ebay purchases are a favourite.....WTF

Been thinking about a couple of Ground Effect merino tops for a couple of months now, after I lost an old favorite winter jersey. Hell no! It's March in a couple of weeks. Maybe next autumn?

Last autumn I decided to buy a Fat Bike.

I'll probably buy it next year.

Been thinking about a couple of Ground Effect merino tops for a couple of months now, after I lost an old favorite winter jersey. Hell no! It's March in a couple of weeks. Maybe next autumn?

Pish, you need to wait until March next year when there's more chance of an out of season sale.

My indecisiveness is to the fore again. In the painful process of trying to choose a new pair of shoes I seem to have acquired around 1200 quid's worth of "stock", all of it going back 😳

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somethings I buy spare of the mment, usually if its on sale. Other stuff like a camera i'e been debaiting on a go pro or a garmin for months

Under £75 and a subject I know, minutes. Up to £200 needs the month and do I feel the same passion test to be applied. £200 to £1000 is no mans land and tends to require a knock out deal or ebay to prise the money from my hands.

Over a grand and we are in to a time span not to dissimilar to watching icebergs melt, we are talking years which is why I still don't have a fat bike or Canyon Strive CF 😕

Depends what it is. I want a big #enduro 29er, I've been trying to decide which one for about 18 months. In the meantime I've rebuilt my old 26er completely, with new forks and carbon wheels, because I couldn't decide.