Here’s How To Shop The EOFY Sales Mindfully

In our digital world, online shopping isn’t just an act to get the goods and services you need, it’s an entertainment activity in its own right. 

You can lose hours scrolling. Imagining what you’d look like in that new outfit or dreaming about a particular pair of boots that would make your colleagues fall into a pile of adoration at your feet. 

While it can be fun to shop online, it can also be stressful, particularly around sale times. From impulse buys to decision fatigue, the possibilities (and products) are literally endless. 

With the end of financial year sales (one of many) quickly approaching, we sourced some tips on how to shop them more mindfully. 

A reason that sales are so tempting to shop is (obviously) because of the discounts. When we see 20%, 30%, 40% off, it’s easy to think of everything as a bargain – even if we weren’t going to purchase it in the first place. 

Financial expert and podcast host of The Broke Generation, Emma Edwards notes that seeing something discounted at 40% off is one of the easiest deals to get seduced by. 

“You make purchase decisions as though something is half price while still paying that extra 10% because ‘hey, it’s negligible in comparison to the perceived discount,’” Edwards wrote in a post. To negate this, simply ask yourself some questions before hitting the ‘add to cart’ button. 

Were you going to buy this item anyway? Would you want it if it wasn’t on sale? Is it genuinely a good deal? 

If you still choose to bite the bullet, cashback platforms like Cashrewards can offer discounts and can help to put some dollars back into your account. All you have to do is sign up (which is free) and start browsing through the brands.

When you check out, the retailer will pay Cashrewards a commission. Cashrewards will then return a chunk to you — as cash. Handy, right? Its browser extension, Cashrewards Notifier, can also instantly alert you to potential savings on the site you’re browsing simply by clicking the purple ‘C’ icon in your browser toolbar.

This June, before the end of the financial year, Cashrewards will have a bunch of sales so you can get the best deal before tax time. Some of these include a cashback rate of:

• Up to 14% at Expedia - (From 2-6pm on the 6th of June)
• 13% at Adidas - (From the 7th to the 9th of June)
• 10% at Booking.com - (From the 8th to the 11th of June)
• 10% at Crocs - (From the 9th to the 13th of June)
• 8% at Oroton - (From the 9th to the 14th of June)
• 8% at General Pants - (From the 9th to the 11th of June)
• 6% at Lacoste - (From the 10th to the 12th of June)

Other deals are running from the 16th to 30th of June so check Cashrewards to see if you can stack some savings.

Don’t get me wrong. Trends can be fun to participate in. But it’s when you’re buying into a trend, wearing it for a few weeks and then throwing it away that it becomes bad for your bank account and the planet. Similar to thinking about the ‘real’ discount at the sales checkout, think about how this item will be integrated into your wardrobe.

Will it work with the other outfits you own? Will you be able to wear it trans-seasonally? If not, will it still be in fashion next year? 

Again, asking yourself a couple of questions before impulse shopping up a storm can go a long way in actually getting what you need.

This one is tricky when marketing is literally everywhere. But, one of the best things I ever did to stop being tempted by sales and shopping, was to unsubscribe. Whether that be newsletters or unfollowing influencers who tag a new store every day, if you can’t see it, you’re not as tempted.

This means that when it comes to sale time, you know you’re going in for what you need, not just what’s being handed to you by a perfectly curated algorithm. 

A great shopping hack to help you be more mindful of your purchases is to not save your bank details in your browser. By choosing your item, adding it to your cart and then having to get up to find your physical debit card, you're creating space between yourself and the serotonin that online shopping can give.

It's not exactly delayed gratification (that would be waiting twenty-four hours or longer before purchasing), but it does mean you have to put in a little effort before the product is yours.

Ultimately, shopping during sales time is a smart way to get the most out of your money (something we all could do with these days). But by asking yourself a few questions and taking a moment before being pulled into marketing strategies, you’ll be able to get what you need and want, mindfully.