3 Key Signs You’re So-Called ‘One-Time’ Purchases Will Keep Happening
Cutting back on unnecessary subscriptions is one of the most common pieces of personal finance advice. Even seemingly modest recurring purchases add up quickly, especially in an era when it’s not uncommon for people to have dozens of them.
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In most cases, that’s good advice, but don’t let an obsession with subscriptions distract you from the much bigger risk of excessive one-time purchases — especially when they’re impulsive and compulsive, which they so often are. Here are the signs to watch out for.
You’re Replacing the Same Things Over and Over
In the runup to Black Friday in 2024, Medium reminded its readers about the age-old rule of “buy cheap, buy twice.” No matter what you’re in the market for, there is no shortage of low-quality junk with tempting price tags.
However, by spending a little extra on a well-built version of that lawnmower, baseball glove or hair dryer you have your eye on, you’ll save in the long run with the money you don’t spend to replace it when it wears out or breaks before its time.
If you find yourself buying the same things over and over again, you might be crowding your budget with so many one-time purchases that you can’t afford to invest in a quality version of any of them. The result? An unofficial ongoing subscription to cheap, throwaway junk.
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Your Subscription Budget Is Shrinking
A 2024 CNET study found the average American spends more than $1,000 a year on subscriptions, with streaming media leading the way. Many people struggle to manage their vast and varied patchwork of far-flung recurring payments for apps and services they may or may not use — and in many cases, may or may not even know they have because of oversights like failing to cancel a free trial.
But for meticulous budgeters, subscription costs are fixed, predictable and automatic and should therefore be manageable. However, those who don’t apply the same vigilance to their one-time purchases might find that the subscriptions they once had under control are now triggering overdrafts or alerts for missed payments. If that’s the case, the newly burdensome cost of subscriptions they worked so hard to rein in could indicate that the one-time purchases they neglected are now getting away from them.
You’re Impulse-Buying Your Way Into Financial Ruin
Subscription overload gets a lot of attention, and rightly so — but in reality, the buy-now button that triggers so many unplanned, unbudgeted and unnecessary one-and-done purchases is far more dangerous.
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