防止亂花錢的方法

亂花錢會讓人不快樂——這個問題比一年前波及面更廣了。買了東西又後悔讓人感到非常不愉快。接下來，小編給大家準備了防止亂花錢的方法,歡迎大家參考與借鑑。

Being an under-buyer, as opposed to an over-buyer, I don't generally have much trouble avoiding overspending. I have more trouble prodding1 myself to make the effort to buy things I actually need.

身爲一個“少買”而不是“多買”的人，我很容易制止自己亂花錢。我的問題在於如何說服自己去買該買的東西。

Nevertheless, even with my under-buying ways, I sometimes come home with something I didn't really need to buy. Stores use extremely clever strategies to winkle customers into making purchases. Here are some strategies to make sure you don't make purchases you regret:

然而，即便像我這種“少買”的人，有時還是會買回一些不需要的。商店採用極其聰明的手段引誘顧客購買。下面這些方法能讓你買了東西不至於後悔:

1. Be wary2 of the check-out areas. There are lots of enticing3 little items here; ask yourself if you really need something before you add it to your pile. How many times have I picked up a jar of Balmex?

留心收銀臺區，那裏有許多誘人的小商品。在把它扔進購物車之前，問一問自己是不是確實需要這件東西。有多少次我拿起了一罐Balmex尿片?

2. Get in and get out. The more time you spend in a store, the more you're likely to buy. Even better: don't even go in the store. Then you definitely won't buy.

速戰速決。你在商店花的時間越多，買的就越多。最好連去都不要去，這樣你就不會買了。

3. Question the need for an upgrade. You might want that device with a slick new function, or to get the improved version of what you have now, but do you really need it?

對“升級”的需要提出質疑。你想買那個有花俏新功能的東西，或者用升級版替換掉你現有的那個，但是，你真的需要嗎?

4. Be polite to salespeople4, but don't feel like they're your new best friends. Don't buy something because you're worried about hurting their feelings or having made them do a lot of work helping5 you or explaining products to you. (At the same time, be respectful of clerks' efforts. The other day, I was in Gap Kids, and I saw someone rifle through a pile of beautifully stacked shirts in a way that meant that they'd all have to be re-folded. Was he malicious6 or oblivious7? I couldn't tell.)

對銷售人員要禮貌，但別把他們當成你新結識的最要好的朋友。不要因爲擔心傷害到他們的感情而去購買，也別因爲他們的努力幫助或解說就非得買某樣東西。(同時，還是要對店員的努力表示尊重。幾天前，我在Gap Kids，發現有個人把一堆疊得整整齊齊的襯衫翻得亂七八糟，弄得每件都要重新疊過。他是惡作劇還是不自覺? 我不知道。)

5. Don't shop when you're in a hurry or when you're hungry.

不要在匆忙或飢餓的時候購物。

6. Stick to a list. I've found that after I've decided8 to buy one thing, I'm far more likely to throw in other impulse items, because I know that I'm committed to going through the hassle of paying.

嚴格遵循購物單。我發現在決定了要買一件東西后，總容易一時衝動買其它商品，因爲我知道不管買多少，付款的繁瑣都是免不了的。

7. Beware of sale items, which make you feel like you can't afford not to buy, or limited-time offers, which make you feel like you have to take advantage of a special deal. If you don't need or want something, it's not a good deal, not matter how cheap it is. A friend of mine told her husband, "I got this 50% off!" and he answered, “That means it was 50% ON.” Along the same lines…

當心促銷品，它們讓你感到自己不能不買。也要當心限時優惠，這會讓你感到佔了便宜。如果你不需要或不想要某樣東西，不論價格多麼便宜也別買，這不是一筆好買賣。我的一位朋友告訴它的丈夫：“我五折買下的這件東西!”她的丈夫回答：“那說明原來賣貴了一倍。”同理......

8. Don't buy anything that you don't know you need – this is especially important with clothes. If you're not careful, you can buy a pair of pants marked down 75%, then realize that you can't really wear them unless you buy the right shoes to go with them.

不要買自己都不知道是否需要的東西，尤其是衣服。如果你不小心，你可能會買下一條標價2.5折的褲子，隨後發現只有再買一雙鞋和它搭配，否則根本穿不了。

9. Choose cash or credit card. Some people find it far harder to spend actual physical cash; other people find that paying cash makes a purchase seem trivial, even when the dollar amount is high. Know whether you're more inclined to overspend with cash or credit cards – and leave that payment method at home.

選擇用現金或信用卡。有的人購物時，如果是付現金，就覺得不捨得買了;而有的人相反，花現金讓他/她感覺買東西只是小事情，不管那東西有多貴。知道是現金還是信用卡更容易讓自己亂花錢，然後，將那個付款法收起來。

　　擴展：到底什麼是快樂?

As someone who writes about happiness, I'm often challenged to answer these three questions:

作爲一個寫有關“快樂”的文章的人，我通常被問到下面的3個問題：

1. How do I define "happiness," anyway?

我到底是如何定義“快樂”?

2. Instead of happiness, which is fleeting/deceptive/egotistical/illusory, isn't the real goal to achieve joy/contentment/satisfaction/peace/self-realization or [fill in the blank]?

與其追求“快樂”這種短暫的/騙人的/自私性的/虛幻的東西，難道我們不該追求愉快/滿足/滿意/平和/自我實現或其他什麼嗎?

3. How can we agree on what it means to achieve these states? What I mean by happiness might not be what you mean by happiness. You say happiness is a warm puppy; I say happiness is living alone in a cabin at Walden Pond; etc.

對於我們而言，實現這些狀態意味着什麼呢? 我對快樂的定義和你的不一樣。你說快樂是一隻溫暖的小狗;我說快樂是獨自住在Walden Pond的一間小木屋裏面;等等。

In law school, we spent an entire semester discussing the meaning of a "contract," and I know all too well how a term can elude1 you as you try to define it. For the purposes of my happiness project, I decided2 not to worry about definitions too much. In scholarship, there's merit in defining terms precisely3, and one positive psychology4 study identified fifteen different academic definitions of happiness, but when it came to my project, spending a lot of energy exploring the distinctions among "contentment," "positive affect," "subjective5 well-being," "hedonic tone," and a myriad6 of other terms didn't seem necessary. I decided instead to follow the hallowed tradition set by Supreme7 Court Justice Potter Stewart, who defined obscenity by saying, "I know it when I see it."

在法學院，我們花了一整個學期討論“合同”的定義，我很瞭解，越想定義一個術語，越難以抓住這個術語的含義。爲了我的快樂計劃，我決定不去考慮定義。在學術方面，準確定義術語是有價值的，有一個積極的心理學研究爲快樂找出了十五種不同的學術定義，但是在我的計劃裏，似乎沒有必要花很多精力探討“自足”、“積極影響”、“主觀幸福”、“享樂情調”等無數個其它術語之間的區別。相反，我決定追尋最高法院大法官波特斯圖爾特的神聖傳統——他用一句“當我看到它就會認出它”的話定義猥褻。

I think it's enough to think about being "happier." Even if we don't agree about what it means to be happy, we can agree that whatever happiness means, it would be nice to be happier. I think the looseness of the term happiness is actually helpful; it's a concept large enough to embrace many different perspectives.

我認爲考慮“更快樂”就足夠了。即便我們對“快樂”的定義不一致，但我們認同不論快樂是什麼，能“更快樂”就好。我認爲快樂這個術語的的定義應該很鬆散，這個概念太大，足以包含許多不同看法。

I suspect that one reason that people try to avoid using the word "happiness" is that happiness has a bad reputation. It's often associated with superficiality, self-absorption, narcissism8, and pleasure-seeking. (As in Woody Allen's movie Annie Hall, when Alvy asks a happy couple how they account for their happiness, and the woman answers, "I am very shallow and empty, and I have no ideas and nothing interesting to say," and the man agrees, "I'm exactly the same way.")

我懷疑人們在迴避用“快樂”這個詞的原因是“快樂”的名聲不好。它往往和淺薄、自我沉迷、自戀和享樂相關。(正如在Woody Allen的電影Annie Hall中一樣，當Alvy問一對快樂的男女如何解釋快樂，女的說：“我很淺薄、空洞，我沒看法，我說不出什麼有意思的東西。男的附和：“我也正是如此。”)

In fact, however, studies show that happiness doesn't make people complacent9 or self-centered. Rather, happier people are more likely to volunteer, to give away money, to persist in problem-solving, to help others, and to be friendly.

實際上，研究表明快樂並沒有讓人們自滿或以自我爲中心。更快樂的人更有可能做自願者、捐錢、對解決問題堅持不懈、幫助別人及友善。

One study showed that, all over the world, when asked what they want most from life — and what they most want for their children – people answered that they want happiness. I know when I feel happy. Trying to be happier – that's good enough for me, without a precise definition.

一項研究表明，在世界各地，當問及人們在生活中最希望得到什麼，最希望他們的孩子得到什麼的時候，人們回答是“快樂”。但我快樂的時候，我知道快樂是什麼。努力更快樂——這對我來說足夠了，不需要一個精確的定義。