This summer, I started spending more money!
Kind of. Sort of. Really?
If that seems like a strange proclamation coming from someone who loves frugal living and isn’t above a little garbage picking from time to time, maybe it is. And that’s a problem.
As I continually push myself to be more purposeful with my money and more thoughtful about my spending habits, I noticed that I have an aversion to shipping charges. To the point where I wouldn’t even consider looking at something I needed or I wanted if I didn’t also see Ships Free! next to it.
How can not paying for something ever be a bad thing? It seems like basic mathematics. The less you spend, the more you save. But when I started to examine my own shopping habits, I realized that oftentimes, there’s a price to free shipping. And it’s not something I always want to pay.
Nothing’s Truly Free
Capitalism isn’t spearheaded by Santa Claus. No one is giving anything away for free. As much as I love the LOFT or any other store that promises free shipping, I can promise you that they pass the cost along somehow.
Whether it’s getting you to buy more than you need to qualify or marking up the items to begin with, they aren’t shipping your duds for free out of the goodness of their heart. Just think of how many stores qualify you for free shipping–for a low, low membership that you forget to cancel or after applying for another credit card you don’t really need. If free shipping didn’t make financial sense, they wouldn’t do it.
Free Can Cost You
It’s no secret that meeting a minimum spend is difficult. No matter why you’re trying to cross a particular threshold–whether it’s a coupon, a reward, or a free shipping promo–that threshold exists for a reason.
How many times have you found yourself $4.95 short of the free shipping mark? Or $0.97? Then, of course, there’s nothing at the price point that you want or need, otherwise it would have been in your cart to begin with. So what do you do? Either dump your cart in frustration or add another pair of shoes.
Not that I would know anything about that.
Too Much Of a (Good?) Thing
Like anything in finance, money is never just about cost. When you purchase something, you have to deal with the financial aspect of it. You also have to deal with its physical presence. That’s a really fancy way to say when you buy something, you have to find a place to put the stuff.
Let’s back up to that shopping cart scenario. You’re trying to meet the free shipping threshold, so you add just anything to you cart to trigger the promo. Great. Now you have a box of whatever you did want or need plus something you just threw in there. Now you’re spending more and adding clutter. The exact opposite of purposeful spending. But, hey, at least you didn’t have to pay for shipping. Oof.
RELATED POST: The High Price of Free
Supporting Who Ships What
Amazon Prime is practically synonymous with free shipping. Sadly, it’s also associate with peeing in bottles and breaking all sorts of traffic laws to get our goods to us.
While there probably is no perfect shipping company, now is a great time to support the United States Postal Service. Often times, online sellers use USPS (hello, Poshmark!). Additionally, UPS workers are also unionized, which means they should take better care of their workers. It’s certainly not perfect, but it’s progress.
Shopping Small Is Worth It
One of the biggest benefits I’ve reaped by embracing shipping charges is the chance to support local businesses. When I was really averse to paying shipping charges, that basically left with me two options: shop big box or visit small shops in person. Unfortunately, that eliminated a lot of small businesses that I would love to support due to sheer geography. Throw in a pandemic, and, well, we’re down to some seriously slim pickings.
So now I’m embracing the shipping fee, and I’m loving it. Of course, it means reconsidering my budget a bit. But I can say that so far, it’s been more than worth the extra money. Thanks to a very talented Etsy seller, my toddler has been rocking masks for a few months longer than required. Because my then 2-year-old would often be mistaken for a kindergartner, we figured the easiest thing to do would be to teach him to wear a mask sooner rather than later. By the time his third birthday rolled around this summer, he was a mask-wearing pro who sports a whole collection of PAW Patrol masks.
Final Thoughts on Rethinking Free Shipping
Will I always pay for shipping? Heck no. Many sellers and stores–even mom and pop Etsy shops–offer free shipping. I will definitely take advantage of those deals.
More importantly, though, I’m not going to let the cost of shipping dictate whether or not I make a purchase. By letting shipping fees drive my decisions, I’m directing my money to places I don’t necessarily want to support and diverting it from people who need more support. Plus, I’m cluttering up my house and my closet…and you know I’m not about to recreate the Great Closet Avalanche of Yore.
So Tell Me…How does shipping costs factor into your spending? Have you ever fallen into the buy more for free shipping trap?
Kind of similar to what you mentioned above. I decided not to renew my amazon prime membership last year for several reasons. Mainly because of the unethical practices that you alluded to, but also because I found myself purchasing from them more often because of the free shipping incentive. It was too easy to throw something in my cart and mindlessly purchase it, only for it to arrive a couple days later and me to question why I even thought I “needed” it. Now I typically let items sit in my shopping cart for a few days before I buy something, kind of like a cooling off period to see if I truly need it. Or I just go in person to purchase it locally. I would bet that has saved me a few hundred dollars this year.
Rachel, you hit the nail on the head! Everything you write makes sense to me!
You’re so right, Ellen!
Yes! It’s too easy to shop mindlessly online. I’ve noticed that about myself quite a bit during the pandemic especially!
Penny, brava for speaking the truth! You are a wise woman. I agree wholeheartedly with all that you write! And I enjoy your informative posts!
Thanks, Ellen! You made my day!
I’ve always been adamantly against paying for shipping but also against spending extra money to bulk up the purchase for the minimum spend unless I actually needed the item. If I couldn’t meet the minimum spend, I’d just walk away from the cart. That’s partly why I preferred Amazon years ago, I could make decisions based on just the cost of the item without a minimum spend entering the equation. Of course now that’s actually a negative so I’ve been reevaluating my approach to the decision making.
I’ll calculate whether it costs more to meet the minimum spend with something I can use or to just pay for shipping. Also, now, I will actually accept the cost of shipping for small businesses which is also new for me but worth it now that I can afford to make those choices.
I recognize that we are in great spot to be able to welcome small shipping charges. As an unintended consequence/perk, I’ve also found myself spending less on other things to accommodate the shipping charges. I suspect the fact that we are trying to buy less overall is really helping us make some of these choices. And of course, earning more money helps too!
I’m trying to buy less from Amazon, but it is really hard. It takes more searching to figure out just where to buy some things, though we have been doing more buying directly from the manufacturer webpage after finding what we want on Amazon (just got a bath mat from gorilla grip, for example). Sort of the reverse of people finding what they want in brick and mortar stores and then purchasing on Amazon.
We’ve gotten to the income/wealth point where I no longer close the cart when shipping costs are higher than expected, but I will still definitely add things to my cart to qualify for free shipping (hello Ann Taylor insane covid sales and Bath and Bodyworks hand sanitizers when they’re doing a free shipping special), which is probably a good thing as I generally under-purchase. (I apparently don’t underpurchase hand sanitizer though– we have a large army of hand sanitizer, probably as a symptom of covid-related anxiety and the need to feel like I’m doing something. But I convinced myself I could get fall scents if I give away the gawdawful minis that smell like Axe Body Spray that I was never going to use. Next week they’re doing in-class exercises on probability so I think I’ll throw in some hand sanitizer minis as prizes, assuming we’re still teaching in person.)
Ahahaha! The hand sanitizers will be scooped up right away if they’re anything like my students. They were obsessed with B&BW sanitizer pre-pandemic.
*Coming out from under the rock*
Am I the only one that hasn’t gotten Amazon Prime yet? I feel that these “free shippings” are just yet another way companies like Amazon to get you to buy more stuff.
That’s why for the most part we look around locally to see if we can get the stuff at local businesses first before buying from Amazon.
I have yet to subscribe to Amazon Prime! You’re in excellent company, kind Sir, if I do say so myself – LOL!
Yes! Way to go, Ellen!
You’re just the smart one, Tawcan! 😉