Recently I knew of a person who was looking for a new TV where the budget was explicitly under $1000 all-in. The only other real requirement was that they want a TV that was capable of 4K resolution and would have Smart functions. That actually is pretty easy to find even without a sale I thought. So this was the interesting part. Eventually they saw a specific TV that had more features and such than they really needed. In this case this TV was about $1500 all-in. As it turned out, they went with that more expensive option. In this case would you tend to stay with the budget or go with the one that offers more?
I tend to say if you originally had a strict budget in mind then you should stick to that budget. If anything, if you all of a sudden see features and offerings that you would really want then to me that is where the work comes in. Example, you either find ways to locate the deals/sales to enable you to get that item you want or you find ways to in a sense generate more income than you normally would to make up the difference.
For me anyways I feel it’s a form of training for your financial discipline. Otherwise you are still kind of in that kid mentality where you just ask and your parents will give it to you sort of deal. I usually find in these cases too if you choose the route of finding ways to earn more money that downtime in doing so can often make you realize you don’t really need the extra stuff that you wanted to get. Therefore, you just made your savings even bigger. It does require the mentality of sticking to your budget first and foremost of course.