防止乱花钱的方法

乱花钱会让人不快乐——这个问题比一年前波及面更广了。买了东西又后悔让人感到非常不愉快。接下来，小编给大家准备了防止乱花钱的方法,欢迎大家参考与借鉴。

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.

身为一个“少买”而不是“多买”的人，我很容易制止自己乱花钱。我的问题在于如何说服自己去买该买的东西。

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，即便像我这种“少买”的人，有时还是会买回一些不需要的。商店采用极其聪明的手段引诱顾客购买。下面这些方法能让你买了东西不至于后悔:

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?

留心收银台区，那里有许多诱人的小商品。在把它扔进购物车之前，问一问自己是不是确实需要这件东西。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.

速战速决。你在商店花的时间越多，买的就越多。最好连去都不要去，这样你就不会买了。

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?

对“升级”的需要提出质疑。你想买那个有花俏新功能的东西，或者用升级版替换掉你现有的那个，但是，你真的需要吗?

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.)

对销售人员要礼貌，但别把他们当成你新结识的最要好的朋友。不要因为担心伤害到他们的感情而去购买，也别因为他们的努力帮助或解说就非得买某样东西。(同时，还是要对店员的努力表示尊重。几天前，我在Gap Kids，发现有个人把一堆叠得整整齐齐的衬衫翻得乱七八糟，弄得每件都要重新叠过。他是恶作剧还是不自觉? 我不知道。)

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

不要在匆忙或饥饿的时候购物。

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.

严格遵循购物单。我发现在决定了要买一件东西后，总容易一时冲动买其它商品，因为我知道不管买多少，付款的繁琐都是免不了的。

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…

当心促销品，它们让你感到自己不能不买。也要当心限时优惠，这会让你感到占了便宜。如果你不需要或不想要某样东西，不论价格多么便宜也别买，这不是一笔好买卖。我的一位朋友告诉它的丈夫：“我五折买下的这件东西!”她的丈夫回答：“那说明原来卖贵了一倍。”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.

不要买自己都不知道是否需要的东西，尤其是衣服。如果你不小心，你可能会买下一条标价2.5折的裤子，随后发现只有再买一双鞋和它搭配，否则根本穿不了。

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.

选择用现金或信用卡。有的人购物时，如果是付现金，就觉得不舍得买了;而有的人相反，花现金让他/她感觉买东西只是小事情，不管那东西有多贵。知道是现金还是信用卡更容易让自己乱花钱，然后，将那个付款法收起来。

　　扩展：到底什么是快乐?

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

作为一个写有关“快乐”的文章的人，我通常被问到下面的3个问题：

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

我到底是如何定义“快乐”?

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]?

与其追求“快乐”这种短暂的/骗人的/自私性的/虚幻的东西，难道我们不该追求愉快/满足/满意/平和/自我实现或其他什么吗?

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.

对于我们而言，实现这些状态意味着什么呢? 我对快乐的定义和你的不一样。你说快乐是一只温暖的小狗;我说快乐是独自住在Walden Pond的一间小木屋里面;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."

在法学院，我们花了一整个学期讨论“合同”的定义，我很了解，越想定义一个术语，越难以抓住这个术语的含义。为了我的快乐计划，我决定不去考虑定义。在学术方面，准确定义术语是有价值的，有一个积极的心理学研究为快乐找出了十五种不同的学术定义，但是在我的计划里，似乎没有必要花很多精力探讨“自足”、“积极影响”、“主观幸福”、“享乐情调”等无数个其它术语之间的区别。相反，我决定追寻最高法院大法官波特斯图尔特的神圣传统——他用一句“当我看到它就会认出它”的话定义猥亵。

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.

我认为考虑“更快乐”就足够了。即便我们对“快乐”的定义不一致，但我们认同不论快乐是什么，能“更快乐”就好。我认为快乐这个术语的的定义应该很松散，这个概念太大，足以包含许多不同看法。

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.")

我怀疑人们在回避用“快乐”这个词的原因是“快乐”的名声不好。它往往和浅薄、自我沉迷、自恋和享乐相关。(正如在Woody Allen的电影Annie Hall中一样，当Alvy问一对快乐的男女如何解释快乐，女的说：“我很浅薄、空洞，我没看法，我说不出什么有意思的东西。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.

实际上，研究表明快乐并没有让人们自满或以自我为中心。更快乐的人更有可能做自愿者、捐钱、对解决问题坚持不懈、帮助别人及友善。

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.

一项研究表明，在世界各地，当问及人们在生活中最希望得到什么，最希望他们的孩子得到什么的时候，人们回答是“快乐”。但我快乐的时候，我知道快乐是什么。努力更快乐——这对我来说足够了，不需要一个精确的定义。