» You don’t need it so why do you want it?

What’s the difference between a need and a want?

I need clothing. I need items suitable for work, and it’s a good idea to also have items suitable for when I’m not working, so my working clothes will last longer. I need warmer items for cold weather and cooler items for warm weather. I need clothing that will keep me dry in wet weather. I need a range of items, and a few changes of clothing so I don’t have to wash them every day.

But I don’t need all the clothes in my wardrobe. I don’t need so many sweaters, so many t-shirts, so many pairs of shoes. I don’t need several winter coats, or several different swimsuits. I could manage perfectly well on less than half the clothing I have now, so why do I still have them all: I want them.

I need food. I need a variety of food to give me all the protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamins, minerals etc. that will keep my body healthy.

But I don’t need that expensively packaged cake, or that high priced ready prepared meal. I don’t need that celebrity endorsed range of exotic foods. I want them.

I need shelter. I need a roof over my head with plumbing and cooking facilities, a place to sleep, a place to eat, places to store things, somewhere to relax.

But I don’t need a 4 bedroom detached home with 3 en-suite bathrooms and a luxury fitted kitchen. I don’t need double-sized fitted wardrobes in every bedroom. I don’t need them but I may want them.

The word ‘need’ is often accompanied by the word ‘basic’ because that’s what needs are: they’re the basics, the essentials. And because of this they can often seem commonplace and unattractive. At least that’s what many people in today’s society work hard to make us believe. It’s an accepted rule of selling that people don’t buy what they need, they buy what they want – or more accurately, they buy what a salesperson or advertiser has convinced them they want (and can’t live without).

I don’t need that fancily packaged food, but doesn’t it look nicer … won’t it taste so much nicer than that more simply packaged (and less expensive) product sitting alongside it on the supermarket shelf?

I know I don’t need 4 bedrooms, a luxury kitchen and bathroom, and enough storage space to house a couple of families, but won’t it feel great to have all that space … and I’ll appreciate the extra space when relatives come to stay (how often will that be?).

I don’t need that brand new electronic gizmo that’s only just out of development phase, but  won’t it impress people when I pull out the very latest communication device and instantly send a picture of me sitting on a beach to 27 different people, complete with sounds and smells, and a  weather report provided by a passing satellite?

The fact that people fail to stop when their needs are met, but keep going, spending money they don’t need to – and quite possibly don’t have — in order to meet their wants, is a problem in modern society. Advertisers have done an excellent job of convincing us that our needs can only be met with high value products when this isn’t the case at all. Our needs can easily be met with lower priced products that do an equally good job, but that doesn’t make the big profits. We’ve been brainwashed into believing that our wants are actually our needs. Our wants have become the bottom line and we couldn’t possibly consider anything less.

Economic downturns are a good opportunity to take stock. Many people start to rediscover the difference between needs and wants, and to realize that by concentrating on meeting their needs for a while, they can probably save money.

This doesn’t mean going to extremes and denying yourself anything other than the basics. But it does mean acknowledging to yourself that you’re satisfying a want rather than meeting a need, and being comfortable with this.

It means taking a mental pause before putting that expensive food item in your supermarket trolley and asking yourself whether it’s the best purchase you can make.

It means responding to those ‘must have’ messages with the simple question ‘why must I???’, and if you are happy with the answer, go ahead and buy. But if you can’t give yourself genuine, believable reasons then forget it.

It means walking past the shoe shop and ignoring those subliminal ‘buy me’ messages that have hooked you so easily in the past.

It means putting off buying that latest gizmo until the development has stabilized and the price has come down to something more realistic. After all, you may not get the full benefit of it unless other people are using the same technology as well. And if you’ve picked something that doesn’t catch on you may be left with a useless heap of electronics. And there’ll be something else along in a couple of months that you may wish you’d bought instead.

It means not being so blinded by the marketing hype that you forget to balance it against other factors. That luxury, designer, exclusive, bespoke, executive 4 bedroom (3 en-suite) residence is impressive, but for just the two of you?

But if you do take this opportunity to reflect on your spending patterns make sure the lessons you learn are there for life. The economy will turn again, the outlook will improve. And when it does you still won’t need that expensively packaged and priced designer branded food, or all those shoes.

But will you want them???