Christmas shopping madness. How not to be fooled by Christmas promotions and marketing of a good setting?

- Christmas is a special time. It is worthwhile then to allow ourselves a little pleasure, to buy something that we cannot afford on a weekday. Personally, I would rather be guided by the idea of what will really bring us the most joy, for which we have been collecting funds and waiting for a long time, and not by what we can just happen to buy at Christmas time in the "3 for the price of 2" promotion," explains Joanna Smolarczyk, a psychiatrist from the Department of Psychoprophylaxis at the Silesian Medical University, and adds: - This promotion actually works mainly for products that we systematically buy at the regular price anyway. Buying more things we don't necessarily need is only seemingly a , "great bargain". , because in practice it's a double waste: of money and often additionally of finding storage space.

In the period around Christmas, let's try to focus on buying apt gifts for loved ones, and this is probably the best advice that can be given to anyone.

- Let's decide to buy such gifts that we are convinced will really make the recipients happy," advises the psychiatrist. Even if they are on promotion at the moment, let's not be guided only by deals and discounts. As long as our budget allows, let's allow ourselves the luxury of making the gifted person a real pleasure, which has a price, but also a value. If for some reason the budget is limited, think about the topic of , "contribution gifts". It is better to receive one truly thoughtful and wanted gift than several unnecessary items.

- Another challenge is the grocery shopping we do before Christmas. First of all, let's banish from our vocabulary the phrase , "I'll buy more, in case I run out....". First: there will be no shortage. Secondly: even if there is a shortage, in the case of most products no one will notice the lack on a table set with other dishes," stresses Joanna Smolarczyk, SUM psychiatrist. - It is very common to encounter advice on the Internet along the lines of , "Plan your Christmas shopping, then reduce it by 30%." - when it comes to groceries, I fully agree.

In the pre-Christmas rush, we sometimes find it difficult to fight the impulse to "buy more and stock up." It is then worth noting that even if our income allows us to buy everything, it is worth making thoughtful purchases. Let's remember that the items we unnecessarily buy are not only a waste of our money, but also unnecessarily used materials, waste produced in the process and energy consumed. Lack of restraint in shopping is, from an ecological point of view, a simple transgression against Mother Earth.

Increasingly popular is the "KonMari" - a method of cleaning and storing items created and described by Marie Kondo, a Japanese book author and TV show host. According to her advice, we should only keep things that inspire joy in us, while excess items can affect us negatively and overwhelm us.

Source: Silesian Medical University