Or before I buy anything I always I ask myself the following questions.

Q1. Do I really need to buy it?
Q2. How have I managed to survive without it till now?
Q3. Once I buy this, will I be able to survive without it in the future?
Q4. Why would I need to buy it? In order to improve productivity and efficiency or just to make myself feel good?

It is only logically to start with the first question – do I really need to buy it? If my answer is yes, then I ask myself this question – I have not had it until now but I have managed to survive to date. If there was no need to have to present, what circumstance(s) have been changed to convince myself that have it now?

Assuming that somehow I have conveniently managed to convince myself to buy it. Now I need to ask myself this question – Now I have it but will I need it for the future? In other words, will I not survive without it? Having it does not necessarily mean that I would lose more than gain from having it? Will my level of dependency significantly increase after having it?

Now this is the dilemma I usually have right after buying it – did I really need to buy it? (yes, going back to the preliminary question) did I just buy it to make myself feel good about having it? If yes, does this make me a pretentious person who fails to disclose himself openly and honestly but choose to selectively disclose myself to hide my downfalls? What is this distinction between ‘essential’ and ‘luxurious’ in this context?

I should stop here otherwise I would be end up being in the realm of circular argument. Perhaps that would be a good way of prevent myself from buying new things for myself. Do I sound too much like Stoic here? Perhaps I am trying hypnotize myself not to buy a new car – Audi Q5.