The Great Indian Spending Festival

The Great Indian Spending Festival 

On SALE: Society's Anxiety, Lifestyle, & Expectations 

When digital sales become spending festivals, FOMO becomes a financial liability, and saving money becomes increasingly difficult in an era of endless temptations.

Thirukkural says: (Couplet no. 478)

ஆகாறு அளவிட்டி தாயினுங் கேடில்லை

போகாறு அகலாக் கடை. 

Transliteration: 

Aakaaru alavitti thaayinung ketillai

Pokaaru akalaak katai.

English Translation:

Incomings may be scant; but yet, no failure there,

If in expenditure you rightly learn to spare.

Meaning: Even if your income is small or limited, you will not be ruined as long as your expenses do not exceed it. 

Bargain Vs UPI’s interruption:

There was a time when saving money meant dropping a few coins into a piggy bank, post office, or hiding cash inside a book or in kitchen dabbas. We could hear our savings grow, one coin at a time. Savings become more conscious, wanting something big and not spending for that moment. 

Before UPI, we once bargained for a little extra discount on the things we wanted. The invention of UPI made our payments easier, yet non-negotiable in prices too. The accuracy of every paisa we spent made us think right. But those days piggybanks were safe enough to keep our money, these days touch screen, digital wallet and saved card details, personalised dopamine-inducing notifications, shopping recommendations and an uncanny ability to remind us of the things that we never knew we wanted.

Our smartphones and social media becomes sales person who consistently follows up upon every click and tap on the screen. So the question is not about how to save money; it is about whether we have resisted the world that has mastered the art of making us spend.

The Great Indian Spending Festival:

Every year, we are notified about festivals like Big Billion Days, the Great Indian Festival, festive discounts, midnight deals, limited-time offers, and exclusive membership benefits. The pun in their persuasive language is irresistible: SAVE MORE. BUY MORE. BUY 2, GET 5. UNLOCK MORE. The bigger the discounts, the greater the celebration. But I think we can save more if we don't celebrate these festivals.

We enter shopping applications, add everything our eyes rest upon to the cart, apply grand coupons and promo codes, and click the BUY NOW option. With a heart full of satisfaction and a smile on our faces, we purchase some necessary products, some that are useful, and some that we may not even know why we wanted in the first place, except that they were presented as necessary and recommended to us.

Are discounts actual discounts, or are they traps wrapped in fancy terms?

Purchasing a necessary appliance, replacing damaged items, or buying something that has been on our list for months is sensible. Yet, at checkout, we often add fancy items simply to save on delivery charges or unlock additional discounts. Is that really sensible financial behaviour?

When we buy something because it is discounted rather than because we need it, the festival is no longer about saving money. It is about spending money with a celebratory soundtrack.

FOMO: The Anxiety of Missing a Deal

The modern consumer, including myself, does not merely fear spending too much; we also fear missing out on the opportunity to spend less. An offer that expires at midnight, a coupon for another product, or a tempting deal created through brand collaborations can turn an ordinary purchase into an extraordinary and urgent mission to spend.

The FOMO of missing out on these festivals makes us believe that such opportunities may never come our way again, even though we know these festivals return every year, often following the same pattern.

There is a peculiar emotional satisfaction in buying something at a lower price. We feel clever, resourceful, and financially capable. But are we really saving, or are we simply spending less than the price we were persuaded to pay?

The price may be lower, yet the habit of buying without intention remains expensive. We must develop the healthy realisation that not every countdown deserves our attention, not every notification demands a response, and not every offer we miss represents a loss.

 Uninstall the Boredom, Not the Apps

The simplest solution is not another budgeting reel or masterclass, nor another book on finance or another complicated spreadsheet. It is removing the very source of temptation—or, at the very least, changing the habits that lead us towards it.

We can, yet practically speaking, cannot always uninstall every shopping app. But a minimalist approach before tapping items into the cart can save us more than we realise. Boredom becomes browsing, browsing becomes desire, and desire becomes an order confirmation before we have had the chance to reconsider our purchase.

Uninstalling our boredom is much easier than uninstalling apps as a universal solution. We believe in stories; when those stories involve real-life people, we often believe they are direct beneficiaries of the products being promoted. Before we know it, we purchase the promises and the persuasive narratives along with the products with complete satisfaction. 

Saving becomes easier when it is attached to something meaningful. It is no longer merely about denying ourselves a purchase; it is about choosing something more valuable in its place.

Being mindful of impulsive spending also means questioning our habits, especially when we spend our hard-earned salaries on things simply because we can. A little digital distance can create considerable financial clarity.

The Cost of Living:

Beyond discounts and shopping applications lies a more complicated reason we spend: the desire to belong.

We live in a world where lifestyle choices can quietly become social expectations. The latest smartphone, fashionable clothing, expensive outings, aesthetic home décor, trendy accessories, skincare, and haircare products are often presented as symbols of success.

These days, the cost of living has become a conversation that unfolds in the comment sections of our social media posts. Our lifestyles and food choices become subjects for everyone to evaluate. Photographs, AI-generated captions, and hashtags that make us visible to the world sometimes become a greater priority than living the happy, meaningful, and mindful lives we once wished for.

Spending becomes a way of participating in society, maintaining friendships, avoiding embarrassment, and proving that we are keeping up. We buy something because someone else already owns it. We choose highlighted, high-priced products because we do not want to appear incapable of affording them.

The social pressure is not always spoken aloud. Nobody asks us to spend; we simply do, fearing the judgement that might follow if we don't. We begin to confuse participation with expenditure and belonging with purchasing power.

Dignity and friendship should not depend on the brands we own or the budgets we cannot afford. Our place in society should not depend on how often we upgrade or how much we spend on unwanted possessions. Financial independence is not merely about being independent of our partners or families; it is also about having the freedom to make the right choices about how much we spend, regardless of the fancy traps set before us.

People who genuinely value our presence will not judge us by what we possess or take pride in our purchases. They will value us for who we are, not for what we can afford to display.

On Sale Season Is Actually Our Wallets

There is a difference between being financially disciplined and being afraid to spend. The former gives us freedom; the latter can gradually take it away. When every purchase produces guilt, when even a modest pleasure feels irresponsible, or when we postpone every meaningful experience for an uncertain future, saving can become a source of anxiety rather than security.

Money is a resource meant to support our lives, not a number we must protect at the cost of living them. We need to save for emergencies, plan for responsibilities, and prepare for the future. We also need to recognise that rest, learning, meaningful experiences, creativity, and time with loved ones have value.

A person who spends everything today may struggle tomorrow. A person who saves everything while being perpetually afraid of tomorrow may never fully experience today. Neither extreme offers a complete understanding of financial well-being.

The goal is not to spend without limits or save without joy. It is to know why we are saving, what we are spending on, and whether our choices reflect our actual priorities.

We cannot control every advertisement, every social expectation, or every temptation that crosses our screens. But we can choose what deserves our money, our attention, and our peace.

Perhaps the greatest saving of all is not the discount we receive, but the unnecessary expense we recognise before making it. Perhaps true financial awareness begins when we stop measuring our success by what we can buy and start measuring our freedom by what we can consciously choose not to buy.

Let the festivals fade and the countdowns expire,

Let trends change and social conversations transpire.

We need no products to prove where we belong;

To save maximum, switch off your phone and move along!

- Aurora Bluemoon

This post is a part of ‘Bachat & Beyond Blog Hop’ hosted by Manali Desai and Sukaina Majeed under the #EveryConversationMatters blog hop series powered by authors Suruchi Hirawat and Harsh Soni.