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Having a list or a written down item is how a lot of people shopped in the past. In 2008 as a teenager I remember going to the market with a list on my hand, perfectly written for me by my parent and I was given an exact amount of the cost of the items and sent to the market to buy these things.
Truth was that sometimes I have some money left from buying these items and sometimes there is a deficit, this explained how the market fluctuated, in the past we have he prices of items going up and coming down and this is what caused me to either underspend or overspend.
For example if the price of a product is ₦200 a week ago and ₦210 this week i would be given #205 the upper week because market forces happens and that would probably be an equilibrium price and my parents were never wrong.
So why weren't my parent ever wrong? Cost push inflation wasn't so rampant back in the days, this has now become a thing in the present and that's why the percentage change in the price of a product in just a short period of time can surprise you.
The reason why I was always given a list was because money is limited, hence the application of economics, going to a shop having just a vague idea of what I wanted to buy would make me spend more and at the end of the day I'll buy amiss. What is buying amiss?
This means having an intent but buying without purpose. Shopping in the past was goal oriented, this means people originally knew what they want from the onset and they have this documented before going to the market.
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The concept of scale of preference: this means arranging your wants and needs in a matter of importance; preparing a list beforehand helped us determine what to buy and what to forgo.
You might not understand the meaning of indecisiveness until you go to the market without a clear indication of what you want. You see composite goods like meat or fish, naturally you're a meat lover but you can only afford fish if you never came without a thoughtout list you'll end up buying amiss because you have a clear intention but end up missing the purpose.
Back in the days Nigerian parents spends money prudently, back then it was either you got a bag or a sandal, you could never have the two at the same time and this opportunity cost concept was an economic training some people still cultivate till today.
Fast forward till today, that concept is gone. The high rate of inflation in Nigeria makes it even difficult to come to the market with a list, the market nowadays is very maniplulative, you intend to buy a shirt but you end up buying an umbrella increasing your expenditure rather hugely.
Nowadays the currency has no value and people earning monthly salaries are the most affected type of people. Nevertheless irrespective of how much people earn there's always this tendency to be carried away by the allures of the market. Truth is, we all know the things we want, but our pocket kinds of restricts this things.
Have you ever gone to the market with some amount of money and only remembered you needed a particular item immediately you're exposed to the market environment?
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This isn't always true but seldom true; In the first place we hardly forget what to buy the only reason why it feels so is because we have set our mind to the important things that our pocket can afford at that particular point in time.
Nevertheless we can fault our own extravagances, the advent of marketing is another thing; sometimes we shop amiss by buying what we entirely do not need, we often fall in love with a product or a item firsthand by looking at it, seeing the design, the feel, the texture and so many other things before we even begin to realise we might not comfortably afford them.
So the shopping pattern of people nowadays isn't so controlled like it was in the past. Its of no use having a list when there's some sort of inevitability to the flunctuation of prices of goods and services. Inasmuch as the advent marketing often decides people's choices nowadays. The currency is too weak to have a list of what your money should be able to buy.