Article

I Am A Hoarder And I Contributed To Inflation

When the market is uncertain, I tend to resort to panic buying.  During the pandemic, I thought that supply would be so affected, so I just hoarded so much foodstuff. Recently there have been uncertainties in the market and I also end up hoarding stuff again.  I bought food that I don’t usually eat or use in my cooking and I ended up with so many unused items. The fear of the unknown drove me to buy and hoard without thinking or planning. That resulted in a lot of waste.  When I finally decided to clean out the expired food stuff from the pantry, I was overwhelmed by guilt of throwing away so much food. Every week, I had to clear perishable food that had gone bad. It was almost a weekly affair of buy and throw. Today I still find expired and dry and canned food in the pantry that has expired because I hoarded them years ago.  Because of my hoarding, I honestly think I contributed to the unreasonable rise of food essentials prices. Imagine if everyone did the same as me.  I have been trying to be more mindful with my shopping. For example, I rely on a shopping list and only buy things that I need and not be distracted by “things that may run out”.   It is a real struggle. This article is part of TSS Confessions, a weekly column where we delve into personal finance topics that are unscripted and genuine real accounts from people.