Pre-Black Friday tip: True spirit of Thanksgiving serves shoppers well

Thanksgiving is far and away my favorite holiday. I enjoy the food, the family, the football and the opportunity to reflect. Don’t get me wrong, I’m able to do all of these things throughout the year, but Thanksgiving is where they all come together in one gluttonous, er, pardon me, glorious cornucopia of joy. Despite the rushing around and the occasional logistical nightmare, I feel as grounded and as calm as possible on the fourth Thursday of every November.

Like many families, we go around the Thanksgiving table and express our thanks for a few things in particular over the past year. I look forward to this moment each year as we stop thinking about what we don’t have or what we want, and we focus solely on what we’re glad we have. I’d love to tell you that I’m able to make that sentiment last for days, weeks and months ... but I’d be lying. My thankfulness fades just as the greediest day in America comes into focus — Black Friday. This year, I’m making a concerted effort to shield myself from the flood of consumerism that pushes us all to make bad decisions.

The financial world doesn’t usually account for emotions, especially thankfulness, but I’m curious to know how mindful thankfulness would affect a financial life. Simply put, what is the financial footprint of a mindfully thankful person?

I know lots of people with lots of stuff, who also appear to be thankful, but in my opinion, a mindful thankfulness brings with it a completely fresh set of behaviors and actions. Think of it this way — mindful thankfulness is "thank you," while general thankfulness is "thank you, may I have another?"

Don't confuse 'saving' with 'not spending'

Those people who are mindfully thankful, aren’t thankful in passing.

The entire concept of waning thankfulness reminds me of something I learned in my college microeconomics class. I'd like to introduce you to the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility. Marginal utility is the additional amount of satisfaction you receive from buying or consuming an additional unit of a good or service. For instance, the first bite of turkey you have on Thanksgiving day is very satisfying, which delivers you a base level of marginal utility. As it turns out, the 200th bite of turkey you have on Thanksgiving is not very satisfying in relation to the first bite. It has lower marginal utility. At some point in your mastication, more poultry led to increasingly paltry marginal utility.

Consider how this idea translates into your daily consumer habits.

The more stuff you buy, the less satisfied you are likely to be in the purchase of said stuff. The invigorating feeling of material acquisition, via fabled retail therapy, ceases in its ability to scratch your itch. And because you are likely to be less satisfied by your unknowingly buzz-seeking purchases, you may find yourself at a strange consumer crossroads.

We all make our way to this crossroads, but many of us blow through the turnoff. You can either figure out that buying more stuff isn’t anywhere near the city of Contentment, or you can blow through your income and destroy your chance at financial independence by taking a train to the wrong destination.

Will another sweater make you happy? How about a newer TV? It’s only fair for me to raise these important questions while you are currently being bombarded with holiday marketing. If this makes me a buzz-kill, I’ll gladly wear that crown and sash. It doesn’t come with a sash?

Our understanding of stuff’s role in our lives can lead us to the mindful thankfulness which we hopefully seek. And what we seek isn’t in a neatly wrapped box.

Thanks for reading. I mean that.

Peter Dunn is an author, speaker and radio host. Have a question about money for Pete the Planner? Email him at AskPete@petetheplanner.com