Snowball Effects

Perceived urgency makes us overspend and it usually has a snowball effect.

For example...

You need tokens for the subway. You need change for tokens. You need cash to get change. You need a bank machine to take out cash. If there's no bank machine, you need to use cash-back. You need to buy something to get cash-back. OK, so you look around for something you might need at a convenience store that offers cash-back. Not enough. You need a minimum purchase of $4.00 to use cash-back.

In the meantime, what seemed urgent (getting on the subway) now seems more urgent. You've spent energy thinking about how to get cash and time walking around finding a place that offers this. Are you really going to stop and think if the thing you're about to purchase offers true value? Not a chance.

Or...

You create a system. You always have a minimum amount of cash on-hand and you replenish that reserve whenever it's used up or at a certain interval of time. That way, you avoid the urgency and all of the waste associated with it.