My battle is with Facebook

Sometimes I see posts from girls in a large Facebook group I am a part of and I think to myself how the hell did they spend all that money without realizing until now? Or I will look at their Afterpay balance they are sharing and think why do people spend so much on useless things?!

Then I saw this writing challenge ‘Add to Cart’ and I said to my partner: “I want to enter, but I would have nothing to write about since I don’t really have social media.”

He looked at me and raised an eyebrow with a doubtful look on his face. “Are you – are you kidding? You bought that puzzle from a Facebook ad, right? And the hoodies, and the Kalimba.”

I held a glazed look for a moment, staring at the floor, before I realized the truth.

Oh no.

Facebook had bamboozled me and I didn’t even realize until now. I am just another person who has spent money on some random online orders that someone might think wasteful like I had thought about other girls’ purchases. Thank god I don’t also have Instagram or TikTok or who knows what chaos might have happened in my bank account. My battle is with Facebook, and Facebook alone.

This is a battle that I think is evenly matched. Sure, Facebook has the upper hand. It is no coincidence that they day after I talk to my partner or friends about something it appears as a sponsored advertisement on my Facebook newsfeed. It is even harder to scroll through when an item begins to trend and all of a sudden there are 10 different suppliers all selling the same thing and I have to scroll past 10 ads for the same product. Facebook has an advantage. It knows what to show me from the beginning. It is only my willpower to resist that can combat it now.

I have caved a few times . . . a necklace, a puzzle, a buildable Hurdy Gurdy, hoodies, Kalimba, exercise bands, and yesterday morning I bought over 60 books . . . but I know I have resisted the urge to spend much more. These amazing Japanese paint-by-numbers kits are still appearing in my feed and damn I WANT ONE. They are so beautiful and I enjoy that focused downtime while watching a mindless television show. So far I am winning the battle against the urge to buy one. There are countless other products that I have scrolled right past.

So now I am in the predicament where I need to justify my purchases so you all don’t think poorly of me like I have thought of others, right?

Well, prepare to be amazed. I don’t know if I have broken new ground or something here but I don’t feel any buyer’s remorse. I managed to have navigated the advertisements that targeted me and only purchased things that I actively use and am happy with! Yay for me! That must be a rare thing. Below are some of the highlights that I would recommend to others.

Fresh Hoods

https://freshhoods.com/

For any hoodie-lovers out there, you NEED to check out Fresh Hoods. They have tons of unique prints and designs to choose from. Mainstream clothing in stores has never appealed to me and I have found it stupidly hard to buy things I actually want to wear. Fresh Hoods solved that problem for me. How did the advertisement win me over? The design of the hoodie wasn’t quite enough, but a discount code to go with it sold me!

Happy Kalimba

https://happykalimba.co/

The sound of the Kalimba playing in the advertisement was so relaxing; I replayed the ad just to hear it again. A sale/discount code that was running at the time was enough to convince me to buy one and let me tell you: it really does sound amazing and it is simple to play. You can play random keys without following sheet music and it still sounds great! It looks so nice placed on my bookshelf too.

The Book Grocer

https://bookgrocer.com/

I would also like to share my most recent purchase with you from The Book Grocer. I saw on Facebook that they had a mystery book bundle of about 30-35 books for $100. At first, I thought $100 was too much for me but after I did the math I realized that it was only just over $3 per book. That is insane value! I bought TWO mystery boxes. They even applied a small discount. This time, it wasn’t the advertisement from Facebook or the discount that convinced me. It was my partner. He begged me to get them and I am glad he did, because now we are both so excited like kids leading up to Christmas, looking forward to opening up our mystery presents and seeing what is in the boxes! I am ready to recapture that childlike excitement and joy when these boxes arrive and my partner and I can discover these books together.

While I have called my experience with Facebook advertising a series of battles, I don’t think I have lost one even though I have made some purchases. I have been pleased with each item I have bought. I have seen what other girls have spent online in the span of a month or two and sat there, open-mouthed, shocked at the money spent. I have reflected on my own, and I am pretty comfortable with it. (I spend more on takeaway food!)

If I had TikTok or Instagram, or followed a heap of influencers . . . this story could have gone a lot differently!