Why do so many people itch to spend?

A close friend told me the other day that he can tell from a mile away when I am broke — I am irritable, impatient and moody.

Apparently, this is also the period when I tend to notice all the things I think I should have bought by now but haven’t, making me even more frustrated.

But that is not all. He says that when I am broke, I tend to remember, with displeasure, all the people who owe me, even those who fleeced me more than 10 years ago. His observations startled me, and while my first reaction was to deny, it turns out that he was right.

Towards the end of the month, and during the first two weeks of the month, I normally have this infectious sunny disposition, and walk with a spring in my step, a twinkle in my eye (whatever this means) and an involuntary smile playing on my lips. As you’ve correctly guessed, I am usually loaded around this time.

But come mid-month after paying the bills and doing household shopping, the spring disappears, the twinkle fades away and worry furrows appear on my forehead.

Learning about myself and how I react to money or lack of it made me realise that most of us are predictable when it comes to managing this necessity.

We have a staff canteen where, for a long time, a plate of food cost Sh50, but it has since gone up by 30 bob.  At the beginning of the month, you can mistake the canteen for a new restaurant  – there are only a handful of people. Mid-month, however, the place is so packed, getting a seat is next to impossible, and when you do get one, the air is so hot and stuffy, you cannot wait to get out of there.

I also bet that quite a number of Kenyans only drive their cars to town towards the end of the month and during the first week of the month when their wallets are still heavy.

A week and a lighter pocket later, you re-pack your car at the usual position, near your bedroom window, and wait for the next end-month.

I long stopped going to supermarkets at the beginning of the month after I once queued for almost an hour, waiting to pay for shopping. By the time I got to the till, I was dizzy from breathing in recycled oxygen. Today, even if you paid me, I wouldn’t go near a supermarket around this time.

While standing in line waiting to pay for shopping, you can do two things – look at other shoppers, or dissect their shopping.

I tend to do both, but spend more time on the latter, which is more interesting.

From the intelligence I have gathered over the years (I sound like a spy!) looking into the overflowing trolleys of shoppers, I can’t help but feel we suffer from a condition that urges us to throw away our money.

I once stood behind a woman who had filled her trolley with an assortment of cakes, about five different brands of air freshener, packets of chewing gum, colourful packets of cereal, a huge packet of lollipops, the biggest packet of crisps she could find, and an assortment of lotions. After all, it was end month. Two weeks down the line, I bet the only thing the woman could afford were the normal essentials – good old bread and milk, and maybe the small cup of yoghurt for her young child.

Our curse as a society, I believe, is that we are held hostage by an inexplicable need to spend, even when we don’t need to and, even worse, a need to buy things we don’t need. As long as we have money in our pockets, we itch to spend it. If only we could tame this need, or better still, erase it, we’d be in a much healthier financial condition.