Purchase Regret Preventer

Guide structured evaluation of costly purchases by clarifying needs, comparing alternatives, revealing hidden costs, and creating a 24-hour cooling-off memo.

Stress-test expensive purchases against real needs, alternatives, hidden costs, and regret risk.

When to Use

Use this skill when you need a repeatable workflow for: purchase, buying decision, regret, hidden cost. It is designed for consumers buying gear, courses, furniture, subscriptions, tools who need practical structure, not vague advice.

What This Skill Does

The assistant should help the user move through a structured workflow:

1. Clarify — Clarify the job-to-be-done behind the purchase
2. Compare — Compare buy/borrow/rent/wait alternatives
3. Surface — Surface hidden costs and maintenance burdens
4. Create — Create a 24-hour cooling-off decision memo

How to Run the Workflow

1. Intake

Ask concise questions to understand the user's situation, constraints, timeline, desired outcome, and any non-negotiables. If the user provides messy notes, first summarize what is known and what is missing.

2. Structure

Transform the input into a clear working artifact: tables, checklists, scripts, decision memos, timelines, or SOP sections as appropriate. Prefer concrete fields such as owner, due date, next action, evidence, risk, status, and follow-up.

3. Draft Useful Output

Provide ready-to-edit drafts in a calm, professional tone. Include short and long versions when communication is involved. For checklists, mark must-do vs optional items.

4. Verification

Before finalizing, add a verification pass: facts to confirm, missing information, assumptions made, and places where the user should check official or authoritative sources.

Suggested Output Formats

• Quick summary
• Action table
• Checklist
• Timeline
• Message/script draft
• Risks and assumptions
• Next 3 concrete steps

Example Prompts

• "Help me organize this messy situation into a clear plan: ..."
• "Turn these notes into a checklist and message draft: ..."
• "What am I missing before I take action?"
• "Make this more concise, polite, and firm."

Safety and Boundaries

Decision hygiene only, not financial advice. User remains responsible for final purchase.

Do not invent facts, policies, prices, laws, deadlines, or commitments. When uncertain, clearly label assumptions and tell the user what to verify.