> I don't care that people are trying to part me from my money. Often I'm trying to get rid of it.

You can give it to me.

But seriously, what a wonderful "problem" to have.

You want to buy a tv. You set aside an amount of money to buy that tv. From that point you're trying to get rid of that bit of money in return for a TV.

I don't think that's an accurate description. If you got to the store and they told you that, I dunno, you're the millionth customer and your TV is free, I doubt you'd feel like you failed to get rid of the money. Because you weren't trying to get rid of it — you were giving it up as a concession to get something else you want more.

I think that's a good point, but for many people going shopping they are more or less trying to spend money. They have a minimum budget and will just buy more stuff or come back the next day if what they want is on sale or something. Suppose, you got everyone on your list a nice Christmas gift for 20$ total, would you really stop shopping at that point?

If there weren't anything else I wanted, yeah, I would. I don't know a lot of people who buy things they don't want just to get rid of money. Maybe the obscenely wealthy or very compulsive people, but most people I know only part with their money in exchange for things they want, and otherwise are glad to keep it until they find something they do want. (They may not be fastidious about how much of their money they're parting with compared to how much they want the things, but it doesn't seem like they part with money just to be rid of it.)

The focus is on the 'in return' part not the 'get rid of' part. If you got lucky and unexpectedly won a free TV of acceptable quality, you wouldn't feel burdened by having both the TV and the money you had intended to spend on it.