by
If you’re looking to get out of debt, save more money for your future and have all of your financial ducks in a row, so to speak, your biggest enemy; the thing you really need to beat down is the urge to impulse buy.
Everyone’s done it. You’ve headed off to the store to buy a few basic essentials and come home with a $100 outfit, a new game for your console or a lot of random junk that you didn’t really need. It’s so easy to be attracted to stuff and think to yourself: ‘Why not?’ But, it is doing this that is causing you to waste money, get into debt and have little left over for a rainy day. We should be using our credit cards and personal loans from Bayport Financial Services for important things like essential home improvements, not for frivolous things we don’t need! The good news is, there are lots of things you can do to beat impulse buying right now…
Start a 30-Day List
This is something that a lot of financial experts suggest, and it can be pretty effective, Basically, when you see something you would would like to buy, instead of whipping out your credit card and buying it there and then,m add it to your 30 day list, telling yourself that if you still want it after 30 days, you can have it. More often than not, you’ll find your interest in the product waning, which means you spend less and have more cash to pay down your debt or save for the future.
Avoid Malls
This could be difficult if hanging out at the mall is one of your go-to’s for entertainment or stress-relief, but it’s worth trying because, when you remove yourself from the mall, you remove yourself from a lot of the temptation you’d normally have to needlessly splurge on something pretty. If you really do have to visit the mall because you need something specific, head right to the store that sells that thing and walk right back out to your car again. Don’t stop to window shop or visit your favorite store just to look – this will just leave you further in debt than you were before.
Don’t Make Online Shopping Easy
Ideally, you should avoid logging on to online stores like Amazon and eBay completely, but if you can’t do that, at the very least, avoid storing your credit card details o there, so that there is an extra barrier to make you stop an think before buying, One-click purchase options have made it so simple to impulsively buy online that anything you can do to make it even slightly more difficult is welcome.
Work Out the Time Value of Purchases
Before you purchase something on a whim, take the time to work out how many hours of your life you’ll have to work to pay for the ticket price. This can be a real eye-opener which makes you really think twice about buying something you don’t need. Of course, it won’t always be a big enough deterrent to stop you, but it should at least minimize the number of expensive impulse purchases you succumb to.
Make a List
A lot of people find it easier to curb their spending when they make a list before going shopping. When you have a list, you know exactly what you need, and you can focus on getting only that. You don’t end up reaching for your credit card to buy that extra pair of jeans that look cute, or that new smartphone you don’t really need quite so often. An added bonus is that is can help to make your shopping trips more time efficient too.
Freeze Your Credit Cards
Is that credit card from American Express burning a hole in your pocket? Can you not curb your impulses because you know that you have lots of lovely credit available to your right now? If you can’t cut up that credit card or call and have it canceled for whatever reasons, consider freezing it. Yes, you heard me right! I want you to place that problematic piece of plastic in a Ziploc bag filled with water and turn it into a block of ice. That way, you’ll have to wait for the ice to melt before you use it. This can, of course, only work if you take my earlier piece of advice and avoid saving your card details online, but if you do both those these things, it can be pretty effective.
Get to the Route of the Problem
If you have such a problem with impulse buying that you’ve gotten yourself deep into debt and you just can’t seem to stop, it’s worth sitting down and really thinking about why you feel the need to overspend. Perhaps you never really had much when you were a child, and now you overcompensate, or maybe you buy nice things to try and cheer you up because you’re depressed -whatever your issues, getting to the root of the problem is the first step to overcoming it. If you feel your issues are deep-seated, it might even be worth working with a psychotherapist to sort yourself out and develop a healthier relationship with money.
Set Goals
Last, but certainly not least, you should try to set yourself goals, such as paying down your credit card or building an emergency fund, so you don’t need to rely on loans and credit cards next time something goes wrong. It could even be a more positive goal like saving for a vacation; it doesn’t matter what your goal is as long as it is sufficiently motivating to keep you on track. Bring your goals to the fore of your mind when you’re about to impulse buy, and it could just be enough to stop you!
Beating impulse buying probably won’t be a breeze, and it’s likely you’ll have a few slip ups along the way, but if you implement these simple, yet powerful techniques, chances are you’ll be spending less, saving more and less burdened by debt this time next year!
