Have you ever bought nonessential items, even when you knew you didn’t have the money to cover the credit card bill?
Have you ever talked yourself into an expensive purchase, even when you knew you’d be letting others down by doing so?
Have you ever bought a bunch of items at once, not even realizing how much you spent until later on?
If you’ve said “yes” to all the above, you might be suffering from a shopping addiction. A shopping addiction is when you compulsively buy things even when you’re aware that doing so is a financial mistake. You’re quite willing to go into debt and even damage your relationships in order to keep buying more and more and more things.
A shopping addiction can be an incredibly painful challenge to overcome. After all, we do need to shop at least a little to maintain our home and keep food on the table. What exactly can a person do in order to take on a shopping addiction? Here are five strategies:
Cut off your cash flow. When you head into a situation where you might be spending money, make an active choice before to cut off or restrict the amount of money you’ll have on hand. Leave your credit cards at home or in the car, and only take in a small amount of cash — or no cash at all. The goal of this step is to ensure you don’t have the resources to make purchases you might later regret.
Avoid shopping situations. Another useful strategy is to avoid shopping situations entirely — or at least as much as you can. Reduce your time spent inside of stores to the absolute minimum, and avoid shops unless you have true necessities. By coming up with a very clear blanket rule like this and sticking to it, it becomes clear what financial choices you should be making.
Rely on others. If you still end up buying unnecessary things, ask your friends and family for help. For example, you can ask your friends to help you avoid unnecessary purchases by talking you out of them in social shopping situations. You might also want to consider asking friends and family to help you with your shopping so that your spending opportunities are limited. This can be a difficult conversation to have, but when you genuinely ask your friends and family for help, they’re usually going to be there for you to help you through your challenges.
Replay your shopping mistakes, and look for triggers. When you find that you’ve made a shopping mistake, spend some time thinking back on that mistake. Ask yourself:
— Why did it happen?
— What made you switch your mindset to allow yourself to make this luxury purchase?
— Was it triggered by a feeling within yourself?
— Was it triggered by something outside of you, like a friend or a particular type of store?
— Was it triggered by a website that inflates your wants?
If you can figure out exactly what things trigger your shopping impulses, you can focus directly on eliminating those triggers. For example, if you’re often triggered by a particular online store, you know you should delete that website from your bookmarks and unsubscribe from emails notifying you of sales.
Delete your credit card numbers. Many people — myself included — will make poor buying decisions online because it’s just so easy. On websites like Amazon, you can often move from simply looking at an item to having that item shipped to you in just a click or two, which is dangerous for a shopping addict. Often, placing a simple roadblock in the way can give you enough time to rethink your decision, and you can insert that roadblock yourself by simply deleting your credit card numbers from that website. Go into your account information, and clear all your payment information stored there. Suddenly, shopping on the site becomes a lot less convenient if you have to get up to hunt for your wallet. And during that time, you might realize you’re making a shopping mistake.
One final tip: If you’re still struggling to overcome a shopping addiction after applying these strategies, seek out a financial therapist or money coach . There are many techniques and strategies that can be approached with the aid of a professional. If you find that you keep going back to your old shopping mistakes no matter what you do, it may be time to seek extra help.
Conquering your shopping mistakes is a vital element of getting your finances in better shape. Once you can break free of a constant routine of overspending, it’s easy for your finances to fall into place.
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5 Strategies for Defeating a Shopping Addiction originally appeared on usnews.com
