Whether it’s online shopping after enjoying a few drinks or picking up a set of speakers you never knew you needed until ads started targeting you on social media, it’s easy to fall prey to shiny object syndrome (where you’re distracted by shiny new things). Personal finance comparison site Finder.com commissioned a survey of over 2,200 Americans this year and found that 88.6 percent of respondents had made impulse buys online, spending $81.75 per session on average.
[See: 12 Ways to Be a More Mindful Spender.]
One-click checkout, sales emails and mobile shopping have made it easier than ever to spend on a whim. But a slew of new tech tools aim to curb this habit. For instance, Finder.com developed Icebox, a free Google Chrome plug-in that replaces the buy button on over 500 retail websites. Instead of buying items, users can put items “on ice” for three to 30 days as they think through their purchase.
“People won’t be blocked from making a purchase,” explains Jennifer McDermott, Finder.com’s consumer advocate. “They can override the system [if it’s something they really need to buy]. We’re getting them to think harder about purchases they’re making.”
Shopping while drinking is a specific type of impulse shopping, and the app DrnkPay deals with this habit. Users link their cards to the DrnkPay app and set the number of drinks they plan to enjoy. A Breathalyzer test is connected via Bluetooth, so that if the user exceeds their preset limit, all cards are blocked for 12 hours. Users can set the types of merchants to block, such as bars, online shopping or all categories, and order a ride home even when other transactions are blocked.
Some consumers have created workarounds using existing tools. For instance, they might pin products they want to buy to a secret Pinterest board while they think through that purchase. Sarah Li Cain, a finance content marketing writer, started using the Block Site browser extension for Chrome to block social media and fashion blogs during the workday. Originally, she added the extension to curb distractions, but she also found that it reduced the temptation to shop. “The fashion blogs, funnily enough, [were] a trigger for me to start looking on shopping websites,” she says.
Gretchen Rubin, author of several books on habits including “The Four Tendencies,” has a simple tech solution that makes online shopping less convenient and doesn’t require downloading or installing anything. “You can always shop as a guest [instead of signing up for an account and saving your credit card details],” she says. “Then, you have to enter in your information and you can’t do it as easily.” And if you don’t download online shopping apps, it’s less tempting to buy from your phone.
[See: 10 Money Leaks to Shut Down Now.]
While these tools may help in the moment, Jacquette M. Timmons, financial behaviorist and author of “Financial Intimacy: How to Create a Healthy Relationship with Your Money and Your Mate,” doesn’t see them as a cure-all. “It doesn’t help you to identify why you are doing it, so you can modify the behavior going forward,” she says. “I think it would be helpful for people to get at the root of why they do what they do.” For instance, some people shop impulsively as a way to affirm an identity they have about themselves (think: wanting to be stylish, smart or well-traveled) or to fill a void in their lives.
Her low-tech solution to this problem is an exercise she calls “Roll Call.” Go through bank and credit card statements to see which purchases were planned versus unplanned and tally up the dollar amount of the unplanned purchases. Ask yourself: “If I continue doing this for the next 30 days, 90 days, am I OK with the opportunity cost that’s associated with this?” she suggests. “Realize that your impulse spending is to the tune of $300 a month, that’s $3,600 that you could have done something else with.”
Then, think about why you made those unplanned purchases and look for patterns. “Identify your trigger,” she says. Ask yourself: “Did I do this because I was exhausted? Did I do this because I was mad or hurt?” Once you know what conditions lead to impulse buying, you can find other coping mechanisms such as calling a friend for emotional support or soaking in a warm bath.
Of course, behavior changes are not one-size-fits-all, so Rubin suggests tailoring your approach based on how you respond to expectations. Here are four tendencies and strategies for moderating spending.
Upholders meet inner and outer expectations. According to Rubin, upholders don’t tend to shop impulsively and may actually monitor spending or other habits too closely, so budget tracking could actually backfire for them. An example of this tendency is the person who compulsively jogs around the bathroom at night with their Fitbit to make sure that they reach their step goal.
Obligers resist inner expectations, but meet outer expectations. Since obligers don’t want to let others down, Rubin suggests using outer accountability to avoid going over budget with impulse buys. “They might tell their family, ‘I’m saving this amount each month for a vacation,'” she says. “The idea is if you break that budget, then your family is going to be disappointed.”
Questioners meet inner expectations and resist outer expectations. Questioners want their spending choices to serve their own needs and values, so they care less about what others think. According to Rubin, they might ask themselves: “What is the highest and best use of this money? Is this the most efficient way [to achieve my goal]?”
Rebels resist inner and outer expectations. Rubin suggests that rebels frame purchasing decisions as an act of choice and freedom. “Rebels really want to be free,” she says. Because rebels resist outside control, Rubin suggests that they might say to themselves, “Madison Avenue is trying to get me to buy these products. They’re trying to send these banner ads, but I’m free from that. I’m a person who spends the money the way I want to spend it.”
[See: How to Live on $13,000 a Year.]
Not all unplanned spending is bad, but Timmons suggests setting a dollar limit for the year. “When you hit that threshold, it’s a wrap for the year,” she says. “If you hit that in three months, [your discretionary spending is] done.”
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Tools and Tricks to Curb Impulse Spending originally appeared on usnews.com
