A handbag from the new collection, the latest smartphone model, designer shoes… There are so many things that we want to have around that many of us are ready to give our last money just to become their owners. Psychologists Mila Treshcheva and Natalia Gribanova talk about how to resist temptations.
What to do if a thing is not needed, but we find ourselves unable to resist the calls of advertising campaigns and promotions? We succumb to a sudden impulse, and our feet carry us to the counter marked «Sale», and our hands reach for the product, even if it is not discounted.
Consider several situations and try to figure out what will help refrain from impulsive purchases.
1. Are you going to the grocery store? Don’t do this on an empty stomach. The advice is banal, but effective: hunger makes you throw several times more food into the grocery cart than you need. There are also those that you can do without.
2. Going to the store, decide in advance on the amount you plan to spend. This will help you stay within your budget.
3. Try to make a list of necessary products and strictly follow it.
4. In the store, you can add to the list the price of the product that you take from the shelf — this will allow you to calculate the purchase amount in advance and understand if you have gone over the budget.
5. Let’s say you decide that you no longer buy «harmful» products: sausage, semi-finished products, sweets, but, passing by the sausage department, you feel that you cannot resist the temptation. Go to the window, stand for a few minutes, imagine setting the table and enjoying your meal. Mentally fed up? Leave with peace of mind.
Don’t use credit cards. Spending what you haven’t earned yet is unwise and impractical to say the least.
6. Buy a thing only if you are sure that it suits you in size, style and style. Do not give in to the persuasion of sellers, their task is to sell the goods, and not to give an objective assessment.
7. If you are not sure that the item is «yours», do not buy it. Come the next day — perhaps you will look at her with different eyes. You should also not buy a thing with the thought: “If anything, I’ll return it back, I will have 14 days for this.” As a rule, lack of time and laziness prevent you from doing this, which means that the money will be wasted.
8. If you like the thing and it suits you, use the technique used by stylists and fashion editors of glossy publications. Think about how it goes with the rest of your wardrobe. Come up with a couple of images. If you understand that the thing fits perfectly into the wardrobe, buy it. Otherwise, you shouldn’t buy it.
9. Try to pay in cash: it is harder for us to part with them than to pay for the purchase with a card. Banknotes are tangible and weighty, while the money on the card is perceived as something ephemeral, and we easily part with them.
10. Don’t use credit cards. Spending what you haven’t earned yet is unwise and impractical to say the least. Count on the available budget, draw up a financial plan and set aside a certain amount for updating and replenishing the wardrobe.
In addition to the «inheritance» from parents, stress or boredom can also cause bouts of impulsive purchases.
Of course, these techniques are not a panacea and are not suitable for everyone, because the causes of shopaholism attacks are different for everyone. Relationships with money are formed even in the parental family: from childhood, we observe how parents “communicate” with money, and, adopting their experience, we repeat the scenario of relationships with finances.
However, in addition to the “inheritance” from parents, other factors can also serve as a cause of bouts of impulsive shopping: for example, stress, which we often relieve by going to the mall. Or banal boredom: we «kill» time shopping, instead of doing self-realization. But in both cases, it is not worth counting on a lasting effect, since the problem itself has not been solved.
You should not self-medicate: a psychologist will help you identify the causes of uncontrollable attacks of shopaholism, gain control over your behavior, habits and improve communication with money, and a professional financial adviser will tell you how to build relationships with your personal budget.