5 tips to curb impulse purchases
On a first name basis with your courier? Then these tips were made for you ……keep on scroll’in
1/ Unsubscribe from emails. It * should * be a no-brainer, but your mind is going to tell you that you will be missing out on being notified of sales and deals. Truth is, if you really needed an item you would go looking for it. If you are starting a healthy eating plan, you are not going to store 5 tubs of Ben & Jerry’s in the fridge.
So let’s say adios to temptation being delivered to your inbox every day.
If this is too much of a leap for you, choose 3 of your favourite stores to keep and ditch the rest (you know you can always re-subscribe).
2/ Delay your purchase. We live in a society of instant gratification, so why not commit to delaying purchases for a month - basically tell yourself that you can buy the item (if you can afford it with cash) at the end of the month if you still want it.
Bonus tip - I usually see if I have any money left over right before my next payday and if I do, then I can buy those items that I wanted during the month (if I can still remember what it was!). Just to be clear, I ‘pay myself first’ so I have already invested and saved prior to having money left over so I can enjoy my purchase guilt free.
3/ Unfollow people on social that gives you the urge to spend money. Even if it’s me (hopefully not otherwise that would be ironic!). Do you have certain accounts that you follow or shows that you watch that seem to always give you the urge to spend? I personally find that whenever I watch interior design shows it gives me the urge to want to buy new furniture or do renovations so I try and keep these shows to a minimum.
4/ Don’t save your card details to your phone or computer. Amazon makes bucket loads of money because of the 1-click button - they basically made shopping ‘friction free’.
Businesses know the importance of removing friction, because every step of filling out those annoyingly long forms is a chance that you will abandon the cart. So they spend ALOT of money to remove friction. Our job is to put it back for ourselves! If you have to get up to get your credit or debit card, you’re gonna think twice before hitting that buy button.
5/ Would you drive to the store to buy it? Shopping out of boredom? Make a rule for yourself that you can buy something, but only if you purchase it in store. This again adds ‘friction’. I am a typical millennial that can’t be bothered to go into a store to buy something, so even just imagining having to drive there, find a park, etc. already puts me off and makes me realise that I would rather live without said item, thank you very much.
Happy reading,
Cathy xx
