What is Impulse Spending? How to stop impulse Buying Online

You know that thing, where you’re just casually scrolling on instagram and you see a SUPER cute necklace, and it’s 30% off and there’s free shipping but only if you buy it in the next 3 hours and it just seems so meant to be that you buy it right then and there?

You know that suuuper guilty feeling you get when you see that box on your doorstep and you suddenly remember you spent $50 you didn’t have on a necklace you totally didn’t need?

We’re going to talk about that today.

Impulse spending.

It’s a problem that so many people have, and if you’re not careful, can REALLY mess up your money plans. Before I really got into personal finance, I thought it was totally normal. Like everyone went through it and it just meant we were just ‘spenders’ not ‘savers’. But now that I know a lot more about finance and a lot more about myself, I’ve been able to recognize impulse spending for what it is, and implement strategies and tools that work for me to stop it!

So, if you’re an impulse spender bookmark this post! Because I’m about to give you a whole lot of information that will have you back on track with your budget!

What IS Impulse Spending?

Before we get into the strategies, let’s talk about WHAT impulse spending actually is. Understanding the kind of psychological background to all of this will help you recognize when it’s happening to you, and allow you to be a lot more objective in implementing these tools.

According to Wikipedia:

An impulse purchase or impulse buying is an unplanned decision to buy a product or service, made just before a purchase.

(Obviously Wikipedia isn’t the top place to go for accurate information, but I think this is a pretty good working definition, so we’re going to go with it!)

This means that anything you buy, without thinking about it beforehand, is an impulse purchase.

There is a huge spectrum to this: There are things that we buy on impulse that aren’t that damaging, for example when supermarkets have chocolate and gum in the check out aisles of their stores, but then there are other impulse buys that might become a problem, like getting pulled in by a 75% off sign in the window of a shoe store when you already have 3 pairs of perfectly wearable footwear.

These days, we’re PRIMED for impulse shopping. Our society really praises consumerism and there are tons of little ways where we’re almost tricked into purchasing items. Shopping is emotional. And whether we realize it or not, advertisers, store owners, product sellers, they’re all tapping into that emotional part of our brain to get us to buy.

So, how do we stop ourselves from being caught in the trap?

Understanding the Problem of Impulse Buying:

The first step, is understanding yourself. Recognizing when and where your more likely to impulse shop, and when that shopping leads to regret or causes larger problems within your budget.

We call these causes ‘triggers’.

You might already recognize a pattern in your own behaviour, if you’re watching this video it means you probably typed in “How to stop impulse spending” and that itself shows me that you’re already halfway there, but the important part here, is to pinpoint the actual REASON.

Maybe you impulse shop more when you’re sad, or happy. Maybe you only do it when you online shop, or when you see a ‘great deal’.

How to Identify Your Impulse Shopping Triggers:

Start by writing down your purchases. I think I mentioned this one before in my ‘How to Stop Overspending’ post. It’s called a spending journal. You write down your purchases, the amount they were, your emotional state when buying, and any other significant details you can think of, like a significant event that happened that day, or the fact that it was on sale, whatever you can track.

After filling up a few pages, go back and take a look at the list. Which purchases do you wish you didn’t make? What factors are similar between them and can you see any patterns? Maybe there’s a similarity in the timing of those purchases, or the day of the week they were purchased on.

Another thing you can do is go through your credit card statements or receipts. Just start highlighting the purchases on there that you don’t remember, that you think weren’t good for you, that you wished you’d made a different choice.

Seeing all of these items together really helps you visualize the whole picture and once you start to realize what triggers YOU to shop impulsively, then you can move on to addressing those actual issues!

How to Stop Impulse Shopping:

Number one, start addressing the source. If you’ve done the first activity, you’ll already have an awareness of what causes your impulse shopping. Address that.

Rules:

Put some ‘rules’ in place for yourself based on your triggers: ie. if you’re sad, you don’t buy, or ‘don’t buy after 7pm’, whatever your trigger is, create some sort of ‘barrier’ to stop yourself.

Now, notice I said ‘buy’ instead of shop. This really depends on you knowing yourself, but for me, I can do all the shopping I want. But I stop myself at the ‘buy’. I fill up my carts, I fill up my wishlists, but I can’t BUY anything. I give myself that time between shopping and purchasing to understand if I actually want or need the item, instead of getting caught up in the moment. Again, you have to know yourself to make this work, so if you know you can’t stop yourself from buying when you shop, maybe that technique isn’t for you, but you have to figure that out for yourself.

You can also make general rules for yourself, Regardless of your triggers, it’s always good practice for example never to shop when you’re tired (your brain gets foggy and has trouble making sound judgements), never grocery shop when you’re hungry (you KNOW you buy more food that way), maybe ‘don’t waste time at the mall’, it’s always helpful to create an environment for yourself that doesn’t support the option to impulse buy in the first place.

Wish Lists:

Another technique I really love is wish lists. When you’re thinking about something you need, or tempted to buy something, put it on a wish list instead. Again, it’s putting that time between the ‘shop’ and the ‘buy’. It allows you to THINK about why you actually want or need something before you purchase it. Sometimes I’ll look at something I put on a wish list 3 months ago and think wow, why did I ever want that?! and that completely proves to me that I was caught up in that emotional hype instead of making a clear decision.

This really helps with sales as well.

Sales:

Repeat after me: JUST BECAUSE IT’S ON SALE. DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU NEED IT. One more time, Just because it’s on sale, does NOT mean that you need it.

If an item is on sale, 60% off from $75, YOU’RE STILL PAYING $30 FOR THAT ITEM. A ‘sale’ is only a sale if you actually want / need the item.

I know, it hurts, this one STILL gets me sometimes but seriously, just make it a mantra for yourself, just because it’s on sale, does not mean that I need it.

During sales, it’s super helpful to already have those wishlists in place. This way, you can actually KNOW what you really want.

If it’s on your wishlist, it’s a GREAT deal and you can buy all you want.

If it’s NOT on your wishlist, take a moment to think about it. Are you ACTUALLY going to use this item? WHY do you want to purchase it? If you can’t take some time to seriously ponder whether you actually need to buy it, you’re probably just trying to trick yourself into getting it.

If you’re shopping online, do the ‘adding to cart’ thing, if you’re at a physical store, hide the item in a weird place, and take a walk around the mall. Give yourself 25min, an hour, whatever to just get out of that space. Separate yourself from the actual ‘buy’ to get your mind right. You have to put yourself in a different emotional place to sort out what your real feelings are.

How to Stop Impulse Buying Online:

Online shopping seems to be a whole other THING. The convenience, the fast pace, the social media aspect of it all. It’s made to feed the impulse shopping monster.

If online scrolling is a trigger for you, don’t keep your credit card in your phone. It’s like placing your cell phone in a different room so when the alarm goes off in the morning you actually have to GET UP to turn it off.

Make yourself GET UP to make the purchase. That simple act of having to physically go, open your purse, and get your credit card can sometimes be enough to deter the purchase.

Make that one of your rules: ‘Never buy from instagram ads’ or, screenshot those ads, and make a special album in your phone. That way, you’re not clicking on the ad so instagram knows to send you more of them and you have the time to actually think about WHY you’re interested in that particular item. If you still love it a week after you took that screenshot, THEN you can buy it.

Emotional Impulse Spending:

Another thing that I love doing is giving myself a ‘budget’ to shop with. I’m an emotional spender. Sometimes if I’m feeling down, or bored, or whatever, shopping, and that ‘rush’ of pushing the ‘buy’ button really helps me through.

So, I started shopping on a smaller scale. I’d give myself a $5 limit, and scour ebay for junk. Now, this might seem weird, like the things you’re buying for under $5 on ebay are NOT good items. BUT, it still gives that rush of purchase when I can find something super cheap and really cute for $1. Like a pop socket for my phone, or a really cute necklace. If I really need a ‘shopping release’ this is my go to. Again, you have to know yourself, if this is too tempting for you, don’t do it. But it CAN give just enough ‘excitement’ to curb that habit. Plus, it’s really interesting to get all these tiny little items in the mail months later. I almost always forget what I bought myself so it’s like having a mystery shopper who picks out stuff exactly in your style!

Conclusion:

Shopping isn’t bad. We’re allowed to spend our money on whatever we want. But impulse purchasing isn’t planned. Often times, it doesn’t actually fit with our values, and none of these purchases actually bring us joy.

Take the time to breathe between the shop, and the buy. Better yet, build the buy into your budget, figure out what you want, what the price is, and save for it. That purchase is going to be a lot more satisfying when you know you’ve put in the hard work of restraining yourself on the impulse, saving up, and planning the purchase.

Let me know in the comments down below: What are your spending triggers? Mine are definitely sales and emotional!