Who doesn’t fall for a good sale that includes free shipping! I often come across sponsored posts of renowned Bangladeshi clothing brands announcing big red ‘sales’ at eye level, which is hard not to pay a browse. Again, while waiting for check-outs at the queue of supermarkets, don’t you end up adding canned chips or packets of chocolate to your cart that you didn’t intend to buy while entering?
I am sure we all are the victims of this instant urge to buy stuff.
So, what do we call this succumbing to temporary temptation that triggers us to buy anything without thinking whether we need the product or not? This is Impulse Buying – a piece of bad news for your wallet and the monthly budget you fixed earlier. It refers to that unplanned purchase of a product or a service made to meet your instant gratification instead of considering the necessity. Impulse buying is a tried and tested trap that retailers use to disrupt the rational decision-making process. As this is a psychological technique to steer the consumer’s purchase, you have to knock it back tactfully.
Here we have pulled together ways to rein in your Impulse buying!
Keep a budget & watch your wallet
Start budgeting to zero and stick to it. I hope you have one already. Don’t go monthly initially. If you are someone who struggles to make money behave, even after developing and redoing the budget repeatedly, count me in!
To avoid spilling your budget out, make it weekly. You can set a target for the week and promise yourself not to surpass the limit. Not keeping a promise to yourself can be laughed off, considering a guilty pleasure. Take limited cash when you go out. If you are at a store or in a cafe, you will get emotionally stimulated, but don’t spend the money until you’ve budgeted for it earlier. The simpler it looks, the harder it is to maintain. Still not happening manually? Go for free budgeting apps like You need a budget, Wally, Pocketguard, etc.
Pay in cash instead
Yes, digital alternatives to hard currency have made our life way too easy in many cases, but the lite wallet has a pricey side as well. Credit cards mold you into a ‘buy now, pay later’ maze. But this temporary excitement will fade away when they hand you over the bill of expenses you made throughout the month. One major drawback of credit and debit cards is, having them encourages you to spend more than you planned to as you don’t see money leaving your wallet. Paying in cash is an easy solution to lashing out. More precisely, carrying limited, as I was saying earlier.
Get off the web temptation
Social media plays a vital role in influencing a consumer’s behavior. With every swipe, you see flashy summer sales popping up on your screen, but what remains unnoticed is you falling out of your impulse. Social media apps like Facebook and Instagram hold numerous users’ preferences and choices. These apps shape customized news feeds to get you to spend your money in every possible way, which ultimately will only help their businesses.
Let alone the sponsored posts by retailers, your friend list drives you psychologically to buy things you don’t need. We often see our friends posting on the arrival of their long-awaited fancy gadgets or Nike shoes. These stir a sense of comparison in our minds. Instead of looking at our overflowing closet, we peek in what others have.
We can’t let Facebook or the peers influence us in absurd shopping. Monitor your urges yourself. Don’t lose yourself in the artificial world of made-up fancies. Having a grip on your conscience while limiting the usage will help you a lot!
Filter your email box
Cutting down the promotional emails to a manageable size will do a significant relief. As we all have our mailbox swamped with spam or business mails, here is something you can do more than just ‘unsubscribing.’
Instead of acting too harsh, like blocking those sites or marking them as spam, you can choose a comparatively appropriate way. Create a secondary mail, or you can call it junk mail. Use that mail address whenever you need access to certain websites or to shop from online stores. This will help prevent your primary email box from getting overloaded with the less important ones.
Redirect all business emails to your temporary mailbox – an advanced throw-away email service to keep your mailbox promotion free. And, this way you will stay distant from receiving frequent sale updates. You might want to know more about temporary email services, right? There are some to consider: Mailinator, 1o Minute Mail, etc.
Beat your basic instinct of irrational purchasing with these strategies, and I bet you will notice visible changes in managing your purchase from now on! Happy Compulsive shopping!
