Hey! Tess, from Money Done Right, contacted me to write a guest post. Here are her top 7 tips on how to bad shopping habits. I’ll offer my own thoughts in red on how I personally avoid making my own bad shopping habits.
7 Tips On How to Break Bad Shopping Habits:
Tip #1: Buying Items on Sale: Don’t Let Sales Fool You!
People spend a lot of money during sales because they assume they’re saving money. In fact, this is exactly why companies run sales. The idea that you’re getting a great deal can propel you to spend money you don’t have on things you don’t need.
When you’re looking at clothes, for example, you might be tempted if something’s on sale for a discount. But if you spend money on clothes you won’t wear, and don’t need, just because they’re on sale, you’re basically setting your money on fire and watching it burn. Most people have closets full of clothes that were “great deals” when they bought them, but they never get worn because they don’t need them.
Rich people are experts at only buying the things they need, and saving and investing the rest of their income.
Sales are just marketing tools. The purpose of sales is to inspire customers to make impulse purchases that they didn’t plan on making when they came into the store. The vast majority of “discounts” aren’t worth it, because they’re just marketing gimmicks to get you to spend more money than you would normally spend.
Tip #2: Plan Your Shopping Trips
Rather than walking into a store without a plan and buying whatever strikes your eyes, and is advertised on sale, discipline yourself to write a list of what you need first. If you know the exact items you need when you walk into a store, and how much money you need to buy them, you’re much less likely to be distracted and tempted to buy shiny things when you see them advertised on sale.
Stop viewing sales as automatic deals. You only save money if you were already planning to purchase the item.
Just a thought: Human beings are wired to accumulate as many resources as they can, because we all need resources to stay alive. Without resources like food, water, warmth, and comfort, you’d die. You need money to buy the resources you need to live, which is why it’s always smarter to save your money, rather than spend it on a bunch of junk that doesn’t help your mission to survive in any way.
One trick I’ve learned is that you don’t don’t need a ton of stuff to stay alive and be happy. Re-wire your brain to resist the natural temptation to accumulate unnecessary. Resist the constant flood of advertisements, sales, and promotions you see in daily America, and instead, accumulate the cash you need to live your deepest dreams.
Tip #3: Avoid Going Into Debt
Going into debt should be terrifying! To me, bad-debt is like a nightmare that transforms your life into a horror story where deranged bill-collector zombies try to suck happiness out of you for the rest of your life. Don’t do it! Especially with consumable purchases!
Nobody wants to go into bad-debt, like credit-card debt, when they walk into a store. But it happens all the time. While swiping a credit-card might not feel like spending money that you don’t have, that bad-debt adds up. Going into debt for shopping or any other expense is one of the most common bad money habits.
Credit cards are tempting tools to buy stuff you want, especially when you don’t have the money.
Credit cards are often a gateway into the mindset of putting off the real cost of things to try and avoid real financial issues for as long as possible. But anytime you put off serious issues in life, the bigger these zombie bill-collectors become. Using credit cards to shop isn’t a sustainable solution, so avoid it all cost.
Why should you avoid credit-card debt? Because credit-cards typically have much higher interest rates than other types of credit. Falling behind on your payments can have a significant effect on your financial situation, and your balance will only continue to grow each month.
Tip #4: Budget for Shopping
Budgeting is a great way to save the money for the things you want without feeling guilty about it. A clear budget tells you exactly how much you have to spend on every category each month.
For example, if you have $100 left over in your budget after paying for essential obligations, you won’t have to go into debt to pay for buying something that costs $100 or less. A budget can also help you buy things that you can’t afford.
To become financially secure, and build wealth, it’s critical that you get out of the habit of spending more than you have as soon as possible.
Tip #5: Making Impulse Purchases Online
The internet makes shopping easier than ever before. But e-commerce websites are designed to make shopping so easy that you spend more money than you want to!
The goal of online retailers is to inspire you to spend your money, so that they can get rich off your money, instead of you getting rich from your money!
Most online stores now allow you to enter your credit card information and make new purchases in just a few clicks. This system takes advantage of your desire for instant gratification and turns the money you’re spending into an afterthought.
Instant gratification = usually means the gateway into the reality of being broke.
Digital vendors add to this dynamic by constantly sending emails that are designed to make you feel like you’re missing out. From coupon and promo codes, limited-time offers and flash sales, there’s always a new online sale that you just can’t miss.
There’s nothing wrong with online shopping in itself, but many people struggle to control their spending when they shop online. Simply recognizing that online shopping is a problem and temptation, and not a solution to your problems, is the first step toward entering the gateway into being rich.
Tip #6: Unsubscribe From Newsletters
The quickest and most effective way to remove the temptation of online shopping is to simply unsubscribe from digital marketing newsletters.
Take a month-or-more break from credit card usage, because you can’t make online purchases without credit cards.
This prevents you from falling into the traps of marketing emails, and making non-essential purchases, before you’ve had a chance to evaluate your budget.
It’s much healthier to look at sales as a perk for something you’ve been waiting for, rather than an impulse buy to buy something you weren’t interested in before you saw the advertisement.
Tip #7: Delete Your Payment Information
Repeatedly entering your credit card number can be tedious. But the few minutes it takes to enter your payment information, gives you a moment to think about your purchase before it comes back to haunt you as a regrettable purchase or bad-debt.
Develop your own creative ways to give yourself a few minutes, hours, or days to contemplate every purchase to see if you really need it or not.
Once you train your mind to think about each purchase, you can then extend your thinking time to hours, days, and even months before you make a non-essential purchase. In time, anyone can break the habit of online impulse shopping.
The Bottom Line On Bad Money Habits and the Tips to Break Them:
Bad financial habits come in many forms, but there are a few common trends that lead people to buy things they don’t need. These tips will help you overcome your current money mindset and develop better habits for long-term financial success.
Building wealth isn’t even about money. It’s about avoiding the things you don’t need to buy, so that you can buy the things and experiences that your soul dreams of living.
So What are some of the bad money habits you have experienced, and how have you overcome them?
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