5 Ways To Curb The Shopping Urge

I love to go shopping and I sometimes (ok, often) have a hard time sticking to my budget. Here are some ways I help myself succeed.

Ask yourself how you would feel if the item was on sale. When I was pregnant with my daughter I really wanted to buy her an Ikea sheepskin rug, but I kept hesitating because of its price as well as for ethical reasons. When I found it for 40% off in the Ikea ‘As Is’ section, I didn’t hesitate… to leave it. Seeing it a lower price told me that I really didn’t want it that much after all and I haven’t stopped to look at the rugs again since.

Think of what you have at home that you could re-purpose to serve the same use. For example, I thought about buying some matching plastic tumblers for my kids. They weren’t expensive, only €1.50 for six, but I have some perfectly useful, albeit mismatched kids’ goblets sitting in my cupboard at home. And the money that you don’t spend could be snowflaked to savings or debt repayment!

Give yourself permission to buy it at a later date. Sometimes when I tell myself that I can’t go shopping today, but I give myself permission to go on Friday, in three weeks, or next month, the urge to shop passes between now and then. I have lots of ways of putting shopping off- I might tell myself that today is a no driving day, or a moratorium on money day, or it might be that I have to get through my to-do list first- whatever works.

Give yourself permission to buy it after saving up the cost of the item, but only through snowflaking it, not from your regular budget! If you really want the thing that badly, you should be able to find enough extra income to pay for it.

Obey the $100 a day rule. I just read about this one from NCN a week or two ago, but I think it’s fantastic and I’m going to be using this as one of my guidelines from now on. I especially like how it automatically (and logically) gives you more time to think over the biggest purchases.

What works for you? Do you have any ways to curb the shopping urge?