6 Easy Ways to Stop Your Habit of Shopping When You Get Bored, According to AT Readers
If you’ve ever felt a sudden urge to shop for… well, just about anything, you’re in good company. Maybe you want to find a dress you don’t necessarily need — because you have plenty of dresses already in your closet, and you know this! — or you’re browsing e-retailers between meetings as a way to kill time. Whatever the reason, impulse buying is increasingly common in a world filled with credit cards and Instagram ads. It might not be fun to ignore that urge, but reining in the habit can help you stick to a budget and save money for purchases you’ll need to make down the line.
While “a certain (modest) level of impulse buying can be harmless,” psychologist Ian Zimmerman noted in Psychology Today, feeling a constant desire to shop can add up quickly and land you in a world of debt. If impulse shopping is a constant problem for you — and especially if it has resulted in financial trouble — it might be helpful to speak to a therapist or other mental health professional about ways to cope.
Here are six ways Reddit users, as well as Apartment Therapy readers and contributors, handle the urge to shop without putting their bank account in the red.
Ask yourself if what you’re buying is a “want” or a “need.”
Sometimes it’s OK to buy things you want, for whatever reason you want them. But if you’re looking to cut back on spending, categorizing things into these two lists can help you decide whether or not to hit the purchase button. That awareness, beauty writer and Smell Ya Later podcast co-host Tynan Sinks told Apartment Therapy, can help you in the long run.
“It’s a balance of giving myself permission to buy something when I want or need it, because I deserve it, while on the other hand, realizing I already have everything I will ever need, and more possessions don’t make me happier,” he said. “I did need new jeans a few months back, and I bought them and I’m happy I did, but the other stuff, whatever that might be, it’s like, why do I want this? Who do I want it for? What do I lack? What will this add?”
Focus on one or two small things that scratch the shopping itch without putting a dent in your budget.
For Apartment Therapy reader Rebecca, “walking around and browsing but only allowing myself one or two things that make me happy” helps offset any urges to go on a spending spree.
“When I’m feeling the pull to shop (but don’t actually need anything), I’ll try and think of the things that are small that will make me happy, like a jean baseball hat from the Gap that happens to be 40 percent off (happened to me last week!),” she said. “I get the excitement of a new piece of clothing without the guilt of mindless spending because it’s something I’ll actually use. The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized how wasteful it is to need a new black top for going out every weekend (hello, early 20s) and have learned to focus on the staples that I love.”
Delay hitting the “buy now” button by doing literally anything else.
Online shopping has been on the rise in the past year, with stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines in stores compounding on people’s urges to hit that “buy now” button so they have something to look forward to. Apartment Therapy contributor Kara Nesvig knows that feeling well.
“In normal times when getting a package wasn’t my greatest joy, I would deal with the shoppies by trying to refocus my attention,” she said. “In the summer, I would go for a long walk without my [credit] card or go to the beach. In the winter I would do something productive like a big cleaning project. Usually, I would get over it.” Use this advice as the nudge you need to tackle that closet clean-out, or finally scrub the grout in your bathroom tile. After a few hours of hard work, you might forget all about that impulse to shop because you’re bored.
Build wishlists.
Adding a bunch of items to your Amazon Wishlist or some other list seems counter-intuitive, but according to a few Reddit users, it works. “I found Amazon wishlists helped me a TON,” u/myrab51 explained. “I made probably 40 wishlists. Books I wanted, kitchen stuff, camping supplies… I found one of the biggest things was just the chase, finding just the right item. I would throw it all onto wishlists. I found I almost never really came back to them. It cut my shopping dramatically.”
Other Redditors use wishlists to tentatively budget out that new hobby they want to try on impulse. The wishlist feature, u/IDontWantToArgueOK said, “allows me to not only find the exact item I would buy, but also pick out maintenance items or any accessories and see the whole cost of something beyond just the initial investment. So if I’m considering a new hobby I will make a list of everything I need to get started, and if I’m still interested once my frivolous purchase fund is funded I can buy it all in one swoop so I’m less likely to give up and can get started immediately.”
Help family members with their shopping.
If you have everything you “need” right now, why not use your urge to shop to save someone else time hunting down the best deal. As “Guac Is Extra But So Am I: The Reluctant Adult’s Handbook” writer Sarah Solomon explained, “When I get the shoppies, I spend time finding the best quality or deal available” for something she needs for her apartment or life. “Or I ask my family what they need and shop for them. I find I like the act of shopping just as much if not more than actually buying something.”
Make a list of everything you’d buy in the future with the money you’d save now.
Apartment Therapy reader Carolina uses the distant future as a motivator to not hit “buy now”… well, right now. “I find that a lot of times I shop online to cure momentary boredom or even existential dread, so I try to remind myself that even though I enjoy the momentary rush of buying a new foundation or purse, these purchases add up!” she said. “I make a mental or physical list of the things I’m saving for or things that the money would be better used for, such as paying off my credit cards, a fund to pay for therapy, paying for classes to support my favorite fitness instructors, donating to mutual aid funds, sending it to my family overseas, etc.”
She noted, however, that feeling guilt for wanting to shop in the here and now is counterproductive, so it’s helpful to hold space for yourself and your wants. “Sometimes you still want to buy the purse and that’s okay, but this has definitely helped me find mindfulness when I have the ‘shoppies,'” she said of her future planning. “I also try to budget each month for extra purchases like this so treating myself doesn’t feel extravagant or coated in shame.”