Humans act on their impulses more often than not. And we’re all guilty of impulsive spending more than once. According to Forbes, impulsive spending means when you buy something you weren’t planning on getting. But it doesn’t have to be harmful as long as you know you can control it, and it doesn’t drown you into debt.
Impulsively splurging money can destroy our budgets, bring stress to our lives, and cause financial troubles. Check out these simple tips on how to avoid impulsive spending and take the reins in your hands!
- Become Aware of Your Impulsive Spending: The first step in behavior change is recognizing the problem. Keeping ourselves aware of our habits and sometimes the cause of these habits is essential. And once you acknowledge that uncontrolled spending is an issue, your awareness of the problem will help you follow through with a plan to stop it.
- Keep Your Goals in Mind: Use lists to write down items you need to buy before heading out to shop and only purchase what’s written in your inventory. Usually, while grocery shopping, we fall into the temptation of buying things we don’t need, but the list helps you maintain control over overspending.
- Delay the Impulse to Spend: Try window shopping without money in your wallet. Check out what you need to buy and then return after a few days after thinking thoroughly about the items. Consider if you need to buy them and at this point and if you can afford to buy them. It can go a long way in helping us control where our money goes.
- Stay on What You Need: Wandering in the store often leads to making purchases we did not know we wanted before we saw them. Store managers arrange items so that the most appealing things catch our attention quickly, and we are tempted to buy them. Simply stay focused on what you need to buy.
- Shop Online: It is usually a better idea to shop online for apparel like shoes and clothes. When you go to a store filled with tempting options, you end up buying them. And mostly, they are never even used because you never needed them, to begin with. Simply add few choices to your cart on your desired brand site, take a few days to comprehend, and if you decide, just buy those.
- Don’t Shop Socially: It is a lovely idea to bring along your friends while you try on new things. But often, this means you will probably end up purchasing more than what you wanted to or buying something you will not need.
- Don’t Let Sales Lure You: Logically speaking, buying something at discounted prices means saving money. Although it may sound like a good idea, it is more likely a trap. Usually, we get caught up in sales excitement and buy things just because we don’t need to pay full price. Unfortunately, this justification doesn’t help your wallet stay within budget.
About Hoshi CPA, LLC
Hoshi CPA, LLC offers expert tax planning services to business owners, executives, and independent professionals in Tigard, Oregon. Udai Hoshi assists individuals, Japanese-speaking communities, and U.S. business owners with tax planning, tax compliance, CFO, and tax resolution services. You can call us at (503) 388-6580 or drop an email at staff@hoshicpa.com to know more.
