How to Stop Impulse Buying: 4 Tips to Take Control of Spending

Impulse buying is so deeply ingrained in our culture that most marketing nowadays aims to convince consumers to buy immediately before they can honestly think about it. Yet, many consumers are noticing the toll such spending takes on their finances and looking for ways to stop impulse buying.

In this article, we will examine how to stop impulse buying food, clothing, accessories, and all other items that are frequently purchased this way. We will also explore the common triggers and hidden costs of this behavior to help you understand it better.

So, let’s begin!

Key Takeaways

• Impulse buying is any purchase that hasn’t been planned in advance or accounted for in your monthly budget.
• The root causes of impulse buying may be emotional highs and lows, societal pressure, or environmental factors.
• To stop impulse buying, create shopping lists, recognize your triggers, plan a budget that leaves room for fun spending, and reframe your relationship with material possessions.
• You can use pay stubs for a better insight into your monthly income, which will help you create a budget to control your spending habits.

Understanding the Psychology Behind Impulse Buying

Understanding the psychology behind impulse buying can help you curb these urges and develop better financial habits. You’ll become more adept at recognizing the triggers and responding to them in a healthier manner. This is especially important if you're trying to break the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck.

But before we delve into this, let’s quickly examine what sort of purchases constitute impulse buying.

Essentially, any purchase that hasn’t been planned or accounted for in your monthly budget is considered an impulse buy. As a result, examples of impulse buying can differ significantly in nature and price tag.

Here are some common impulse purchases:

• Books
• Shoes
• Sweets
• Clothing
• Video games
• Decorative items
• Home improvement
• Takeout and delivery

Keep in mind that even expensive items, like cars, laptops, and plane tickets, can be bought on impulse. The scale of your purchases depends on your budget and isn’t limited to everyday goods.

Now that we’ve established that, let’s examine what motivates impulse buying in more detail.

What Triggers Your Spending Urges?

Your spending urges can be triggered by emotional highs and lows, environmental factors, and societal pressure. So, if you’re wondering why you’re suddenly impulse buying, examine what you’ve been thinking or feeling just moments earlier.

When we say emotional highs and lows, we mean strong feelings like stress, anxiety, loneliness, or boredom, but also excitement and joy. It’s a well-known fact that retail therapy can temporarily boost your mood, yet many forget that people experiencing intense happiness are also likely to reach for their wallets.

For instance, how many times have you felt an urge to treat yourself after a job well done? Moreover, have you noticed your tendency to ignore common sense and splurge on items you don’t need when celebrating? Both of these are clear examples of impulse buying.

You’re also more likely to buy impulsively when you are exposed to sales and discounts or ads in your immediate environment. In fact, stores are designed to trigger your urge to buy, so you often walk out carrying much more than you intended.

Plus, it’s not just your surroundings urging you to spend your hard-earned money; society as a whole is. Influencers on social media, friends recommending a new product they’ve liked, and subconscious messages claiming you’d fit in better if you owned a particular item. The pressure is omnipresent and unrelenting.

Is Impulsive Buying a Symptom of ADHD?

Impulsive buying can be a symptom of ADHD, as people with it struggle to control themselves and frequently chase dopamine highs, which can be achieved through shopping.

However, you shouldn’t diagnose yourself with ADHD just because you struggle to keep your spending habits in check. ADHD comes with many other symptoms, such as an inability to focus or hyperfocus, restlessness, and forgetfulness. So, you likely don’t have this condition if you only experience impulsive buying.

The Hidden Cost of Impulse Purchases

The hidden cost of impulse purchases is that your bad habits eventually take a toll on your budget and mental health. Of course, the instant gratification may seem worth it at the time, but it’s certainly not in the long run.

Namely, Americans spend $150 a month on impulse purchases, which may not seem significant until you consider that’s $1,800 a year. Such money could go toward something practical or bring you closer to your material goals, but instead, it’s being spent on candy, accessories, and clothes you don’t need.

Not only that, but impulse purchases are frequently followed by feelings of regret, guilt, and shame once the excitement passes. After all, that’s your hard-earned money thrown down the drain for a brief moment of satisfaction. The more you purchase on impulse, the more intense these feelings become, but rarely enough to stand in your way.

Ultimately, impulse purchases aren’t worth the price you pay for them and often end up as unused clutter collecting dust in your closet. So, think twice before you reach for that item on the shelf; you might not need it as much as you think you do.

4 Strategies to Break the Impulse Buying Cycle

The strategies to break the impulse buying cycle include making shopping lists and sticking to them, recognizing and redirecting your shopping triggers, creating a budget that leaves room for joy, and reframing your relationship with money.

Let’s take a closer look at how you can get out of impulse buying:

#1. Create Shopping Lists & Stick to Them

Shopping lists are an excellent way to control impulse spending, as they force you to examine your needs thoroughly and cut out any superfluous expenses.

Furthermore, having a plan when you enter a grocery shop ensures that you don’t spend much time wandering among the aisles, which, inevitably, leads to buying items you don’t need. Instead, you’ll go in, purchase the goods on your list, and get out before temptation kicks in.

In theory, this sounds simple, but practice may be trickier. It’s easy to get sidetracked by flashy new offers or seemingly impressive discounts. But before you reach for the item on sale, ask yourself whether you truly need it. If the answer is no, stick to your list!

However, online shopping may be the true challenge because no shopping list can prepare you for an algorithm tailored to display precisely the products you’re interested in. In the blink of an eye, you find yourself checking out items, even if you’ve never intended to buy anything.

To avoid this, take a 24-hour cool-off period each time you’re tempted to buy something from an online shop. This will allow you to step back and reconsider your purchase, as well as distance yourself from the emotions that triggered the impulse in the first place.

#2. Recognize & Redirect Your Shopping Triggers

Think back on when you most frequently engage in impulse buying. For most people, this is during periods of emotional highs and lows, either when they want to celebrate or improve their moods.

However, there are other triggers, too; for instance, social media can be a huge one. Scrolling down your feed, you’ll likely come across dozens of ads and sponsored posts, as well as influencers promoting their brand affiliates.

Even if you ignore all that, there’s a hidden danger of comparing yourself to your friends. It’s easy to convince yourself that your life isn’t as glamorous as theirs because of material reasons, and seek to resolve this by impulse buying.

So, how do you resist the urge to buy stuff when you’re exposed to these triggers?

For starters, learn to recognize them and find financially responsible ways to respond to them. Never shop when you’re emotional, and remind yourself that what you see on social media isn’t always real. Then, distract yourself until the urge goes away; you may, for example, go for a walk, talk to a friend, or enjoy an activity that puts you in a good mood.

#3. Create a Budget That Leaves Room for Joy

Although we’ve emphasized the importance of sticking to your shopping lists and buying only what’s necessary, such a strategy is unsustainable if you don’t give yourself a bit of leeway.

That doesn’t mean succumbing to your impulses; rather, it means learning to channel them in a way that gives you control. This is only possible if you recognize that some money must be spent on things that make you happy, even if they are completely unnecessary otherwise.

So, when planning your budget for the month, set aside a small portion for fun spending. You can use these funds for restaurants, sweets, video games, clothing, or anything else that fills you with joy. As long as you stick to the established limit, none of this will count as impulse buying; after all, you’ve factored it into your plans.

#4. Reframe Your Relationship With Money & Possessions

To permanently stop impulse buying, you need to change your relationship with money and material possessions.

For starters, don’t let consumerist culture control you by convincing you that your value is intrinsically tied to what you purchase. Instead, practice gratitude for the things you own, even if they aren’t the latest and the best.

That doesn’t mean you need to deny yourself all life’s pleasures, but you should keep yourself in check. Too much of a good thing can become addictive, and compulsive buying is likely to take a toll on both your mental health and your bank account.

Finally, think of it this way: one unnecessary purchase today means fewer funds for something you actually care about in the future. Maybe you’d like to save for a new car, a trip to an exotic destination, or your dream house. Each time you stop yourself from impulse buying, you get a step closer to these goals.

How Paystub.org Can Support Your Financial Wellness Journey

Paystub.org can support your financial wellness journey by helping you keep track of your income and create a realistic monthly budget. Use our pay stub generator to stay on top of your gross earnings, deductibles, and expenses, and calculate how much you have left for spending each month.

All you have to do is open the generator, select a template, and then fill in the required information about your company, yourself, and your salary. You can add extra earnings and deductions for a more accurate representation of your monthly income; after that, let our software do the calculations for you.

Final Thoughts

Making purchases on the spur of the moment might feel good, but it’s followed by regret and potential money problems. Hopefully, now you understand how to stop impulse buying and how to respond to shopping triggers in a more financially responsible way, thus saving your funds for things that matter.

How to Stop Impulse Buying FAQ

#1. Is it realistic to never make impulse purchases?

It may not be realistic never to make impulse purchases, but it is possible to minimize them so much that they no longer significantly affect your bank account. You can achieve this by thinking about your spending habits, making shopping lists and monthly budgets, and identifying triggers that lead to impulsive buying.

#2. How do I handle social pressure to spend money?

You can handle social pressure to spend money by surrounding yourself with people who share similar values to you when it comes to finance. Furthermore, try to curate the content you are exposed to so that it doesn’t focus on material possessions and turn to meaningful hobbies and activities that fulfill you.

#3. What’s the difference between a want and a need?

The difference between a want and a need is that the former may improve the quality of your life but isn’t essential, while the latter is necessary for survival. Considering that, food, water, shelter, and clothing would be a need, while sweets, cell phones, and cars are a want.

#4. How long does it take to break impulse shopping habits?

It’s difficult to say how long it takes to break impulse shopping habits, as the specifics depend on your personality traits and the level of your commitment. However, you can expect the process to last several weeks at least, so don’t give in to your urges during this time.