Most of us browsing through this article might be loving shopping. And the word “Emotional Shopping” might have attracted many of the ones reading the article. Ideally, many of us mistake recognizing the difference between useful and wasteful shopping. This is when emotional spending comes into the picture.
It arises when an individual spends money for the solitary purpose of improving one’s mood. Many shoppers tend to shop in response to their negative emotions. Many people often call it “retail therapy”.
The important thing lies in the fact that shopping when done in moderation isn’t a problem, but it becomes one when it comes to a stage where we exceed our budgets, or when we start to feel guilty about our purchases or over-spend we have.
People believe that emotional shopping is better than compulsive over-eating or consuming alcohol, but on a serious note, it is as addictive as the former two.
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Signs That Show That You Could be an Emotional Shopper
There may be numerous indications to show that one is an emotional spender. The very first includes the basic feeling of “self–realization” about the fact that you are an emotional shopper.
Separating the mind from the heart when it comes to spending is a basic and important step towards a beneficial relationship with finances.
Other reasons include factors like justifying your purchases; the feeling of purchasing things to maintain or uplift your social strata. Another important indicator could be “regret”. If a person regrets his purchases, this could also be a sign of being an emotional spender.
Steps to curb emotional spending
Knowledge about emotional spending triggers
This could depend on your mood, stress, or anxiety levels. Once this is identified, then you can focus on ways to overcome and fight it.
Making budgets and sticking to them
The best and the easiest way to curb emotional spending is to prepare a budget for your finances. This helps you avoid purchasing unnecessary things and helps you save money that could be used for some better purpose.
The 48-hour rule
This is a very simple yet effective way to deal with emotional spending. It is just basically giving yourself time before you make a specific purchase. Using the 48-hour rule is thinking about a specific purchase decision and its impact on your monthly budget before buying it. During this time, think about the product and its usability in your life. If you still think of buying it go ahead with it. This rule will curb your emotional spending needs to a great extent.
Research about healthy activities that make you feel better, like exercise, reading, etc., or doing something of your interest or hobby instead of indulging in emotional spending.
Last Words
Practising the steps mentioned above will help you control your spending needs to a greater extent, which helps in having more money in your hands than you ever had before.
Shopping unnecessarily shouldn’t be your only way to deal with things. Though it will take a lot of self-control to curb emotional spending, it indeed helps you avoid financial ruin.
Image Courtesy: Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash
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