Have you ever splurged on something you like just to make you feel good, even though it’s exceeded your credit limit? If you have, then looks like we’ve got some bad news for you. You’re on your way to becoming shopoholic and you’re in denial!
Most women have been through this phase, where the addiction to shopping is just uncontrollable yet every thing just feels at peace after spending a fortune on them. We can’t deny how much women love shopping, especially when the item is what you would called “love at first sight”.
However, this is a bad habit you need to break before you get out of control and face the serious debt problem that will take away your life. Hence, we’ve found the solutions to this problem and here are the 7 ways to stop you from compulsive shopping.
1. Lock up your credit cards
Before you apply a credit card, you should know that credit cards are not your money supply. If you are treating it like one, we suggest you to stop it before the debt starts piling up like a mountain. It’s more like an emergency fund except that emergency doesn’t happen all the time and shopping is not an emergency. Hence, keep all your credit cards at home while shopping and only use it when needed.
2. Only carry cash
Since you aren’t supposed to bring your credit cards, just bring the sufficient money when going out for shopping. Paying your items with cash can make sure you remember how much you’ve spent and check the balance. Plus, you don’t even have to pay interests when paying with cash instead of credit cards.
3. Create a spending budget
Set a spending budget on daily basis to make sure you don’t overspend every single month. If you spend less than the budget, you’ll soon find that you have save more money than usual. Soon enough, this will becomes a habit, which would be good to save up for greater things in your life.
4. Jot down daily expenses
Get a notebook or a notebook applications and jot down your daily expanses in the end of the day. It is important to keep track how much you’ve spent and it helps you to limit yourself when you overspend in a particular day. Some of our favourite expense tracker applications include Evernote, Colornote, and Saver.
5. Buy what you need and not what you want
We tend to splurge on the things we love because we think we need it and they might be in use. But the fact is, most of them are not usable and ended up hiding in the darkest corner of the closet. Hence, to prevent this to happen again, we suggest you to buy ONLY what you need, including the essentials. Think hard and long before going on to purchase the items. Ask yourself, “Do I really need it?”, “When is it going to be in use?”…etc. If you found all the reasons to buy it, then wait for another day before making the big decision.
6. Look up for new hobby
Replace the shopping habit with a new hobby such as swimming or reading. Shopping shouldn’t be a hobby as there aren’t much for you to learn from it. Even if there is, most of them contain regrettable moments and serious shopaholics even suffered from depression and anorexia nervosa. Hence, get involve in more positive activities that would balance your life and gives you more positive energy.
7. Get help
Get your family and friends to support you in stopping the addiction. No one should face the problem alone as the support from the loved ones are the biggest encouragement to become a better person. When you get the love and support, you’ll start to appreciate every thing around you and promised to let them down.
