Shopping can be as addictive as drugs. While addiction to alcohol and drugs is condemned for their harmful social, psychological, and health effects, we tend to take addiction to shopping lightly. If you are one of those people who spend hours on shopping websites and purchasing something every now and then, this article is for shopaholics like you. We will discuss in detail about common psychological triggers related to spending money and how to handle them.
How is shopping a psychological experience?
If you run to the stores to cheer yourself up because you had a bad day at work or if you buy something only because it is on sale even if you don’t need it, these are clear signs that you are a psychological spender. But, spending to achieve happiness or to fill a gap is preventing you from saving money for tough times. So, what can you do to avoid unnecessary expenses and spend your hard-earned money wisely? What are psychological triggers and how can you suppress them?
Psychological triggers and effective solutions:
- Perceived value
Retailers play smart tricks on consumers to compel you to spend. We have learnt that we must get a good value for our money. So, whenever we see someone is offering a product to us at discount price, we grab the offer immediately. When products are sold at their original price, we always feel that we are spending too much and don’t buy it. But, we end up making excess purchases during sale.
Remedy: Whenever you have an urge to shop at times of clearance sale or fifty percent discount, ask yourself if you require the product at all. You also need to understand that no shopkeeper will sell a product suffering a loss. So, they often double the price of items to create an illusion and then give it to you at a discount price.
- Competition
How many times have you bought a lipstick shade or a new attire only to compete with your friends or colleagues?
Remedy: Realize that shopping is not a race and there is no loser or winner.
- Panic buys
We always value short-lived things more than the ones that last longer. Flash sales for a limited period of time makes us panic and we buy stuff we didn’t even considering buying before.
Remedy: Start with unsubscribing to regular emails sent by shopping sites to allure you every now and then.
- Boredom
Another spending trap is boredom. When we are bored, we browse the popular shopping sites to please our eyes, and after staring at beautiful products for an hour, we end up ordering some of them.
Remedy: Keep yourself busy doing productive and meaningful things to keep boredom at bay.
Conclusion:
Follow the above-mentioned tips for just one month and you’ll be amazed to see how much money you have saved. People often go on a diet to promote good health. Now it is time for you to say ‘yes’ to a ‘shopping diet’ to strengthen your finances.
