How to Curb Your Spending

Online shopping and a saturated marketplace have made many things about obtaining goods convenient. Your savings account, however, might not be so excited about the newfound efficiency of the “add to cart” movement. Home furnishings are particularly tempting! What’s one more marble planter or cute boho throw rug, right? If you’re looking to curb your impulse buys, however, try these sneaky tips to retrain your brain:

Don’t link your credit card to sites. When your credit card information is saved to a site, buying products is as easy as a single click. No wonder it’s easy to get carried away! Try disabling your credit card number and information from sites that are particularly tempting, so that purchases take a few extra steps, thus giving your brain time to think it over.

Give yourself a waiting period. Feel free to “add to cart” at will, but make a time limit before you follow through. Whether it’s 24 hours or a few days, giving yourself time to think the purchase over might dissuade you from pulling the trigger. In fact, you might find yourself so distracted that you forget about it completely!

Unsubscribe from tempting emails. Let’s face it, some companies’ email campaigns are good. So good, in fact, that you might find yourself scrolling through your email and clicking on every promotional link you see. Seventy per cent off all summer clothing until midnight? Sign me up! Why not remove temptation altogether by unsubscribing from every brand’s list? Without those in-your-face promotions, you might forget about impulse buying altogether.

Impulse buying can be a hard habit to curb. Often, you’ll find it takes a while to kick, the way most bad habits do. But with some diligence and sneaky tips for making it more challenging for you to indulge, you’ll be on your way to more disciplined spending in no time.