3 Ways to Tame Your Impulse Shopping Today

It starts innocently: Maybe you’re procrastinating or zoning out during a Zoom meeting. You scroll past a sponsored ad (Instagram knows you too well). You click into the product page, and the next thing you know, you’re looking at those big, bold words: “Thank you for your purchase!” 

Impulse shopping. It happens to all of us. Here are 3 tricks to tame an online shopping habit. 

My #1 tip to stop impulse buying: Give it a week

You find yourself hovering over the “Add to Cart” button. Take a deep breath. Then *gasp* close out of the site. 

In the moment, you can always convince yourself that you want, even NEED something. “I would definitely sleep better in washable silk PJs” or “This gym bag has an odor-proof pocket for dirty clothes!” 

But that’s in the moment. For me, closing a site is a true test of how much I want — or actually need — something. Sure, I might still be thinking about it as I’m going to bed. Am I thinking about it in the morning? Possibly. Am I still thinking about it in a week? 

If whatever-it-may-be is still knocking around my noggin a week later, I may go for it. But more often than not, other life things will have taken over, and the impulse-buy-to-be will have evaporated.  

Rinse and Repeat

The trouble is that the internet knows us too well; once you’ve clicked on that ad, you’ll probably see it again and again. But if you’ve already given it one week, can you give it another? You’ve probably worked out some good reasons NOT to buy it in that first week. Hold on to those. And if it’s been more than a few weeks...

Treat Yo’ Self (Once In a While)

And don’t feel guilty doing it. Over a few weeks, you may have closed out of lots of possible impulse buys. Maybe you’ve forgotten about most of them, but one has just been sticking around, lingering. Maybe it’s been so long, it’s even gone on sale. 

Complete self-deprivation doesn’t help build any habits, and knowing that you’ll eventually treat yourself to something you really want makes it easier to pass up the occasional small stuff.