With the announcement of Trump’s tariffs, there has never been a more crucial time for you to stop buying things you don’t need. Besides the rising cost of many products, the US might be barreling straight for a Depression, and learning to save money and do without things is the number one way to come out of this time relatively unscathed.
If you find yourself in a place where you’d like to curb your overall spending but you are not sure where to start, then fear not. Lots of people out there are in the same boat, and it’s quite challenging to fight the urge to buy things, given all the constant marketing tactics that come at us from nearly every angle.
To learn more about the best steps you can take to end all the unnecessary spending and shopping, read on, as we’ll discuss how you can get started.
Make and Stick to a Budget
Making a budget is not a very difficult thing to do, but the challenge comes when we have to try and adhere to it as best as possible. To prevent yourself from buying things impulsively, you can ask yourself if the thing you want to buy is budgeted for at all. If the answer is no, then you should take that as a sign to not buy it.
Use Cash
Shopping frivolously is so easy to do when you have a debit or credit card on you at all times. Perhaps leaving the cards at home and only taking cash with you can be a great tactic to reduce your compulsive shopping needs.
It’s really easy to make big transactions with a simple swipe or tap without really being aware of the amount of money that you’re spending. At least with physical cash, you have a better idea of the physical amount of money you’re spending.
Avoid Temptations
If you tend to make impulsive purchases on a particular app or store, it could be a good idea to delete the app or avoid the store at all costs. You can also make a point of never saving your card details on online stores such as Amazon, as this will make it harder to complete purchases and hopefully deter you from frivolous buys.
Unsubscribe
If you receive marketing emails or texts from certain companies, make sure you unsubscribe from all of these. It can be tempting to follow through with purchases when we constantly receive reminders of the things that we should be buying. It’s crucial to cut off all of these temptations from the get-go!
Make a Wishlist
Wishlists are great to make when you want to buy something that’s not been planned but you’re not sure if you want to go over your budget. Sometimes, we see something that we like or want to buy but have not allocated funds for it on that particular month.
Simply adding these things to a wishlist that you can visit at a later stage will prevent you from making impulsive purchases.
Do a No Buying Shopping Challenge
A no-shopping challenge is a great way to challenge yourself to take a break from shopping, and it can hopefully also break the habit. A no-shopping challenge can start with stopping buying things for some time, such as one week, and once you’ve completed that, you can challenge yourself to try a longer no-shopping challenge.
