Do you have a problem with impulse spending and shopping? Do you buy things that you don’t need? Well, it’s time to stop shopping for things you don’t need, so you can start saving some money for the things that matter most. In this video, I will share 15 easy and practical tips to stop spending money aimlessly, so that you can finally save some cash and reach your financial goals.

In my 20s, I used to shop impulsively and buy all sorts of things on a whim and I didn’t even end up using the majority of those things. In my 30s, after adopting minimalism, I’ve changed the way I spend money drastically and that has helped me save thousands of dollars.

In this video, I’m sharing my personal experience as well as the tips that have helped me cut down on spending on things I don’t really need. If you have any tips for impulse shopping, let me know in the comments below.

#minimalism #savemoney #simpleliving

If you liked this video, you should subscribe!

To good health,

Ria

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Five thousand, four hundred dollars a
year. That is $54,000 in a decade! That is money that could go towards retirement
savings accounts, emergency funds and even a mortgage down payment. So if you feel
like you're wasting your money buying things that you don't need and the
impulse shopping is getting out of hand – then this video is for you. I'm going to
share 15 easy and practical tips things that I've done and I hope that they help
you too. Hello hello! Welcome back to The Whole
Happy Life. I'm Ria. So I wanted to create this video because I used to be
such an impulsive shopper when I was younger. I spent so much money and I wish
I have known these tips before because I could have saved maybe thirty or forty
thousand dollars in my twenties. So I hope that these tips can be useful to
you. As always, with money things are a little bit different for everybody so
take what you want from this video and leave the rest out. And before we begin,
let me know in the comments below what is your biggest impulse purchase. The one
that you regret the most. I'm really curious to know – let me know in the comments
below. Let's begin. Tip number one – don't shop when you're emotional or when
you're really stressed. I think it's so easy to use shopping as a way to feel
better – as a quick pick-me-up… retail therapy.
But the problem is shopping and retail therapy is not effective. It's short-term –
you'll feel good for maybe a couple hours… maybe even a day or two but after
that you're back to your normal self. So I think retail therapy is prohibitively
expensive if you're an impulse shopper and it's just a good idea to find other
things to do to deal with those emotions. So let's say you're feeling sad – instead
of going to the mall maybe talk to a friend, watch a funny movie on Netflix
that you enjoy – do something else that doesn't involve spending copious amounts
of money. And if you're feeling stressed there are other things that you could do
that don't involve spending money. Go for a walk in the park. Go for a workout. Do
some self-care at home. Things that you could do for free.
Tip number two – don't shop out of sheer boredom. I can't tell you the number of
times I've gone to the mall because I was bored. I thought I was only going to
window shop and that window shopping quickly became real shopping. When you're
at the mall, you're in a place of temptation and if you're someone who has
a tendency to purchase things impulsively it's really hard not to buy
things, so don't put yourself in that position. Don't go to the mall when
you're bored – find other things to do. So as an example if you're an introvert –
maybe journal writing, reading, watching a movie at home… that might be something
you could do when you're bored. Or if you're an extrovert, you could go out in
the city and find free things to do. There's always something to do for free
in every city or town – just find those things to do and don't go shopping.
Because if you go shopping you're probably going to spend money that you
don't need to spend. Tip number three – shop with intention and with a very
specific list. I've noticed that when I shop without a list, I tend to get
carried away and I do make a lot more impulse purchases, but when I make a list
and not just a generic list but a very specific list… I'm less likely to get
carried away. Tip number four – when you're shopping online, avoid creating an
account and storing your credit card information. So a lot of times when you
shop online, shops want us to create an account. That way you have the name,
address and credit card information stored, so the next time you want to shop
with them it's just the matter of a click of a button and it becomes so easy
to shop. The problem is if you are an impulse shopper, it's a little too easy
to shop. So if you want to avoid those impulse purchases, my suggestion is check
out as a guest- not as someone who has an account. By checking out as a guest you
have to physically enter your name, your address and your credit card information
and let me tell you, I have abandoned so many shopping carts in the past because
I was too lazy to get my credit card out of my wallet. So there we go.
If you're an impulse shopper, this can act as a deterrent, so just try to avoid
creating accounts and check out as a guest instead. Tip
number five – embrace aspects of minimalism. I think out of all of the
tips in this video the one thing that helped me the most is becoming more of a
minimalist. I do recognize that it is not for everybody but at the same time we
don't need to completely become minimalists. Some of us may just want to
embrace aspects of it. I think minimalism is a spectrum – we can all do it in our
own way and if it can help you become a little more intentional, help you become
a little more aware and mindful of your purchases – why not? If you're interested
in learning more about practical minimalism, I do have an e-book and
workbook on it which I'm going to link in the description. And don't buy the
workbook impulsively. I don't want you to do that! Buy it if you really feel like
it's going to help you and it's gonna add value to you, otherwise you don't
need to get it. Tip number six – try to buy from stores that have a return policy
and keep the receipts. I can't tell you the number of times I have purchased
something and then I've quickly regretted it the next day and I couldn't
return it because store did not have a return policy or I lost the receipt or I
took the tags off. So my suggestion is don't take the tags off, keep your
receipts for at least for 7 days and try to avoid buying things from places that
don't have a return policy. My philosophy now is if it doesn't have a return
policy, I'm not buying it. I don't buy things on final sale because that is how
you end up buying things you don't really need. Tip number 7 – sleep on the
decision especially if the item is above $100. So I have a rule – if an item is
above $100, I do not buy it the day I see it. If it's at the mall or online I won't
buy it. I will sleep on it for at least a day if not two or three nights and I
can't tell you the number of times I've completely forgotten about the item in
two or three days. So give yourself a little time to think through that
decision and who knows you might change your mind.
Tip number eight – avoid joining email lists. A lot of times when you shop
online or even in the store – stores will ask us for our email address in exchange
for a coupon or something of that sort and the problem with that is while that
coupon may seem very nice in the beginning they're going to keep sending
you emails again and again and you're going to end up buying more things. Things
that you don't need. So my suggestion is to unsubscribe from all of those email
subscriptions so that you don't have to face temptation all the time. I think for
an impulse shopper the biggest thing you can do is remove the temptations. By
removing the temptations you're just not going to shop as much. Tip number nine –
don't shop with friends that push you to buy things that you don't need. Now we all
have friends that help us make really good decisions – go shopping with them but
then we also have friends that make us buy things that we don't need. They kind
of push us into impulsive purchases and they tell us that everything looks good
on us… when in fact it really doesn't. So don't go shopping with those people. I
actually bought a pink poofy wedding dress ten years ago. It was horrible.
I got persuaded by my friends and my husband had a look at that dress and he
was just like" oh my gosh what were you thinking? ". So thankfully that was not
actually the wedding dress I wore on my wedding day but I learned a lot from
that experience. Do not go shopping with people who you
don't really trust in terms of their opinion and who push you into making bad
decisions. Just avoid shopping with them. Tip number 10 – always check reviews for
items that are above $50. So I've a rule – if an item is above $50 I won't buy it
until I check the reviews even if I'm in the store. I will take my phone out and
I will try to check the reviews because this way I'm not making a purchase that
is somewhat expensive without knowing everything about it. I think the thing
with reviews is you've got to check both positive and negative. It's so easy to
just read the positive ones and think "hey this item is great". No. Read the
negative ones too have a balanced view and then make your decision. I have
purchased a lot of things without checking reviews and then I deeply
regretted it later, so try to avoid that. Stick to that
rule whatever dollar amount it may be. For you it might not be 50 – it could be a
bit different but stick to that rule. Don't buy it unless you checked the
reviews. Tip number 11 – remind yourself of your financial goals before you go
shopping. If you don't have financial goals then I do suggest having some – just a
number and what you're saving it for. I think it can be very helpful in changing
your mindset about money. I didn't have financial goals before so I used to spend
because I didn't really care but now I do
and I remind myself of my financial goals regularly and because of that I'm
less likely to make impulse purchases. So my suggestion is if you don't have goals…
sit down and think about what your goals might be. It could be something really
simple- I want to save $5,000 for an emergency fund. Whatever it may be just
write it down and think about it regularly so that you know what you're
trying to do and you're going to be less likely to get carried away with your
impulse purchases. Tip number 12 – re-evaluate what you already own the
next time you're shopping. So as an example let's say I'm shopping for jeans
and I see a nice pair of jeans… it's very easy to get carried away thinking "hey
it's on sale. It looks good. I need it." But then take a moment to re-evaluate
whether or not you already own something that's similar. Sometimes you actually
have the exact same color at home and you don't really need that extra pair.
Tip number 13 – think about your worst impulse purchases and make a list. I made
a mental list of the worst impulse purchases I've made and that list really
really helped me change my mindset. I realize how many impulse purchases I
forgot about and once I made that list it reminded me of how much money I had
spent and how much I deeply regretted those purchases. So if you're someone who
makes a lot of these impulse purchases just make a list and take it one step
further. Put that list in your wallet so the next time you're actually tempted to
spend some money you're going to have that list right in front of you. And
maybe …maybe it will act as a deterrent and you might not end up making that
impulse purchase. Tip number 14 – get to the root cause. If you have tried
everything in this video as well as tips from other people and you're still
struggling with your impulse spending maybe it's time to take a step back and
figure out the root cause. It could be something like anxiety. It could be
something like sadness. It could be a multitude of different things but you
need to figure out the root cause so you can work on a solution. If you need help,
maybe it's time to talk to a therapist. Tip number 15 -make it a game with a
jar method. So this is something that I recently started and I've been enjoying
it. So every single time I avoid an impulse purchase, I write down the item
and the dollar amount and put it on a piece of paper and stick it in the jar. And
then at the end of the month I look at all of the little pieces of paper in the
jar and tally up the amount that I avoided spending. So last month I avoided
spending two hundred and fifty dollars- which is not a small sum of money. It
actually is quite a bit especially if you end up saving that much each month.
So I'm going to continue doing this and hopefully by the end of the year I might
have a couple thousand dollars saved up. This is just a fun little thing that you
could do to reward yourself every single time you avoid an impulse purchase. Thank
you for watching this video, if you enjoyed it please do give it a thumbs up
because that helps me a lot and if you haven't subscribed already, please do
consider subscribing. And you can find the link to my minimalism ebook in the
description as well as the pinned comment I will see you in the next video which
will be about boosting your iron levels naturally without pills. See you then. Bye!