In this article, I would like to write about one of the most useful minimalist lifestyle tips; how to control the impulsive shopping emotion?
If you are looking for a true minimalist lifestyle, nothing is worse than impulsive shopping.
To avoid impulsive shopping, I suggest you remember three strategies and those are…
- Wait-a-day strategy
- Wait till the weekend strategy
- Fine Without Strategy
If you have done impulsive shopping before, this article would be something useful for you to improve your shopping habit.
1. Wait-a-day strategy
Before going to the strategies, I would like to define what impulsive shopping is.
In my dictionary, impulsive shopping means that you buy something you have never expected before stepping into the shops.
The feeling of “I may need this,” or “I buy this cuz it’s cheap.” are unfortunately included in the definition of impulsive shopping.
Also, if you want to learn what a minimalist lifestyle is, please refer to the below article.
Definition of minimalism lifestyle: what makes your lifestyle minimalism?
The first strategy I’m going to introduce is the wait-a-day strategy.
This is the simplest strategy you can do to prevent impulsive shopping.
What you have to do is when you want to buy something you haven’t planned, you wait for a day.
You tell yourself that if you come back to the shop tomorrow and you still think you will need it, then finally you can consider buying it.
According to Dr. Ian Zimmerman, there seem to be some types of an impulsive shopping habits.
Some people have a habit of making impulsive purchases. That might sound innocent, but several characteristics go along with this tendency. First, impulse buyers are more social, status-conscious, and image-concerned. The impulse buyer may therefore buy as a way to look good in the eyes of others. Second, impulse buyers tend to experience more anxiety and difficulty controlling their emotions, which may make it harder to resist emotional urges to impulsively spend money. Third, impulse buyers tend to experience less happiness, and so may buy as a way to improve their mood. Last, impulse buyers are less likely to consider the consequences of their spending; they just want to have it.
(quoted from the article "What Motivates Impulse Buying?")
By knowing this fact, you want to deeply consider why you are going to buy the specific product and why right now?
When I was a uni student, I had a bad habit of impulsive shopping; when I was in the central area of Osaka, I always bought something, and none of them are with me right now…
The reason why I suggest you start with this strategy is that this strategy worked for me very well after throwing away almost everything I had.
Based on my experience, if you wait for a day and you come back to the same store the following day, with a high possibility you will not think you want to buy it anymore.
I’m not a psychology professional or scientist but, as a person who has been through this suffering, I can definitely tell you that impulsive shopping emotion is not related to what you really need; shopping is not a radical treatment.
So keep a cool mind and relax, and when you feel impulsive shopping feeling, try to step away from the store.
2. Wait till the weekend strategy
The second strategy I am going to introduce is the wait till the weekend strategy.
This paragraph may be a bit of the main topic but still very useful for the minimalist lifestyle and shopping strategy.
For a couple of months, you have been looking for a heavy jacket that you can use for a decade; research on the Internet, ask your friends, etc…
One day when you are walking downtown and you seem to find the ideal heavy winter jacket that you have been looking for and you are thinking like “Should I buy this now?”.
In this case, you have a concrete product that you want to buy, but you didn’t come to the store just to buy it.
I would like to suggest you wait till the weekend so that you can double-check that you definitely need it; if you come back to the same store the following weekend and you are still thinking about buying the heavy jacket, then it may be time to buy it.
3. Fine Without Strategy
The last and most extreme strategy is so-called fine without strategy.
For example, you find a very cute coffee cup at the coffee shop where you are just drinking your morning coffee.
You feel like you want to buy the cup but you just recalled a shopping strategy article written by Shinji Sverige, but you really want to ignore him…
At this point, you can of course take the wait-a-day strategy, but I want to share with you another point of view; you have been successfully spending your lovely life without that specific cup till today.
You are fine without a specific product that you want to buy, so what’s the point of buying it?
Minimalism is always simple.
I think it’s the simplest notion in the whole world because, and if you want to start a minimalist lifestyle you just have to start asking “Why?” for yourself.
Minimalist lifestyle fashion advice: The 3 clothes 2 colors rule
The above article will be helpful for people who want to become minimalist but still want to enjoy fashionable outfits.
When you have an impulsive shopping feeling, one easy thing you can do is ask yourself why you need to buy something right now.
The answer should be something convincing and the answer should be something like this.
Ideal answer: I have been considering renewing my winter jacket because it’s very old and I feel cold. I already know the budget, and I already know the color, so I have been searching for the one to meet my criteria. Yeah, last week I came to the shop and I thought this is the one. I waited for a week but I still think this is the one and I’m going to use it for at least 10 years, so I’m bringing this new jacket to the cashier.
This sounds very convincing, right?
It’s much more convincing than the answer “ CUZ I WANT IT!!!”
Please keep in your mind that most of the time, you are fine without a luxurious outfit or beautiful dishes because what you’re going to do today is just go back home eat dinner, and sleep.
You are fine without buying a new product
Summary
How to prevent the impulsive shopping feeling is very simple.
- Wait-a-day strategy
- Wait till the weekend strategy
- Fine Without Strategy
Those three strategies have been tested by myself and they worked for me, so based on my own experience I would like to strongly suggest those strategies.
If you are suffering from dealing with impulsive shopping, please start by applying the method that I have shared in this article.
I hope your shopping quality will be something much more brilliant than before