Managing My Impulsive Buying Behavior

I know many people would agree when I say that shopping is therapeutic. It is even one of the reasons why I work hard because I want to achieve that level of financial stability wherein I won’t have to look into the price tags of the items that I want to buy. Don’t get me wrong, I am not into luxury items. I am actually into cute and adorable stuff – that I probably don’t need.

My tita said to me that I inherited their characteristic which is being a hoarder. Some of my family members are obsessed in collecting different items. It is so random; my tita had collections of a certain stuffed toy and my tito had his collections of plants and China tea cups. Because of this trait, it is scary when I got attracted into one thing because I know there’s a big chance that I will continuously buy that same item but in different colors, designs, or types. To make the long story short, I grew up being an impulsive buyer.

Impulsive buying is the urge to suddenly, at the spur of the moment, buy an item or service. This happens even when in fact, you have no plans of making a purchase. This behavior is often provoked by strong emotions or feelings. At that given time, I do not feel any hesitation in buying despite the fact that I am a very thrifty person.

This behavior of mine was too persistent when I was in high school. It became addicting and it hypes me when I suddenly find an object that is an addition to my collections, for example, a ball pen or a sticky note. I’m now in third year college but I am still using my stocks of sticky notes.

Adulting stage hit me earlier than expected and that’s when I wanted to earn my money. When I was already having my hard-earned funds, that’s the time when I was forced to do something about my impulsive behavior. I tried a technique, which was hard at first, and it requires a bit of your patience. The technique is called 30-DAY RULE.

From the name itself, it is kind of self-explanatory. When I see something that I really want to buy, I try so hard to control myself and think about my 30-day rule wherein, I need to wait for one month or thirty days. After that long span of time, I ask myself, do I still want to buy that item? If yes, then I look into ways of buying it, but more frequently, my answer is no because the excitement of buying it only existed before.

There are negative sides into being an impulsive buyer and I feel happy that I can now manage it. This behavior could result to overspending your extra money, it could result to a great deal of regret and self-blame, and if it gotten worse, you could have a problem paying off debts.

Impulsive buys may give you a satisfaction but this doesn’t last long. As for me who came from a poor family, I need to be wise in spending my money. Being wise doesn’t mean I am depriving myself of the things that I deserve but it is about putting value to the money that I worked hard for.

If you also have a problem with your impulsive buying actions, you may try my 30-day rule and see if it works for you.

Thank you for reading my article!