We’ve all been there: It’s a rainy afternoon, your car broke down and you’ve just eaten your weight in biscuits, but still something is missing. Some kind of gratification just hasn’t been met. What better to do than go online and look at the ‘New In’ section of all of your favourite stores? A new dress, shoes, jeans, necklace is desperately needed, right?
Or maybe you’re bored. You’d a long day in work and you have a wardrobe full of clothes yet nothing to wear. A new skirt and matching top on ASOS is like your knight in shining armour. That is, until you wake up the next morning with buyer’s remorse saying to yourself ‘damn it happened again’.
Shopping has never been easier (or more tempting) than it is today. With one click of a button you can order whatever you want, whenever you want and not worry about spending the money until your item has arrived and you’ve realised that you spent €25 on a top identical to one you already have. It takes a pretty strong gal to virtually walk away from those items sitting in your basket, especially when you’ve gotten a discount code in an email. So, here’s my guide on how to avoid impulsive online shopping. These are things I’ve tried that have worked for me, although I can’t say that they’re 100% fool-proof. After all, a girl’s gotta shop 😉
1. Recognise your weak spots – It may be after reading a magazine and seeing all the new season fashions, it may be when you’re feeling low in yourself or it may be when you open your emails to see ‘20% off for 48 hours only’. Whatever your weak spot is, recognise it. Just like you find yourself heading towards the biscuit tin after a bad day (that’s me, anyway), try to realise when you’re shopping for the sake of it. Step. Away. From. The. Laptop.
2. Keep your purse at a distance – If you’re browsing through the Topshop, River Island and ASOS apps before going to sleep to see the new stock (guilty as charged), do not keep your purse at the end of your bed. If you see something that you like, but haven’t thought about too much, it’s too easy to hop out and grab your card. But, by keeping your purse downstairs, chances are you won’t get up out of your cosy bed to grab your card. I don’t think that there’s anything I would love enough that would make me want to do that. If you’re still thinking about it the next morning then maybe consider buying it. But read on first 😉
3. Don’t save your card details online – Apart from being slightly dodgy, no matter how secure the server is, storing your card details online is dangerous for a shopaholic. Buying things by card is much easier, and less guilt-inducing, than buying them with cash as you do not physically see the money leaving your bank account. If I paid for every purchase I made with cash instead of my card, it’s true to say that I would probably shop a lot less. By saving your bank details online, it is almost too easy to make a purchase. Most of the time you haven’t even fully processed than you’ve made a transaction as it was so easy, translating as ‘free money’ in the shopaholics mind. I often find myself frantically filling in my card details when I see something I want to buy, but then mid-entering I realise that I really don’t need or want the item, letting me leave the page and preventing an online shopping hangover.
4. Think of five ways to wear it – If, after you’ve passed all of these steps, you still really really want the item ask yourself if there is five ways you can wear it. As silly as it sounds, sometimes I find that I don’t even have items to match what I wanted to buy, resulting in me to buy even more stuff. If you can only think of one or two ways to wear something, unless it’s a wedding dress, then maybe you shouldn’t buy it. Now I’m all for statement pieces and buying what’s in style, but if I see that I’m only going to get two or three wears out of something that I’m going to part with a well-earned €50 for, it makes it a lot less attractive.
5. Remember: It will still be there tomorrow – I’m truly guilty of forgetting this. When I see something that I love, I immediately go into buying it straight away in fear of it being out of stock tomorrow, before I’ve even thought if I really need it. And if there’s a discount code available, it makes it even more alluring. It takes a lot of strength to do this, but if you find yourself in this situation, sleep on it. Chances are the ‘love at first sight’ phase will have passed by the time you’ve woken up the next morning. And even if you find that you still really want it the next morning, nothing is stopping you from buying it then. That is, after you’ve passed steps 1-4 of course 😉
I hope that this post helped any of my fellow shopaholics – it’s not the worst addiction to have but it’s certainly not a good one for your bank balance!
Rebecca Bloomwood from Confessions of a Shopaholic really knows her stuff
*Good looks fade, but a good heart keeps you beautiful forever*