Recently I’ve become a lot more minimal. I wouldn’t say I’m a full blown minimalist, but that’s the goal. So in order to live more minimally I needed to curb my spending habits and stop hoarding. On the plus side, I also save money, along with having less clutter and a tidier space (and mind). Here are some of the ways I stopped impulse shopping so much.
Stop going shopping.
If you’re trying not to impulse shop, the easiest way is to avoid shops at all costs. Don’t go ‘window shopping’, don’t go for a browse.. Because you’re going to find something you didn’t even know you wanted. And then you’ll have to persuade yourself not to buy it. This also goes for online shopping, just un-bookmark your favourite stores and don’t go near them. Unsubscribing from their emails would also be a great help in keeping them off your mind. Unroll Me is a great website for unsubscribing from mass amounts of junk emails at once. I think I discovered it from some other blogger, and every so often they’ll email me a list of subscriptions that might be junk. Very handy.
Keep a wish list
You may think this would make you want to shop more but actually, it’s better to have a small list of things you know you really want and that you’ve also spent time considering. You can make sure these pieces work with the rest of your wardrobe too. You could create a Pinterest board labelled WISH LIST (that’s mine up there) and add anything to it that you think would be a good investment piece. BUT the catch is that before you buy anything, it must stay in your wish list for AT LEAST 30 days. Anything less and it’s just impulse shopping again. Then, when you have a bit of money to spend or want to treat yourself, you can pick an item from your list, knowing full well that it has been properly considered for your style and your wardrobe.
Create a Capsule Wardrobe
This might sound like a funny way of not shopping, but I promise you, once you curate your own Capsule Wardrobe that suits your style, taste and lifestyle, you won’t want to ruin it with impulse buys again. Not never, but a lot less. So that’s where the other tips come in to play. When you experience the joy of having less clothing but wearing all of it, and LOVING all of it, it would be very hard to get back to hoarding masses amounts of impulse buys.
See my tops tips on creating a Capsule Wardrobe HERE
Decide where else you’d like to spend your money
By spending you money more intentionally, you will see that you have more than you thought to play with. By cutting out your daily latte or weekly magazines or in this case, your weekly trip to Zara, you could save up enough to do something much more meaningful like going on a holiday. Doesn’t that sound much better than having a few extra pieces of clothing? Or you could invest in something that might be of value to you and even earn you some extra money, like a sewing machine, a new camera or taking a class.
Make a list of 5 other things you could do instead of shopping
photo credit Technology in Business
Whether you go shopping as a social thing with your friends or sisters, or you do it as a bit of ‘retail therapy’ / ‘me time’, I’m sure there are plenty of other things you could do instead. Try inviting your girls around to your house for tea and lunch instead of going out (also saves more money) or for some pamper time try having a bath, doing a face mask, going for a walk at your nearest beach or watching a feel-good movie. It is way too easy to buy yourself something when you need a little pick-me-up but I assure you there are other ways. And hey, shopping is never as relaxing as you imagine anyway.