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Impulse buying: breaking habit to buy at once (part 2)

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In my previous post, I explain how the habit of buying works. If you missed Part 1, I would suggest looking through it to understand the terms from this post.

Change circumstances

The first step to battle a habit is to find its trigger (cue) and contentiously avoid it.

Analyze, what triggers your impulse buying. It can be a logo of your favorite store (BTW, it’s not only about seeing it, but it’s also about thinking of it; there is no difference between the seeing and thinking for your brain), it can be a particular repetitive situation (i.e. you are walking to subway after work passing stores), or you are switching to automatic buying when you are shopping for needed groceries.

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Smart with Credit Cards

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This post is not about paying off credit card debt (I’ll cover it a in different post), rather about principles I’m using on a daily basis to be smart with my credit cards.

I moved from Europe to the US in 2017, and it was like being born anew: I had to adapt to a completely new financial system. The main difference is in approach to credits: in Europe, you have a good credit rating if you do not use credit (or do not use it often): it shows, that you can live on your own money. In the US you have to use credit cards: it shows that you are good at borrowing and returning others’ money.

The main paradigm shift threw me to another extreme: as now I had to use credit cards, I had no tools to track and understand if I’m good with credit cards or not. In fact, I was introduced to unlimited credit money… And it did take me some time to balance the extremes (no credit spending vs. unlimited spending) and formulate my approach.

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Wish List

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Oh, wish lists! Is it recall of childhood when you wrote letters to Santa or fashion page in a bullet journal? Somebody advises to make the wish lists to send a signal to the Universe that you want something, and the wishes magically come true…

Well, I don’t believe in magic, I believe in hard work. And for me Wish List is a very effective financial instrument. Let me explain why.

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Impulse buying: breaking habit to buy at once (part 1)

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Yes, we all are guilty in it: coming to a pharmacy to buy milk after work and come out with cosmetics (“I like the color of the eyeliner”), and a couple of chips packages (“I want to finally drop on my sofa and have the TV evening”), and detergent (“Well, I don’t really need it now, but this coupon offered so good deal”), and a couple of gums near cashier (” Eventually I need the gums”)… You know it: I’ve just blown away my planned dining out with my friend and have a batch of unneeded stuff. Or stepping out into luxury clothes store – and buy this awesome black shirt (“It fits me so well“)… Or (for me specific) going to book store: no way I can come out with no purchase…

Then the guilt came. Why on Earth did I decide to buy it? I don’t need the fifth black shirt, I have five of them in my closet!

I have good news: it’s not you, it’s your habit. The habits are widely researched lately, and there are proven methods of changing them. So let’s dig into details.

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Subscriptions: taking the hidden spending under control

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I guess you, as I wonder where the money went. When such a question pops up we naturally start budgeting and recall big categories: dining out, groceries, gas, rent/mortgage…

But there are also a lot of small expenses we usually don’t pay attention to subscriptions. And these small payments are the main reason why direct budgeting doesn’t work: they sum up too quickly ruining any planning.

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Why on Earth…?

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I feel I need to start classically: why on Earth I decided to start writing this blog?

They said the only justification for starting writing is when you cannot NOT write. I guess that is my case. I tried to write about different things: about being a woman, about my work I really love, about being successful, some blog articles on behalf of my company, of course… But it didn’t stick in the past. In some time I become bored, feel obligated and naturally sooner or later I start to look for excuses to skip and eventually abandon the writing.

This time I decided to start writing because I really care about the topic: personal finances.

The money always felt like catch 22: it is never enough. Whatever you earn now, whatever raise you will get tomorrow, you will always lack them. Why does it happen again and again? What to do in order to break the cycle? What scientists are talking about it? Are there any working life hacks?

Well, I can tell you: I don’t know the answers… yet. But I’m super curious and love to make experiments on myself… and yeah, I read a lot. I mean A LOT.

So this blog is intended to be my scrapbook/diary where I collect facts, ideas and post results of my experiments.

So let’s go! Let it fly!

P.S. If you are interested in demographics, there are some facts about me in the About me section.

About me

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For those who are interested in me specifically (though I think money is a more fascinating topic) here are the facts.

I prefer a short bullet point introduction. Here we go:

  • I’m a middle-edged woman (forty-ish)
  • I graduated from 2 universities in physics and economics
  • Most of my life I have been living in Eastern Europe
  • I moved to the USA less in 2017 and since then I live in New Jersey
  • I speak 5 languages
  • I divorced and have a teenager daughter

Though I build successful according to all measures career in corporate America, lack of money is constant a motive. You know, when you would need “just a little bit more”.