It’s the start of another month, and you have drawn your monthly budget. You must have received your paycheck and plan to judiciously spend your income this time around, but deep down there is the realisation that half of your income would have been spent “inexplicably” before the new week runs out.
Impulse buying is unplanned purchases made on the spur of the moment. That is when you buy something without prior arrangement to do so.
A number of factors including habit, desire to get cheap bargains and subliminal advertising campaigns can get the better of your judgement when shopping-and this happens to the best of us.
Here’s how you can prevent buying things you do not need this month.
- It starts with a shopping budget (if you don’t have one)
A shopping budget is simply a carefully thought-through list of all the items you need to purchase at a point in time.
It could be a subset of your monthly budget or a different list entirely that depends on the amount you have set aside to spend after accounting for your monthly savings.
In your shopping list, rank items in order of priority so you can tell if what you are spending on is really important.
You should also create room for miscellaneous-it should be a small but definite part of your shopping budget to accommodate anything else that comes up. It is unlikely a huge purchase would have been missed out in your carefully planned shopping list.
- Do not take extra cash along when shopping
Another thing to avoid is taking extra cash when you go shopping. It is always safe to go with the exact cash needed for the items in your budget and also, paying with cash to avoid overspending-unless there is a discount for card purchases.
- Count to ten before buying
Not quite literally, the idea here is to have a waiting period before making any purchase. In fact, when a purchasing an item seems urgent, you should be careful to ascertain if it is based on an external influence which could be adverts coercing you to buy such as: “Limited edition”, “Offer valid while stock last” etc.
The essence of a waiting period which could be overnight is to make sure the purchase is really important as a need and not a want.
- Avoid shopping when emotional
Never make a purchase when you are emotional (sad, happy, angry, anxious etc.) The reason for this is that your judgment is usually distorted when you are emotional and it makes you susceptible to suggestions of others as well as your own impulses.
- Don’t buy because of promotion
It might sound crazy to suggest you pass up the “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to get an item for a third of its original price, however, buying an item just because it is cheap and you might probably need it later on is just one step above spraying your hard-earned salary on the street.
Do not buy what you do not need just because of a good price deal. There could be an exception if it’s an item that you are sure you would certainly need in the very near term and is difficult to come by.
- Time value of money
This is not the financial experts’ concept that a naira today is worth two tomorrow. Time value of money here is just a way to gauge your spending by finding out your hourly wage.
The essence is that to see your purchases in terms of the hours you have to work to afford them.
For example, if you earn N250, 000 and work 1000 hours in a month (this is hypothetical), your hourly wage would be N250 and that would make the N25,000 shop you plan on buying the equivalent of 100 work hours.
This is a great way to curtail excessive spending the next time you are about to go shopping.
- Set aside a budget for luxury
Understand yourself-the things you like and have a soft spot for-then create room in your monthly budget for some of it.
Even though it is counterintuitive, a Spartan or tight budget doesn’t always result in better management of one’s resources. You are human and would need to have fun sometimes. Create room for a luxury or two and if there is space for a third make it a reward if or when you stick to your financial goals.
- If a salesperson convinces you, don’t buy
Surely you must have found yourself in a situation where you have been convinced beyond reasonable doubts that you needed an item even though you had a hundred of them at home already.
Salespersons are trained to make you buy an item and you should know this consciously. The next time you find yourself agreeing with a salesperson on an item, not on your budget list, make sure to clutch your wallet.
- Avoid window shopping
Hanging around malls to see what’s in stores, trending or just to pass time should be done cautiously-or not at all- because it is not very difficult to get carried away by attractive products and juicy offers displayed.
Companies today spend millions on artificial intelligence aimed at capturing your data (clicks, likes, interests and pages you visit) so they can design specific adverts that can lure you to buy their products. Hanging around shopping malls and casually browsing through e-retailing stores might only strengthen impulses to buy.
- Understand tricks retailers use
Retailing today is down to pure science! The layout, colour, shelve arrangement, soft music, lighting, product samples, signposts and product labelling are carefully designed to make you buy more.
One of the obvious ploys of malls is placing impulse products (candies, sweets, cookies etc.) just at checkout points where traffic is slow to encourage you to buy at least to make use of the N100-N500 change you have after calculating your total purchases.
Malls also stock more expensive products (or products with better margins for them) along the line of your sight to take advantage of the fact that you wouldn’t walk around the mall with your eyes at the top or bottom of the shelves.
There are a hundred and one tricks retailers employ, but just be sure you stick to your plans next time you visit the mall.
