How To Beat That Shopping Addiction

Graphics by Anika Dua

Hey Jerks. We’re almost done with the semester and we’ve gone through multiple holidays this semester like Valentine’s Day, Easter and even St. Patricks Day that encourage you to spend.

Well if you’re like me, once you start you can’t just stop. It becomes a cycle of promising that this purchase will be the last one, but then you find something else and actually that one is the last thing. And so on and so forth. The point is, sometimes it’s easy to give into temptations, especially when we’re in college. We’re newly financially independent (or sort of) and it feels nice to be able to spend money freely. 

But, sometimes, it’s time to finally settle down and realize you have a problem. This is the most important first step– trust us. We need to recognize what might be impulse buying and then we can move into how to change that.

Step two– you have to look at where you spend your money the most. It can be online shopping where you love the tech stuff on Amazon, or the clothing from Shein. It could even be grocery shopping or maybe even buying boba every other day. You have to look honestly at where your weaknesses are. 

Last step– this one will be the hardest part. Delete the apps. Yes, that's right. Delete the temptations off your phone. Amazon, Ebay, Shein or any other online app. Maybe even delete the cards off these apps so there’s no easy access. That grocery trip every week maybe you can cut to every two weeks. It helps to establish small goals ahead of time and increase it bit by bit to see how long you can go without reaching for your card. 

If you’ve gotten to the point where you are seeing your unneeded spending decrease then pat yourself on the back. You are now at the real point of adulting– learning how to restrain yourself. And that’s no easy feat.