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Struggling with impulse spending?

Impulse spending can cause some serious financial problems, but with these 5 tips, you can reign it in and get your finances back on track.

Resources

Cash Back Apps & Browser Extensions

• Fetch

• Ibotta

• Honey

• Rakuten

Helpful Articles

• 20 Ways to Stop Impulse Spending

• Break Your Bad Spending Habits

Action Task

Your action task for this week is to try one of these tips to prevent impulse spending before it happens.

I recommend switching to cash the next time you go shopping.

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Thanks for listening!

Have a question or an episode idea? Email me at podcast@gofrombroke.com or DM me on Instagram @GoFromBroke

Prefer to Read?

Below is the transcript from today's show. Or you can download the full transcript as a PDF.

It's October, which means we're approaching a wave of holidays. And if you're anything like me, this is the time of year where impulse spending is most dangerous. Holiday season always entails more spending in general, but it's also easier to lose track of that spending and give into impulsive buys.

From events and decorations, to food and gifts, there are a lot of potential pitfalls for your wallet coming up. In today's episode, I'm going to give you some tips to help prevent impulse spending.

Welcome to the Go From Broke Podcast, where you'll learn how to take control of your money so you can stress less and save more. If you're tired of living paycheck to paycheck, or constantly wondering where your money's going you're in the right place. This podcast is all about giving you actionable tips and advice so you can get started improving your finances today.

If you've ever bought something unplanned or without much thought you've made an impulse purchase. I'm pretty sure anyone who's ever walked into a target has ended up making an impulse buy or two or 20. If you're hoping to reign in this behavior, here are five tips to help you out.

First get clear on your priorities. When you're clear on your goals, it makes it easier to spend according to your values. In fact, when you've assigned your money to a specific task or goal, you're less likely to spend that money on something else. By creating both spending and savings goals, you'll have a clear vision for what you want your money to do for you.

Second, make a budget. If making a monthly budget sounds like a chore and sticking to it, sounds like punishment. It's time to reframe your perspective of what a budget is. A budget is simply a roadmap for what you want your money to do. It's a spending plan that helps you focus on your financial goals so you can avoid impulsive behavior.

It's important to know that it's not written in stone. You can always adapt and adjusted for any purchase decision that may move up your priorities list.

Third use cash. Cash is your secret weapon if you're a compulsive impulse buyer. When you go shopping, leave your credit cards at home and only take the amount of cash you plan to spend. Not only are we mentally more reluctant to spend cash than we are to buy something on a credit card or even a debit card. But once you do spend it, it's gone.

Switching to cash will not only help prevent impulsive spending, but it will keep you out of credit card debt too. Or at least help you to stop adding to it.

Fourth shop online. Shopping online can be a helpful way to stop impulse spending, assuming you're doing it intentionally.

While being online can present its own unique challenges with impulsive spending behavior, it's easier to delay gratification when you know there's already a shipping delay attached. It's also easier to add things to a wishlist and give yourself the space to evaluate whether that's really a purchase you want to make.

And if you do decide to eventually make the purchase, shopping online will make sure that you get the best deal by being able to price check multiple sites and combine cashback apps and coupon codes. You can find some of my favorite apps and browser extensions at today's show notes at GoFromBroke.com/5.

My fifth and final tip is to track your spending. If you're trying to stop impulse spending, tracking your expenses is essential. You can use an online program like mint.com or an app like You Need a Budget to track your purchases, but even a simple sheet of paper can be effective. Just be sure to choose a method that you can commit to being consistent with. Once you know where your money's going, it's easier to reign it in if it isn't aligning with your priorities.

And that's it. Five tips to help you get your impulse spending under control. Now it's time for your action task for the week.

This week, I want you to make a plan to deal with impulse spending before it happens. Of the five tips I've gone over, I think switching to cash is probably the easiest and most effective method, but you pick which one you think will work best for you.

And for even more ways to stop impulsive spending, check out the GoFromBroke blog article linked to in the description and on the show notes page at GoFromBroke.com/5.

Also, if you found the tips in today's podcast, helpful, I'd love it if you could leave a rating and review so that other people can find the podcast and get help as well.

As always take action and make it a great day.