Shopping addiction, sometimes called "shopaholism," can have huge negative consequences on your personal life, career, and finances. Realizing whether you've crossed the line can be difficult because shopping is so closely tied to global capitalist culture. The following steps will show you how to recognize the signs of a shopping addiction, change your buying habits immediately, and seek professional help, if necessary.
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Method 1 of 3: Understanding Shopping Addiction
Step 1. Identify the problem
As with most addictions, recognizing your behavior and actually seeing it as an obstacle in your daily life and social relationships is half the battle. Find out about the symptoms in the following list, then use them to measure the severity of your shopping addiction. This is an important way of deciding exactly how much you need to cut back on spending; whether you can be trusted to simply shop in moderation or whether it might be better to stop shopping altogether.
- Spend or waste money when you feel upset, angry, lonely, or anxious.
- Argue with others about shopping that rationalizes your behavior.
- Feeling lost or lonely without your credit card.
- Constantly buying things with a credit card instead of money.
- Feeling a rush of euphoria or intense joy when making a purchase.
- Feeling guilty, humiliated, or embarrassed by overspending.
- Lying about your shopping habits or about the price of certain items.
- Having an obsessive mind when it comes to money.
- Spend a lot of time trying to organize money and bills to suit your spending habits.
Step 2. Take an honest look at your spending habits
Keep track of what you buy in two weeks to a month. Also make notes on how you pay for the items you buy. Ask yourself the following questions to better understand when and how you make a purchase. Keeping track of the exact amount of money spent up to this time period will also help open your eyes to how bad your shopping habits really are.
Step 3. Identify your type of shopping addiction
According to Shopaholics Anonymous, compulsive shopping can take many forms. Knowing these forms will help you better understand your addiction so you can better understand how to help yourself. You may be able to identify yourself on the following list, or use your purchase records to see which type is right for you.
- Shoppers who are driven to shop because of emotional stress.
- Trophy shopaholic who is constantly on the hunt for the perfect item.
- Shoppers who enjoy luxury goods and enjoy feeling like big shoppers.
- Good bargain seekers who buy things just because they are on sale.
- A "bulimia" shopper who is stuck in a cycle of buying things over and over again, then returning them and starting to buy new things again.
- Collectors who seek satisfaction from purchasing each piece of a set or the same item in every available variety (color, style, etc.).
Step 4. Study the long-term effects of shopping addiction
While the short-term effects of shopping addiction may be positive, such as feeling happy after going shopping, many of the long-term effects are actually very negative. Understanding these impacts is a great way to deal with the reality of the habit of overspending.
- Spending money over budget and heavy financial problems.
- Compulsive buying more than necessary (eg going to buy one sweater but in fact buying ten).
- Confidentiality and hiding problems to avoid criticism.
- Feeling helpless because of the ongoing cycle of buying guilt that leads to returns, then leads to more purchases.
- Disrupted social relationships due to secrecy, lying about debt, and being physically ostracized due to increased shopping pleasure.
Step 5. Recognize that overspending has emotional causes
For many people, shopping is a way to contain and escape negative emotions. Like most addictions that provide short-lived solutions to problems with deep psychological roots, shopping can help you feel complete and can maintain a false image of happiness and security. Push yourself to think about whether shopping is an attempt to fill a void in life that could actually be addressed by a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle.
Method 2 of 3: Making Behavioral Changes to Reduce Spending
Step 1. Learn the triggers for your addiction
A trigger is anything that makes you want to shop. Carry a journal with you for at least a week, and whenever the urge to shop feels, write down whatever you think brings the idea to mind. This may be a certain environment, a friend, an advertisement, or a feeling (such as anger, shyness, boredom). Knowing the triggers is very helpful because you can avoid the things that make you want to shop, as you are learning to reduce the habit.
- For example, maybe you'll immediately go shopping crazy whenever there's a formal event to attend. You may be tempted to buy a variety of clothing, designer cosmetics, or other products that will boost your confidence and make you feel ready for the event.
- Knowing this, you can make special plans to arrange invitations to big events. You can completely eliminate shopping for an event and spend the necessary hour looking for the right outfit from the wardrobe you already have in your closet.
Step 2. Spend less
The best way to limit your shopping activities without actually stopping is to become more aware of how much of your budget you can realistically spend on top of basic necessities. Watch your finances, and go shopping only when your budget for the month (or even week) allows for it. This way, you can still shop every once in a while, but try to avoid some of the bigger financial problems that can come with the habit.
- When shopping, bring as much money as you can use to buy things. Leave your credit card at home to avoid the temptation to buy more than your card limit.
- You can also try making inventory notes of the items you have and a wish list of additional items you want. Looking at the list will help you to hold back and be able to recognize when you're about to buy something you already have in bulk or something you don't really want as much as you want to buy something else that will definitely tempt you to buy it.
- Wait at least 20 minutes before making a purchase. Don't feel sure you have to buy something; instead, take some time to think about why you should buy it or why you shouldn't.
- If you know there are certain stores that tend to make you overspend, only go to them on special occasions or with friends who can keep an eye on your purchases. If the store is a website, make sure it's not in the list of bookmarked pages.
Step 3. Stop shopping right away
Alternatively, if your shopping addiction is serious, limit yourself to buying only the most basic items. Be very careful when you have to shop, and make a shopping list that you can stick to. Avoid the temptation of sales and bargains at discount stores, and allocate only a certain amount of cash to spend if you do visit the store. The more specific your rules are, the better. For example, instead of deciding to just shop for groceries and personal care needs, make a complete list of personal care needs (like toothpaste, deodorant, etc.) and don't buy anything other than what you've written down.
- Change your payment method, and destroy and cancel all credit cards. If you feel you have to have one card just for emergencies, have a loved one look after it for you. This is important because people tend to spend twice as much when they make purchases using credit cards as compared to cash.
- Do some market research before leaving the house. Since getting carried away browsing stores often leads to unnecessary purchases, know exactly the brand and type of each item you need to buy on the list. This will take the fun out of it by reducing the need to browse stores.
- Get rid of unused membership cards for basic purposes that often appear on your shopping list.
Step 4. Avoid shopping alone
Most compulsive shoppers make purchases alone, and if you're with other people, you're much more likely to not overspend. This is the benefit of peer pressure; allow yourself to learn from balanced spending habits from people whose judgment you trust.
You may even need to get someone you trust to take complete control of your finances
Step 5. Engage in other activities
Find more meaningful ways to pass the time. When trying to change a compulsive behavior, it's important that you replace that behavior with another behavior of spending time that is fulfilling and satisfying (but this time in a sustainable way).
- Many people find pleasure in activities that make them so immersed that they completely lose track of time. Learn a new skill, complete a project you've been putting aside for a long time, or develop yourself in some other way. Whether you're reading, jogging, cooking, or playing an instrument, it doesn't matter as long as you focus on it.
- While exercise and walking can provide a lasting source of happiness, they are especially useful alternatives to do when you're feeling the urge to shop.
Step 6. Track your progress
Remember to give yourself lots of acknowledgment and encouragement in the process of changing your shopping habits. It is important to get acknowledgment of your progress, because getting rid of an addiction is very difficult. An objective view of how far you've come will stop you from blaming yourself in difficult times and when self-doubt is unavoidable.
Try to keep an eye on the amount of money you spend on the table. Check the number of trips you made to the store (or your favorite shopping website) by ticking the calendar
Step 7. Make a list of the environments that need to be avoided
Create "no zones": places you know will trigger you to shop. Chances are, it's places like shopping malls, certain shops, or open-air shopping areas. Your rules need to be clear and precise in order to avoid being able to convince yourself that you can go and just look around a bit. Make a list of these places and stay away from them altogether for as long as you can stand, until the urge to overbuy is significantly gone. Check your shopping trigger list to make sure you're avoiding the right places and situations when you're feeling sensitive in your "cure" shopping addiction.
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You may not need to avoid all of these environments in the long term, and this can indeed be a difficult thing to do because of advertising and buying opportunities.
Especially if you're just trying to cut back and not stop shopping altogether, you may simply limit your presence in these neighborhoods. Make a schedule for when you can visit your favorite stores and stick to it
Step 8. Stay in your area
At least when you start spending less, take a break from traveling. This can help you avoid the temptation to buy things that can arise from new or unfamiliar places. Many people tend to buy more when shopping outside their community.
Consider that "distance buying" through shopping channel events and online sources can elicit the same new environmental feeling that creates another temptation that needs to be resisted
Step 9. Arrange your mail delivery
Make sure your physical mail and e-mail are well organized. Unsubscribe from the promotional emails and catalogs that your favorite stores send frequently.
If you live in the United States, avoid the opportunity to receive unwanted offers from new credit cards by signing up for the Opt-Out Prescreen. After filling in your information here, you will not be sent advertisements this way
Step 10. Install parental controls
Since the internet is now one of the most popular ways to shop, remember that your computer environment must be as "healthy" as the world outside. Avoid e-commerce sites by setting a block on your favorite online shopping sites.
- Download a good ad blocker program that will prevent suitable ads from showing up for you in your browser.
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One-click shopping is particularly dangerous. Make it even more difficult for yourself to shop online by removing your credit card number from sites linked to your credit card account. Do this even if you have blocked those sites too.
This will create additional protection; if you find a way to rationalize your presence on the site, you will still have enough time to rethink the decision to make a single purchase
Method 3 of 3: Seeking Outside Help
Step 1. Ask friends and family for support
Secrecy is one of the main ingredients of a shopping addiction (and most addictions, for that matter). So don't be afraid to be open about your shopping problems. Tell your friends and family what's going on, and you can ask them to go shopping or buy essentials; at least in the early stages of reducing spending when the temptation is still very high.
Make sure you are only open to loved and trusted people who can support you in your desire to spend less
Step 2. Visit a therapist
A therapist can help you understand some of the possible problems that are at the root of a shopping addiction, such as depression. While there is no standard treatment for shopping addiction, you may be prescribed an antidepressant, such as an SSRI.
- One method commonly used to treat addiction is a method called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This type of therapy will help you identify and challenge thoughts associated with shopping.
- Therapy will also help you place less value on external motivational factors, such as the desire to appear successful and wealthy, and place more value on internal motivations, such as feeling comfortable being yourself and maintaining nurturing relationships with loved ones.
Step 3. Find a meeting place for people with shopping addiction
Group therapy for shopping addiction is a rich and invaluable resource. The opportunity to share tips on dealing with addiction and feelings with others who have similar problems can sometimes lead to the shift between healing and returning to your old unhealthy shopping habits.
- Look for a Debtors Anonymous or Spenders Anonymous program in your area. This is a 12-step program that can help you manage your shopping addiction on an ongoing basis.
- Use this link to find the Debtors Anonymous meeting.
Step 4. See a credit advisor
If your shopping addiction has put you in serious financial trouble that you can't manage on your own, you may want to consider seeing a credit advisor. A credit advisor can help you deal with the large debts that arise as a result of your shopping addiction.
