Maybe These Will Convince You To Curb Your Impulse Purchases

Those online advertisements and promotional emails are super enticing, aren’t they? In fact, you have a little over hundreds of dollars of prospective purchases added to your cart and your willpower not to hit ‘Proceed with Payment’ is diminishing. 

Now is not the time to accommodate your impulse purchases! You don’t want to go into a holiday debt with Thanksgiving and Christmas just around the corner! 

This article will convince you not to bow down to your impulsive buying tendencies!

The more you shop online, the greater your chances are of being a victim to cyber fraud.

Cyber fraud includes theft of financial and credit card data, stealing of identities and passwords, ransomware attacks, and many more. 

More and more people are using "buy now, pay later" plans to make purchases they can't afford today. A recent Cardify survey conducted with 6,500 adults found that 48% would spend 10-20% more using these no-interest loans than they would with traditional in-store purchases.

With 37% of the world's GHG emissions coming from shipping and returning products, it's no wonder that shopping contributes to negative environmental impact. And things are only going to get worse - delivery vehicles on our roads are expected to increase by 36% by 2030, resulting in a 6 million ton increase in CO2 emissions. Additionally, Americans are throwing away more clothes than ever before - with the volume of clothing waste jumping from 7 million to 14 million tons over the past 20 years. This fast fashion waste takes approximately 200 years to fully decompose in landfills, making it one of the saddest facts about shopping that has a negative impact on our planet.

The subscription industry has seen a huge growth in recent years, with services like Amazon Prime attracting over 148 million members in the US alone. This is an increase of 49% since 2017, showing just how dependent we are becoming on home deliveries. With subscription comes other enticing offers you have to pay for before you enjoy it. It's a marketing strategy. How much money could you have saved if you didn't subscribe to that recent subscription you've made?

Financial infidelity is when one partner conceal's their spending from their significant other, and it's more common than you might think— 1 in 3 couples in the US experiences it. Not only that, but 76% of those who have dealt with financial infidelity say that it negatively affected their communication and relationship in general. In fact, 10% of these relationships even end in divorce because of money complications. While there are many causes for this type of secrecy (including gambling and business debts) online shopping can also be a contributing factor; especially compulsive buying habits.

Sticking to your promise not to impulse buy anything is definitely hard. Disconnect from social media, allow a maximum allowable amount for certain purchases you cannot say no to, or unsubscribe from promotional emails - these can help in curbing your unhealthy spending habits day-by-day. Or, just read this article over and over again when you feel like hitting that Order Now button.