Has it ever occurred to you that every time you visit your favourite supermarket, you buy more than twice the goods you intended to buy?
Has it ever occurred to you that every time you visit your favourite supermarket, you buy more than twice the goods you intended to buy?
An impulse purchase is a spontaneous purchase or a purchase of an item that a shopper hadn’t planned to buy when they began their shopping task. In marketing speak; impulse buying is heavenly because it assists the seller to take money which is ‘already on the table’ a good thing entirely for every businessman because it puts money into their pockets.
But impulse buying is bad for your personal finances because it punches unnecessary holes into your (the buyer’s) pocket.
Impulse buying is basically, you spending money on what you don’t need, which is as good as wasted money. If you are trying to earn more and spend less, the last thing you want is overshooting your budget buying expensive chocolates and mints because they are always conveniently placed near their payment counter, inviting you to take them home.
The easiest way to increase your wealth is draw a monthly budget after going through your monthly expenses and eliminating those you can do without.
Next, you try to stick to that budget as closely as possible. To avoid impulse buying prepare a shopping list and take it with you every time you visit the shop and strictly keep to that list.
If you have made a budget with a goal of saving a fixed amount of money, then you will be able to stick to your shopping list, because if you don’t you hurt your saving goals.
This is not to say that you should not spend on a bargain item once in a while. You can allow yourself that luxury once in a while after you have achieved a financial goal which you have been working on. You can allow yourself to spend a little over your budget only and only when that spending is controlled.
Furthermore, reduce on you regular shopping trip to reduce impulse buying. Make a weekly shopping list and make only one weekly trip to the store. If possible reduce as much as possible the number of trips you make for shopping, going for one major shopping tip instead of many small ones.
The more you go shopping with little to buy with money to spend, the more impulse buying you will end up doing and the more damage to your monthly budget happens.
Always remember that shops and supermarket will always welcome customers who do impulse buying. Sales people are eternally trying to win impulse purchases, so it is important to plan your shopping trip well and always stick to the list especially now that the festive season is approaching when every salesman will target to take your money away from you for every sentimental reason they can cook up.