Impulse Buys and Budgets.

Hi FYI,

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I too am an impulsive buyer. Shopping and the ability to spend money give me a kind of joy and sense of empowerment. Form my life????????s experience I????????ve learnt that it can become a serious addiction and can push you over the edge. Once you become addicted to mindless spending, there isn????????t any stopping for you. Its nice to know that you are sketching out budget to try to live within the means. Wishing you all the luck and success.

Wow- FYI, you sound just like me.

I not only shopped for fun, but shopping was also a way I handled stress. Unfortunately, all that shopping only lead to more stress- the stress I have now because of how high my debt is.

I was a REALLY bad shopper, too, because I went for the collectable items. I have plopped down as as much as $3000 for a single art print, and most of the other items I collected ranged from $500-$2500. Sure, at the time I was making good money and could afford it, but I wasn't smart enough to plan for the future. So sure enough, I was involved in a work related accident, and missed more than a month of work. I had NO money saved up, so things went crazy as I took out loans from CashCall and PDLs to pay all my bills since income was no longer coming in, since the accident settlement was pending investigation ( and when you work for a sovereign nation, it's EXTREMELY difficult ).

I still have a bit of a shopping problem, even with all the debt looming over my head. It's a very difficult habit to curb and break, but I feel it's getting better. When I used to go to the mall, I would walk out with bags totaling anywhere from $500-$1500 on average. Now, I walk out having spent about $50-$100. Sure, that amount is still pretty unnecessary, but I feel it is a huge improvement compared to the amount I *used* to spend.

Also, as far as your method of walking around the store, I have found that that helps GREATLY. Because once I walk around with the item or items for about 45 minutes, the newness and excitement starts to wear off, and I find myself putting it back. Typically, that's what shopping is all about- the excitement of finding new goodies. But like most new things, once you get them home, their appeal starts to wear off, and they end up sitting in your closet or largely forgotten. Then you end up paying massive credit card bills and wondering- "geez, what did I buy again that cost so much I'm still paying on it years later?"

Hey FYI, sounds like a good plan to sit down with your kids and explain to them what a budget is. When I was little my dad used to try to teach us all the time about saving money and capitalism -- he had 4 or five basic rules. He would quiz us all the time and say "All right, what's the first rule?" (Always save at least 10%). For the last couple years I have been putting 20% of my paycheck into a savings account, and I never, ever touch it. I'm comfortable knowing that if I lost my job today, my savings could support me and all my bills for at least 6 months until I find a new job.

I have impulses all the time, usually when I'm bored. I'll get in my car and go drive somewhere, like Best Buy or Walmart. And I "pick out" things I want to buy. THEN, as I'm doing the math in my head how much it will all be, my brain tells me "you know you don't really need this stuff." And so I put it all back and leave the store empty-handed. I had fun for a day just pretending what I was going to buy.

For the last year or so I've been giving myself $100/month to buy "luxury" stuff that I don't really need. I've been pretty good at not buying stuff, so then I roll it over to the next month. Like now, I haven't really bought anything for myself since Christmas, so I've got about $500 in that budget. When I get my stimulus check, I think I'm going to buy a nice TV.