During my last blog post, I announced that I'll be doing the 30 Day Minimalism Game. Aside from the decluttering process, I'll be minimizing or cutting back on unnecessary purchases as I financially recover from my travel and holidays. I thought I'd share to you today some tips on how to stop impulsive buying or shopping:

• Review your finances and set financial goals. One of the primary reasons why people want to stop impulsive shopping is usually because of financial reasons whether to save money for a new goal or a financial setback. Go through your finances and review your monthly budget, this may either help you realize that you should step on the brakes with shopping or minimize spending on certain aspects of your life. 
• Be clear on why you want to stop. By having a clear reason and constantly reminding yourself why you want to stop or halt your shopping habits could really help you. Some of the reasons why I stopped impulsive shopping: save money, stop unnecessary purchases from cheap stores or fast fashion brands and support local and sustainable brands, minimizing my things, etc.
• Prevent going to online or physical stores that will trigger shopping. I rarely go to the mall, but when I do it's usually to shop for groceries or supplies at home. And I usually enter through the entrance of the grocery and not the mall entrance to prevent passing through shops. And for online shopping, I have unsubscribed from email lists and deleted all online shopping apps I used and turned off notifications for shopping apps that I buy home supplies from. 
• Shop with intention and create lists. Before going grocery shopping or buying local zero waste products, I usually have a running list of what I need. When I really need an item ASAP, reach a certain amount (for discounts) or reach 10 items, that's the time I would go to the mall or the zero waste shops. 
• Declutter. By decluttering, you get to see what items you have and what you don't need. When you pass by a store that is on sale and you see this cute top, you would have thoughts such as, "Do I really need this top? I might have a similar one at home." or "I think I have enough clothes."
• Wait overnight before making a purchase. By simply adding it to your cart and handling it the next day, you put some time for your decision and the emotion of wanting that item might have eventually faded. Sometimes, 24 hours sale could be so tempting, but those sales usually come back. 
• Don't save credit card information in online shops. When you save credit card information, check out would be as easy as one click away, and your money would be gone in a snap. In my case, I don't own any credit card but there is such a thing as Cash-on-Delivery in our country and you only need an address for check-out, that is why it is important to - 
• Control yourself. Divert your boredom, cause often times people shop or eat when they are bored.
• Learn the difference between useful and necessary. As they say, stuff doesn't need to be useful, stuff needs to be used. Sometimes, we think that some items might be useful one day but often times that one day never comes.