(ThySistas.com) Ladies, I don’t know about you but it is so hard re-framing from spending too much money online shopping from my favorite department stores and from Amazon. Every single day I’m tempted to buy something that’s on sale for 30-70% off the regular price and with cash back offers. I’ve developed a great habit with saving money to build generational wealth, but let’s face it, it’s like Black Friday sales are happening every day now. I understand that stores and businesses whether large or small are doing their best to survive this pandemic but their sales every day of the week are very tempting.
I have done the following things to help me avoid spending too much money online shopping:
Create a budget. You should have a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly budget that assigns your money where to go every time you earn income. When you create a budget, assign money for your entertainment (ex., online shopping) and only use the money assigned for that category, to shop.
Delete all of the store apps from your cellphone. I deleted my Amazon app which means I no longer get notifications and other updates that will prompt me to click on the app and start shopping. If you have any store apps, DELETE them sis! Doing this will lessen the chances of you browsing through the apps and spending unnecessary money on things that you want and definitely don’t need.
Unsubscribe from the stores email lists. After you’ve deleted the stores apps from your cellphone, go and unsubscribe from their mailing list also. Don’t worry, you can always go back and subscribe again when it is safe to do so. I check my emails so many times a day and there are always, always, always, emails from my favorite store offering me some type of sale or coupon for “a limited time offer” creating an urgency for me to buy something. I’m a little bit more disciplined now, but I scroll right pass them in my inbox now or if it becomes too much for me, I unsubscribe to their mailing list all together.
Sleep on it. A lot of times, we shop emotionally and if we refrain from emotional spending by sleeping on the thought of a purchase, our wallets will thank us later. I can’t tell you how many times this has worked out for me in the past and present currently. For example, I recently bought myself a new purse (haven’t done that in years) and of course, as soon as my confirmation email was sent, I received a follow up email a few hours later to look at other items I may like based on my recent purchase. Sounds familiar? I’m very aware of the powers of email marketing so instead of purchasing the wallet that definitely goes with my purse, I decided to sleep on it and the next day, I did NOT purchase the wallet after all.
I get it, we’re all bored at home and our fingers are constantly scrolling away, clicking on our favorite store apps and filling up our online shopping carts with stuff that we don’t need. I encourage you to step away from the phone, laptop or whatever device at that moment to help you avoid spending too much money online shopping.
Staff Writer; Felicia T. Simpson
One may also connect with this sister online over at; FTSimpson.com.