How to Stop Online Shopping – Easy Ways to Reduce Your Spending

How to Stop Online Shopping – Easy Ways to Reduce Your Spending

Buying new things can easily become addictive and it’s even easier when shopping online. You might enjoy sitting in the comfort of your home scrolling through what the online shops are offering, finding bargains and deals and being able to “add to basket” and check-out with ease. You feel a rush of excitement and satisfaction from your purchase, while shopping and when your parcel arrives at your door. But does it last? Did you really need that thing? No and no. The good feeling doesn’t last and now you have another item to look after and store. If you’re looking to stop online shopping, you have come to the right place. This article guides you through things you can do to reduce your online spending today. Let’s get started.

Stop Online Shopping with These Tips

Limit Your Exposure

One of the best things to help you stop temptation is to limit your exposure to online shops. Even if you don’t visit the websites themselves, I’m sure you are seeing the brands in other places too.

Unfollow or mute the brands on social media and don’t interact with any shopping ads you see either. Once you have interacted with an ad from a brand, you will see more similar ads which just makes everything worse. Block the brands and mark any ads that you see as “not interested” or similar depending on the platform. Also unsubscribe from newsletters or send them all to a specific folder in your emails so that you don’t see them unless you’re actively looking for something.

Stop Browsing Just to Browse

Keep a list of the things that you actually need to purchase and only look for those items online or in store. Set a budget for each item and don’t go and buy it straight away. Instead, implement a waiting period of a few days or a week or so to consider whether you actually really need to make this purchase or not.

Don’t allow yourself to browse online stores for anything else except for the items on your to-buy list once you have waited. Lots of people browse for fun and when you spot a good deal or something that you like the look of, it’s so hard to not buy it. The best thing you can do to avoid this temptation is to stop browsing for fun and only shop when you need something. Find something else to do that you enjoy instead – read a book, learn to knit, do a jigsaw puzzle, etc.

Make it Hard to Shop Online

Make it more difficult to shop online by not using the apps, not being signed in, and not having any payment cards saved anywhere. By doing this, you are adding lots of extra steps and time to each purchase which makes it less likely that you’ll impulse buy something. If you have to remember your password, go and find your hand bag and wallet, then add your credit or debit card, then authorise the payment with your bank before you can make your purchase you will think twice before buying! I do this and it’s stopped me from buying many more books from Amazon that I don’t need…

Recognise Your Triggers

An important part of learning to stop online shopping is to recognise your triggers. When do you turn to shopping as an activity? Is it when you’re feeling sad, stressed, bored, or something else? Whatever it is, recognise the habit and figure out a healthier way to deal with your emotions.

Reward Yourself

When you manage to achieve the goals that you have set for yourself it’s nice to give yourself a reward too. If you manage to stop online shopping successfully (or reduce it to the target that you set for yourself), reward yourself for your hard work. Not by shopping of course! A great way to reward yourself for stopping unnecessary spending is to use the money you have saved for an experience such as a holiday. Figure out how much money you have saved by reducing your spending and see what you could use that money for instead. By simply not buying unnecessary things here and there, you can save so much money – you’ll be surprised when you add it all up and what you could do with that money instead.