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Throughout the holiday season, there are sales everywhere. If you have ADHD, there’s a pretty good possibility you struggle with impulse shopping – I know I sure do! I’ve personally been trying to rein in my impulse shopping so for my fellow impulsive spenders, I wanted to share with you some tips for avoiding impulse purchases if you have ADHD. Because while it may provide a fun little hit of dopamine, impulse shopping often leaves me with items that I don’t really need or even want which take up space and cost me money.
I will preface this by saying all of these tips will require some level of self-control and cooperation on your part. The thing about finding tips you can use is that you can just as easily not use them. I’m often guilty of walking back rules I’ve put in place for myself because I know there isn’t really a way to force myself to stick to them and there usually aren’t going to be any catastrophic consequences. Following through on commitments I make to myself is something I’m still working on so just know that if it’s something you’re struggling with as well, you are definitely not alone.
Now onto our tips!
Implement a Minimum Waiting Period
My first tip for you is to come up with a minimum waiting period to make your purchase. Instead of purchasing something as soon as you find it, make yourself wait for 24 hours (or whatever other period of time you want). If that time period ends and you still really want to make the purchase, then you can give yourself permission to buy it.
You can even add it to your cart before waiting it out – I know sometimes this kind of tricks my brain into thinking I’ve bought something and I find it easier to hold off on the actual purchase. The plus side to this is sometimes websites will send you a coupon code for a little bit off your purchase if you leave it in your cart long enough.
This is something I’ve been working on implementing for myself. So far, it seems to work pretty well. The only downside I’ve come across is that if you’re wanting to purchase something and there’s a really good sale you want to take advantage of, you may miss out on the deal. However, as I’ve heard other people say, if you’re only buying something because it’s on sale, you’re not saving money. You’re spending money you otherwise wouldn’t have spent. (If it’s a sale on something you’ve been wanting, then that probably isn’t an impulse purchase where you need to implement these tips.)
Remove Convenience
Many ADHDers are a lot less likely to do something if it’s inconvenient. If you want to stop impulsively buying things, it’s a good idea to make it less convenient. For example, if you don’t save your card information, you would have to actually get up and get your wallet. 9 times out of 10, I am not getting up to go get my wallet to complete a purchase. Chances are I’ll tell myself “I’ll get it later” and then I forget about it. Mission accomplished.
Another idea is to uninstall shopping apps from your phone. I personally don’t think this one would work as well for me because I would just go into my browser instead but this may work for some people. This could also be useful for websites that only allow mobile purchases through their app.
Create a Checklist
Last but not least, you can create a checklist of requirements or questions that you have to mentally run through. This can include conditions that either must be met or must not be met in order to give yourself permission to make the purchase. For example, questions could include “can I afford this without it throwing my budget off?” or “is this in-line with my goals?”
To help you implement the checklist, I have created a FREE printable checklist with some questions you can ask yourself when thinking about making a purchase. It also has a tracker to help you keep track of your impulse spending. You can click here to download it.
Those are my 3 tips for avoiding impulse purchases if you have ADHD. Are there any other methods that you’ve implemented that you’ve found helpful? Let me know in the comments!