Fight Shopping Addiction

Shopping can be socially acceptable because consumerism is continually pushed on us in the forms of posters, adverts, and signs.

Shopping is also a way of life: You need food and clothing from stores. Even if you try to stop compulsive buying by avoiding the stores in person, there is still a world of online shopping.

• Grab a piece of paper and write down all the habits that you think are unhealthy and want to get rid of. Once you have finished, rank them in order. Now start with number #1. Forget the rest for now.
• Add layers of “friction” to your vices to make it harder for yourself to keep doing them. Keep adding layers of friction of time, money, or both.

• Remove all social media apps from your phone
• Change your passwords to something impossible to remember. Save them in a document/cloud
• Log out after each session.
• The radical option: Delete your accounts.

• Use tools like financial books, podcasts, and online savings groups.
• Avoid indulging in unnecessary expenses daily, reducing them or finding healthier and more affordable alternatives.
• Cultivate a healthier attitude and the right mindset towards your finances.
• Know that small, practical, money-saving actions can compound into better living for you in the long run.

There are plenty of financial and budgeting tools and apps that can help us manage our funds, keep track of our expenses, and trigger us when we are off-track.

Simple hacks like carrying a debit card or cash instead of a credit card, or deleting our card details from shopping sites can help us avoid spending impulsively.

What makes addiction to productivity complicated is that society tends to reward it - the more you work, the better. A workaholic might be earning a lot of money, but in the long run, the detrimental effects outweigh the short-term benefits.

Addiction affects the brain's reward system. It results in compulsive behavior while disregarding harmful consequences.

At the root of obsession with productivity is a fear of wasting time. Everything is seen as either productive or unproductive.

Buying groceries is seen as productive because you have to eat, while a hobby is viewed as unproductive. Productivity junkies are overly focused on a single aspect of their life. Potential sources of pleasure, such as spending time with loved ones, are very low on the list.

Your future self might have more income, but it’s also fairly likely that your future self might have less income and you’ll find yourself in a really bad situation. 

Even if your future self is doing well, there are probably going to be other big expenses that you’ll want to deal with at that time, like buying a house.

• Building an emergency fund: set up an automatic weekly or monthly transfer from your checking account to your savings, then leave the savings alone until an emergency appears.
• Eliminating high-interest debt: Set up a simple debt repayment plan by organizing your debts by interest rate, then attempt to make a double payment on whatever debt has the highest interest rate.
• Saving for retirement: It will actually end up being a much smaller burden than you expect,  lifted up by the pleasure of knowing that you’re securing your retirement.

According to experts in the field, when dealing with anxiety related to checking your bank account, the best solution to manage your anxiety is by checking your bank account. 

While it might hurt you, this remains the only means to help yourself get in control and start managing your money.

While planning on how to better keep track of your bank account, you might want to consider methods like starting to check your account once a month. 

In order to do that, it could be useful to schedule a meeting in your calendar, devoted solely to this. Other ideas might include using spreadsheets to keep track of expenses or getting an automatic tracker.

The idea behind kakeibo is to help you understand the relationship with money by keeping a ledger with all incoming and outgoing transactions.

The difference from other budgeting systems is that kakeibo emphasizes the importance of physically writing things down as a way to observe your spending habits.

• Can I live without this item?
• Based on my financial situation, can I afford it?
• Will I actually use it? Do I have space for it?
• How did I come across it in the first place? (Did I come across it after wandering into a gift shop out of boredom?)
• What is my emotional state in general today? (Calm? Stressed?)
• How do I feel about buying it? (Happy? Excited? Indifferent?)
• How long will this feeling last?

By following the conventional path of "school to loan to university to work" you risk running into serious debt. Being creative is a potential way to lessen or eliminate that.

Maybe finding a different and cheaper way of doing the same thing, doing a yard sale or getting a side job… Put your mind to it and you may find ways to get a financial boost. 

When you buy mutual funds, you are charged a purchase fee upfront. This is a one-time payment to the fund management institution. Annually, you will be charged with a percentage of management fees, commonly known as “expense ratio”, which can be expensive.

Beware when advisors at your bank recommend mutual funds to buy. They might be earning a sales commission.

According to research, we get a dopamine surge from buying stuff that causes us to want more and more.

Delayed gratification when the order arrives a few days later also makes is more physiologically rewarding than shopping in stores.

Some online shops have made it especially easy to shop with a one-click buying process. Most major retailers offer free shipping, and only one in ten consumers return stuff they've bought online.

Americans are also taking up more space with all the stuff they are amassing. Self-storage units are rapidly increasing too.

The whole Zero Wate movement is built upon the following 5 main R’s of living: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot:

1. Refuse what you do not need
2. Reduce what you do need
3. Reuse what you consume
4. Recycle what you cannot Refuse, Reduce or Reuse
5. Rot (compost) the rest.