5 Tips to help you stop impulse buying

We've all been there. You're shopping and see something completely unrelated to what you need to buy. You want it. No, you need it. So you swipe your credit card, but a month later the regret of impulse shopping arrives when the bill does.

It's easy to get carried away and buy something you don't need. And stores - whether online or brick-and-mortar - are designed to separate you from your money.

"Impulsive shopping is all about seeing something and creating this very spontaneous, unmindful, unreflective urge," said Mousumi Bose Godbole, professor of marketing at Fairfield University. "Impulse shopping is a lot about a lack of self-control and not having enough self-regulating resources."

1. Don't shop hungry.

Whether it's online or in physical stores, Bose Godbole said research shows people who don't eat before they shop have a lowered resistance and tend to give into impulse purchases. That also goes for people who use "retail therapy" - shopping when their emotions are particularly high or low. If you're hungry or in an altered emotional state, you can't rely on the internal resources that might curb those impulses.

"Your ability to self-regulate is already down. Shopping is already an emotional process. Impulse shopping is all about a complex emotional urge," she said.

If you have trouble sticking to a list and controlling those impulsive urges, shop with someone who might frown on your throwing something extra in your cart, said Neal Stern, certified public accountant and member of the American Institute of CPAs' National CPA Financial Literacy Commission.

"Shopping with a friend is also a good tactic for dealing with one of the strategies that stores use to fuel the fire of compulsive spending. Especially in the higher end stores, salespeople are trained to play the role of your friend to encourage you to buy," Stern said.

2. Kill those unnecessary mailing lists.

Mandi Woodruff, executive editor at Lending Tree, recommended unsubscribing from retail mailing lists "that are all too easy to get sucked into." Although the mailing lists might contain promo codes, she instead recommends downloading a web browser tool like Ebates that will find any cash-back offers or online promo codes you can use.

3. Keep score.

Everyone shops with a phone now, so use the phone's built-in calculator to keep track of the costs of what's going into your cart, Stern says. "Especially in big-box stores, those large carts can fill up quickly with a collection of relatively inexpensive items that may add up to a shocking number when you reach the register. By the way, the carts in those stores are purposely extra-large - that's a strategy to encourage you to buy more," he said.

4. Cash is king.

It's easy to get carried away when paying by credit card, Bose Godbole said. But paying in cash puts a physical barrier between you and what you want to buy.

If your body is urging you to buy, paying by cash makes you physically count out the dollars it takes to make the purchase, so it slows down how quickly the transaction happens since you need to count out the money, giving you time to think, she said.

Stern agreed. "When you have to pay with cash, the impact of buying is much more dramatic, and you're forced to see what is happening to you financially right then and there," he said.

5. Create a 24-hour rule.

Time is on your side when it comes to preventing impulse shopping. Physical stores will hold items for 24 or 48 hours, which gives you a chance to think about it before buying, Stern said.

"Even if you decide you still want it, you can use the time to look online and make sure you're really getting a good deal. There are plenty of so-called 'sales' with dramatic percentages off where the item has never really sold for the alleged list price," Stern said.

Woodruff said the 24-hour rule works online too. Put goods in your cart, but wait for the next day to buy to see if you really need whatever you dumped there.

"I'm willing to bet you'll forget all about them, and that's a clear sign you really didn't need them in the first place," she said.

Tribune News Service

五条帮你克服冲动购物的小技巧

我们都有过这样的经历，购物时，看到一些完全没必要买的东西，但就是想要，不，就是需要，所以就刷卡买了。可一个月后当信用卡账单寄来时，冲动购物所带来的悔恨也随之而至。

我们很容易头脑发热，买些根本不需要的东西。而无论是网店还是实体店，店铺都设计得要让钱从你身边溜掉。

“冲动购物就是看到某个东西，然后产生的非常自发、不经意且草率的冲动”，费尔菲尔德大学市场营销学教授莫苏米·博斯·戈德博尔说道，“冲动购物很大程度上是缺乏自控，缺乏足够的自制资源”。

她表示，抑制冲动购物的最好方法就是停下来问自己，“我真的需要它吗？”。但在头脑发热的时候，这可能不太容易做到。下面五个小技巧能帮助阻止你的消费冲动。

1. 别饿着肚子购物。

无论是逛网店还是实体店。博斯·戈德博尔指出，研究显示购物前不吃东西的人抵抗能力更低，更容易冲动购物。这同样适用于那些使用“购物疗法”的人，即在情绪特别高亢或低落时购物。如果饿着肚子或处在情绪变化阶段，那么你体内的资源就很难克制购物的冲动。

“你的自控能力已经很低了。购物已经是一个情绪化的过程，冲动购物无疑就是一种复杂的情感冲动”，她说道。

如果你不能坚定地按购物清单买东西，不能控制冲动的购物欲望，那就和一些能阻止你乱往购物车里添东西的人一起逛街，尼尔·斯特恩说道，他是一名注册会计师，也是美国注册会计师协会国家注册会计师金融知识委员会的会员。

“和朋友一起逛街也是一个对付店家常用策略的好方法，他们通常会竭力忽悠你过度消费，特别是在高端店铺，受过训练的销售人员会以朋友的姿态鼓动你买东西”，斯特恩说道。

2．取消订阅不必要的购物邮件。

贷款树公司的执行编辑曼迪·伍德拉夫建议取消订阅那些“很容易深陷其中的”零售邮件。尽管这些邮件中可能含有促销码，但她还是建议下载像返利网站这样的网页浏览工具，这样能找到任何用得上的现金返利或在线促销码。

3. 边买边记。

现在每个人购物都带着手机，你可以用里面内置的计算器，往购物车里放一件记一件，斯特恩说道。“特别是在大卖场里，那些大号购物车很快就能被一大堆相对便宜的货物填满，但等到结账时就会发现加起来总额惊人。顺便说一下，那些卖场的购物车都特意做成特大号，就是一种鼓励顾客多购物的策略”，他说道。

4. 现金为王。

用信用卡购物容易让人毫无节制，博斯·戈德博尔说。但用现金付款就会在你和要买的东西前，横加一个实物障碍。

(本段的翻译有奖征集中)

斯特恩对此表示赞同。“当你用现金付款时，购物所带来的影响体现得淋漓尽致，你被迫眼睁睁地看着当时当地自己财务上所发生的变化”，他说道。

5. 暂缓24小时原则。

在阻止冲动购物方面，时间站在了你这边。实体店会保留货品24或48小时，这给了你买前三思的机会，斯特恩说道。

“即使你确定还是想买，那也可以利用这段时间再上网看看，确保价格合理。有很多所谓的大幅折扣‘促销'商品，其实它们从来没有按所谓的标价卖过”，斯特恩说道。

伍德拉夫表示暂缓24小时原则也适用于网购。把东西放进购物车，等一天，再看是不是真的需要。

“我敢打赌你会把它们忘得一干二净，很显然，你从一开始就根本不需要它们”，她说道。

翻译高手：请将灰框标注内容译成中文，在5月21日中午12点前发送至youth@chinadaily.com.cn 或“中国日报读者俱乐部”公众服务号，请注明姓名、学校及所在城市。最佳翻译提供者将获得礼品一份，并在本报公众号中发布，请与“读者俱乐部”客服联系领取奖品。

上期获奖者：广州 中山大学(北校区） 赵梓钧