Expensive Impulse Shopping

According to a Bank of Montreal study, impulse shopping cost Canadians $3,720 a year. These can be any kind of purchases like clothes, knickknacks, or food. That amounts to $310 a month being spent on items that are wanted, but not needed.

More than half of the people surveyed actually bought something they might not need because it was simply on sale. For people doing marketing, this means price slashing does pay off because you’re getting people to buy things they’ll probably never use. But for consumers, it means we have to be careful and think about what we’re doing next time we feel the impulse to buy something we didn’t plan for. Impulse spending isn’t necessarily bad. Many people would say they do it to cheer themselves up \(^_^)/  Can’t argue against that, as long as people can afford it. But the problem is that many of us can’t. In fact, most of the respondents regretted their purchases and 43% sometimes spent even more than they earned in a month ( ・_・) And 33% of those surveyed had to borrow money or take out a loan to cover those impulse expenses.  (・・? ) That certainly can’t be healthy for someone’s financial situation. These consequences of impulse spending are more common among people under 30, with one in three unable to afford something they need because they purchased something else they wanted. Another bit I found surprising is that men spend twice as much ($414) on impulse shopping as women ($207.) But I guess that makes sense because guys tend to spend more on pricy technology items.

Best way to curb this impulse if you can’t afford it? My suggestion is to keep track of your unplanned purchases, then give yourself a realistic budget on impulse spending and stick to it every month. Setting goals for yourself and achieving them feels much better than shopping for stuff you don’t need. Trust me, I’m a blogger 😉

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Random Useless Fact:  There are about 47,000 shopping malls in the United States. California has the most with over 6000. Whyoming has the least with 55. But the largest shopping mall in North America is the West Edmonton Mall in Canada :0)

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makinthebacon$
10/14/2012 7:04 pm

I actually have had buyer’s remorse the odd times I’ve done impulse shopping. I don’t really get a relief out of retail therapy, but it seems like a lot of Canadians do.

Liquid
Admin
10/14/2012 8:40 pm
Reply to  makinthebacon$

I’ve only had buyer’s remorse once when I bought too much stuff from Ikea once. Haha, retail therapy, I like that.

theoutliermodel
10/14/2012 9:11 pm

I get the itch to impulse-buy at work a lot when I get bored. I’ll usually end up leaving my desk and wandering down to Shoppers or the market, looking for a snack.

Liquid
Admin
10/14/2012 9:20 pm

Shoppers is kind of like 7-11 for when you want to get snacks, but I guess you can say it’s of a higher class lol. I have the good problem of being lazy, so instead of getting up to buy something when I’m hungry I just wait it out until I get home later. Saves time and money. I will impulse buy from our company’s vending machine once in awhile though 😀

Liquid
10/15/2012 8:21 am

test comment

Unabashedly Ashley
Unabashedly Ashley
10/15/2012 12:12 pm

BF and I always remind each other… it’s not a good deal if you don’t need it. It’s always good to compare what you think you want with your savings goal. For me I think… do I want this? Or do I want to put that money towards a house? Makes it a lot easier to walk away 🙂

Liquid
Admin
10/15/2012 12:17 pm

That’s a good way to think about it. For me, I remind myself that there was a time in my life where I didn’t have nearly as much as I do now, and I was still happy, and that makes it easier for me to walk away from a potential impulse buy.

Steve@The Loonie Bin
Steve@The Loonie Bin
10/15/2012 3:23 pm

That’s exactly how I avoid impulse buying, Ashley. More people need to learn how effective this technique really is.

Steve@The Loonie Bin
Steve@The Loonie Bin
10/15/2012 3:26 pm

It was weird, I tried to post this morning and there was no reply box…even refreshed and everything.

West Edmonton Mall is 25 mins from my house and I still never go there unless I’m meeting someone. I’d rather go to a smaller mall with less shopping zombies to deal with.

Liquid
Admin
10/15/2012 3:33 pm

I tried installing a couple of plugin this morning. Sorry, that might have caused conflicts with the comments. Thanks for tweeting me about it. I’ve never been to WEM even though I’ve passed through Alberta before. Would like to visit it at least once in my lifetime, I heard they have submarines there 😀

Steve@The Loonie Bin
Steve@The Loonie Bin
10/16/2012 5:46 am
Reply to  Liquid

They HAD submarines, but the people who own the mall don’t like spending money on upkeep for anything. They sold the subs to the Canadian Navy and now have bumper boats instead.

Liquid
10/16/2012 8:02 am

I thought that was just some joke to poke fun at our navy or something. Too bad lol. I’ll probably never get to ride in one now.

agentfang
agentfang
10/15/2012 6:36 pm

I’m surprised men spend more than women. Probably they pick up the tab on dates… they definitely buy more gadgets…

Went to the states for the day and ended up spending $207.65 on food, gas, two pair of pants! Shopping trips are dangerous!

I kinda want to upgrade my smartphone… to a Samsung Galaxy Note.. on amazon for $489+tax. Company Xmas bonus… I gotta spend it on something. What you think lol? My phone still works, but the camera function doesn’t show the new pics I had taken on my screen…

Liquid
Admin
10/15/2012 6:47 pm
Reply to  agentfang

Maybe men are just more honest about how they spend their money 😛 lol, I’m kidding. Get an galaxy S3 if you can find one within the bonus budget, otherwise the Note is a great phone 😀

Not Working
Not Working
10/16/2012 6:28 pm

Major photoshop skills in this thread (o – o)

Liquid
Admin
10/16/2012 7:51 pm
Reply to  Not Working

Not everyone knows but I studied graphic design for a whole year 🙂

MyMoneyDesign.com
MyMoneyDesign.com
10/17/2012 3:05 pm

I have nothing righteous to claim – I make impulse purchases all the time. Mostly because I believe I’ve found a good deal that I’ll never find again, so I need to buy it while the getting is good. One thing that has helped keep me on track is to make a mental list of things I’m actively seeking out. For example: If I tell myself I need a new black shirt, this help curb my future purchases at Banana Republic until I actually find a good deal on a black shirt.

Liquid
Admin
10/18/2012 10:20 pm

Spending money on things you know you’ll need at a discount, will probably save you money in the long run. I think if you do this then getting your time right is important.

Drop that Debt
Drop that Debt
10/18/2012 7:53 am

I’ve definitely fallen into the sale trap. That’s how I still have about 8000 body lotions and soaps because of those damn 5 for $25 or whatever it happened to be deals. No more ! It’s helped for me to budget and realize I can’t afford to do this, and it’s helped for me to want to live very minimally and the fact that my cupboard is full of lotions and sale clothing I don’t wear is enough to make me think twice now before I make a purchase.

Liquid
Admin
10/18/2012 10:23 pm
Reply to  Drop that Debt

Personal hygiene is really important, and many people fall into the sale trap of buying soaps and lotions. Maybe you can give them away as presents or samples to your friends, lol.