A Stylist's Tips for Tricking Yourself into Shopping Less

Janice Meredith is saving you from the inevitable retail traps that seem too good to be true.

Right now Instagram quickly amplifies certain products into a cult like status. Not only do you see it across your followers’ feeds as they wear these ‘IT’ pieces, but also the ads that appear every 10 posts in your feed. Peer pressure on social media is a huge part of the problem. Social media is making us overspend and not just because of the ads. Social media is now much like an expenditure category like rent or student loans.

Instagram recently rolled out Instagram Shopping, which allows people to view product descriptions and pricing with a tap. Add in Apple pay on your phone and the effort to purchase is so minimal and very easy with one click and no turning back. Being inundated with emails stating that a celeb’s one piece can be yours for under $100 don’t help your resolve.

Realize the more you like and search, the more targeted you will be. #visciouscircle. For millennials “more than any other generation, social media and the allure to spend beyond their means could have long-term negative effects on their finances if they’re not careful.” nearly 90 percent of millennial respondents say social media creates a tendency to compare their own wealth or lifestyle to that of their peers. They report feeling inadequate about their own life after seeing something on social media. 57% of millennials spend money they hadn’t planned on because of social media.

There are ways to curb your influence of social media on your money:

  1. To resist the impulse buy, create a shopping list based on what pieces will compliment your closet. Stick to the list by putting those items in your shopping cart or “heart” them. Check back in to see if they are on sale or the price has dropped also benefits the idea of time and making sure you still want. A thought out plan the balance the needs from the wants.
  2. Create a budget and stick to it! Step back and look at your spending and create a budget.
  3. We need to give up the fear of missing out. This need to be ‘in the know’ for approval and fear of being left out has our brains programmed to respond to those ads with purchases. Seek other ways to find that calm that shopping brings you.
  4. Obvs take a social media break. Schedule your perusing time to when you know you are in your best state – not the late evenings – to a time when you know you can see your friend posing with that IT bag and not feel the need to go find it and buy it. Know when you are weakest – Friday evenings after a long work week, etc.
  5. Unfollow the accounts that don’t inspire you, those accounts that make you wonder how you will manage without that particular job/vacation/restaurant reservation. Seeing the top one percent living the top one percent of the most interesting things creates a vicious need.
  6. Remove your payment methods from your device. Having to manually type in all your credit card info is annoying aka ‘Pain of paying’.
  7. Also those smaller little easy small buys do add up. Back to budget, add up how much you are spending and you will have a visceral reaction. That will help you keep on track and rom getting caught up in these easy hits of shopping pleasure.
  8. The temptation is pretty strong so there are ways to beat it – After Pay which allows you to make that purchase but you pay in 4 installments and if you don’t pay, your account gets frozen and you can’t shop. Unlike traditional credit cards.