What is Impulsive Spending?

What is Impulsive Spending? By Nelson Letshwene "What you resist persists. What you look at disappears.” Neal Donal Walsch When a person is said to be impulsive, it seems to imply that they are out of control or that they act quickly, without much thought. But the word ‘impulse’ also means instinct or inclination, which means, a tendency towards a particular thing. When we talk about impulsive spenders we are talking about people who spend their money quickly and without much thought. An impulsive spender should experience what is called ‘buyer’s remorse’, which means regretting why they made that purchase. The question is, do impulsive spenders experience buyer’s remorse? If they did, they would stop being impulsive in their buying behaviour wouldn’t they? If that were true, then impulsive spenders would be impulsive only once, and during their next buying cycle, they would be ‘normal’ spenders. But impulsive spenders seem to be that way every opportunity they get. This should take us back to examine that word, ‘impulse’, which means ‘instinct or inclination’. Have you noticed that impulsive spenders are only inclined to be that way around things that they like? A person who likes clothing, only gets the ‘impulse’ to buy ‘without thought’ only when they see clothing. If books are on sale, and they don’t like books, they don’t get the ‘impulse’ to buy. If cows are for sale, and they don’t like cows, there is no impulse to buy. This means that impulsive spending is not a random act of madness. So then, impulsive spending has to do with the character of a person. Money does not judge anyone. It goes wherever its owner sends it. People often want to know how to control impulsive spending. The first thing is that you must know yourself. You must identify the things that trigger your impulse to buy. Until you can identify your triggers, you have no way of dealing with them. It will then seem like you are acting without thought. If you do your shopping when you are hungry, you may notice that you tend to buy more food than you need. If your rational brain was in charge of your shopping experience, it would know that you couldn’t consume all that food and you wouldn’t buy that much. But when you are hungry, survival instincts take over the shopping experience, and you ‘are not thinking straight’ anymore. That is why I say you should never do your shopping when you are hungry. If you are an impulsive spender, realise that those impulses to buy come only when you are around things that you like, or you are thinking bout those things. This knowledge may cause you to examine your character and understand yourself better. Why are you inclined to buy the things that you buy? What need are you trying to meet that does not seem to get met? Examine your impulses, your instincts, your inclinations! Namasté. Your comments and suggestions are welcome at 101silverline@gmail.com