Over shopping is over consumption. It is binging with your credit card, and it is out of control.
I am not talking about deciding to pick up a laptop after careful consideration of its purpose, the price tag and its value to you.
Over shopping is just running into a store and deciding to buy one on a whim, and then spending money on new speakers, a new laptop case for it, a new mouse.. you get the picture.
This disease affects everyone from all levels of society, all races and both genders.
Even celebrities are prey to this craziness.
Take for instance Nicolas Cage’s recent financial snafu:
- Owning more than 20+ automobiles
- $US1.6 million comic book collection
- Castles in England and Bavaria
- In 2007 alone, spent $33 million USD in property, 22 automobiles, 50 pieces of jewelery, art & exotic items
- Costly vacations
- Enormous parties
He needed to earn $30 million USD a year to maintain his lifestyle!
Identify your triggers
Over consumption is in our economy and culture, and is usually a result of any of the following emotions:
- anger
- sadness
- loneliness
- boredom
- excitement
How do you use shopping to change your mood?
Analyze those triggers
If you’ve noticed that you shop because you are happy, then ask yourself why you do that.
Maybe you’re shopping as a way to treat yourself to be happy.
Or to extend that happiness by doing something else you love – shop.
Or maybe it is a way to remember all the fun times you had with your sisters before they moved far away (getting all Freudian here).
List substitute activities for shopping
Make a list of activities ahead of time to do INSTEAD of shopping.
An activity formulated to hold you back from shopping by addressing whatever your triggers were.
If it’s anger, go to the gym and punch it out.
If it’s loneliness, it could be related to wanting to connect with a person, so call a friend to chat.
If it’s boredom, start cleaning and organizing. Surefire way of mine to kill any urge to do anything.
If it’s stress, think about taking a bubble bath or .. well, my favourite is to organize. I hate baths.
Do something else, rather than shop, and force yourself to take control of your life rather than allowing emotions charge in and take over it.
With this list in hand, you can have a ready solution to redirect your emotion’s energy.
