As the holiday season rolls toward us, online overshoppers may find themselves hideously tempted. Internet merchants are leveraging their natural advantages in convenience, price, and selection, and, like bricks-and-mortar retailers, they’re starting holiday sales earlier than ever. What’s an online shopping addict to do? One solution is to go cold turkey with the Optenet PC web filter, a software program that will block access to internet shopping sites.
Once installed and protected by a password (Optenet suggests you have a trusted friend do this, keeping the password secret), the software acts as a bouncer between your computer and the internet. It simply won’t let in shopping sites (or porn, or violence, or bomb-making, or other categories you choose to block).
Addicts are ingenious, and nothing is foolproof; the software can’t keep you from using somebody else’s computer for shopping. But if your home computer is your primary portal to overshopping, the $39.95 Optenet PC web filter can pretty effectively close off that option—and by doing so, give you the space to start looking at what your shopping habit is really all about.
Carrie Rattle is a Principal at BehavioralCents.com, a website for women focused on mind and money behaviors. She has worked in the financial services industry for 20+ years and hopes to inspire women to better prepare themselves for financial independence.