If just reading Elizabeth Hartney’s fictional account of “the day to day experience of shopping addiction” on about.com leaves you feeling exhausted, try to imagine what it’s like to really have a shopping problem. Here’s a sample of what Hartney describes: Wake up and make yourself two cups of coffee in your expensive new coffee… Continue reading A Day in the Life of a Shopaholic
Category: Money Psychology
Retail Therapy Is Not Helping
Blogger Amy Hoover dates the rise of shopping addictions to the 1990s. It’s no coincidence that this is the same time the internet made shopping a 24/7 possibility. Society has long encouraged “keeping up with the Jones,” and commercials try to convince us that we are only as good as our shoes or purses and… Continue reading Retail Therapy Is Not Helping
You’ve Stopped Overshopping…Now What?
Today I’d like to focus on a topic that can cause real anxiety in people who are addicted to shopping: what to do when you stop. If you shop to ease anxiety or soothe grief, what will you do when you feel down if that outlet is no longer available to you? If you shop… Continue reading You’ve Stopped Overshopping…Now What?
Should You and Your Honey Merge Your Money? Or Not…?
There are many answers to the question of whether or not to comingle finances. Surprisingly, some couples actually merge their finances as they are divorcing. Some maintain separate accounts their entire relationship. Some comingle monies when they have a child or when they get married. Every situation is different and, according to the author of this… Continue reading Should You and Your Honey Merge Your Money? Or Not…?
Kick Your Bad Shopping Habits
Enjoying the occasional shopping trip is not unusual by any means, but one too many shopping sprees can mean financial ruin and emotional distress. If you love to shop, learn to know when to give it a rest to maintain your financial health. If you use shopping to comfort yourself emotionally, you should take a… Continue reading Kick Your Bad Shopping Habits
Seven Deadly Spending Traps
Carole Moore at Bankrate.com lists seven shopping traps to be avoided: 1.) Shopping as a hobby or a sport. 2.) Shopping sites on the internet – after all, it’s called “the net” or “the web” for a reason. 3.) Having to own the latest technology – skip an update or two. 4.) Mistaking shortcuts for… Continue reading Seven Deadly Spending Traps
Money Can’t Buy Happiness
With a shopping addiction comes an idea that each purchase will improve one’s happiness, creating an artificial “high” that an addict thinks will last. This is not the case, and although happiness spikes before a purchase it ultimately returns to a baseline level afterward. People known as “high-materialist” consumers have (often unreasonably) high expectations about… Continue reading Money Can’t Buy Happiness
Inside the Mind of the Compulsive Shopper
If there is a compulsive shopper in your life, it can be difficult to understand what is going on in their mind, especially if you think it is easy for them to just quit spending so much money. But compulsive shopping is so much more than that. Compulsive shoppers use spending to cope with a… Continue reading Inside the Mind of the Compulsive Shopper
Simplicity Begins in Us
Simplicity is as easy to attain for ourselves as we make it to be. If you constantly worry about yourself and are dwelling on all the ways you wish you were different, you will find it difficult to achieve simplicity. At the other end of the spectrum, if you are so entirely in love with… Continue reading Simplicity Begins in Us
The Other Person is Never the Problem
Throughout daily life, you’ll encounter frustrating people: People who cut you off in traffic, people who are rude to you, and people who just don’t do things the right way. These are the folks you like to blame for your frustrations every time you feel slighted. But you know what? Those people are never the problem,… Continue reading The Other Person is Never the Problem