Apparently, stress and boredom cause you to indulge in your bad habits. I found it to be true as I always shop whenever I am stressed out.
It is a hell of habit as shopping kind of soothes me and makes me feel like I am doing something beneficial. In a way, I actually avoid thinking about that stressful moment.
But I end up wasting so much money and I don't even use most of the stuff that I bought.
1. Stop them from the root.
As I said my bad habit is to shop, so the root is the money. I made a budget and set a very limited amount of money to shop. So eventually I became well aware that I can't afford to shop because I am saving up for something else.
Before I did that budget, I used to blindly spend. I never actually cared to save up for anything. I always think "Oh, I would be able to manage it soon."
Only when I became mindful about my spending, I started being serious and took each spending into consideration whether it is vital or not.
2. Stop the distraction
Social media is made up of a world full of distractions and it is such eye candy to those who want to be spoilt. The number of ads I get for shopping is uncountable and the offers are so enticing that you will surely end up buying 4 mascaras from different brands at the same time when you don't even use one!
So what you do when this happens is STOP THE AD! There are buttons and settings around the ad where you can set it to " I don't want to see this". I did that to each and every ad I see about sales or offers until I got none.
The fewer sales I saw, the less I thought about SHOPPING.
3. Replace your bad habits
Some say you can't stop the bad habits, you can only replace it. Which makes a lot of sense. When you replace it, you will forget whatever you had before it. Instead of shopping, I can go to the gym or go for a walk instead. Exhaust me there, de-stress and completely distract myself.
I get an amazing body and I get to save so much money! What a winning situation right?
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