8 WAYS TO PREVENT EMOTIONAL SPENDING
What do you do to prevent emotional spending? When you are going through a difficult time, retail therapy and eating out can seem to be a great cure for your emotional stress. I have dealt with this struggle a lot, and have found this to be one of my hardest financial management challenges overall. These are my go to ideas and tricks, to handle my emotional spending issues. Stress can really take a toll on you both emotionally and physically, but it can also affect your financial will power. One of the areas this affects in my own life the most, is unnecessary spending on food and beverages. I find myself both stress eating and grabbing more expensive food items on the go, and not wanting to cook. So you can imagine after a week of ordering pizza in the evening once, going through the drive thru's for dinner, buying lunch everyday and eating out on the weekend, that you have blown a lot of money on food. So what can you do to prevent this from happening and allowing yourself to stress spend or emotional spend?
1) Stay out of stores when you are feeling stressed....
This can prevent a lot of unnecessary spending by not putting yourself in this situation. You know already you are going to have a hard time not buying unnecessary things, so don't put yourself in the situation to make this choice. If you must go to the store for a few things, promise yourself that you will follow a grocery list and only buy the things that you absolutely need. If you are like me and you love to shop online (For me this would be Amazon) avoid online shopping during these times. Shopping to relieve stress or make you feel better really doesn't work, and it only makes you feel worse later.
2) Prepare ahead when you have available time....
Write a grocery list and prepare a menu ahead of time before going to the grocery store. This can both save you money and prevent you from emotional spending, if you make yourself stick to it. Also make sure to prepare for quick budget friendly breakfast, lunch and dinner options. If you do not have a lot of time to prepare food, there are things you can prepare ahead on your days off that can help get you through a busy stressful week.
3) Find better ways to handle your stress and emotions....
Take a step back and evaluate your emotions and the situation at hand. begin to develop a game plan on how you can better manage the situation and what you can do to prevent further stress. Get in a good workout, hang out with a friend, prayer or meditation, cook something, read a good book, write, or draw something.
4) Learn that it is ok to say no.....
If there are certain situations that cause you more stress in your life that you can avoid, do it! You can analyze the situation and how best to eliminate unnecessary stressors in your life, and begin to focus more on you in the time you have for yourself.
5) Realize that money and things do not provide Happiness and Joy.....
Joy is not provided through circumstances and neither is happiness. Joy is much more internal and therefore finding Joy can be a factor in determining happiness. Happiness and Joy are very different, happiness is a choice that you make everyday to be happy despite your circumstances, and Joy is found through accepting and loving yourself and others and recognizing that there is a higher power at work in your life, and everything is not yours to control.
6) Find a good support system.....
Family and friends that you can count on can really help when situations you are dealing with are tough. You need to find a good support system, to help you through these times and to encourage you. You could even ask a friend or family member to hold you accountable in many ways. This should be someone you feel comfortable talking to about anything, and asking to be the one you call when you want to spend or need support. Emotional spending can be an addiction and this type of support is often useful in dealing with an addiction of any kind.
7) Take a break from social media....
Social media can be very stressful for some people and can cause a great deal of depression due to various factors. Examples of this may be your ex who is the cause of a lot of depression yet is also on social media, or a friend who you are upset with. Another example could be your financial situation is not good, and being active on social media can actually cause you depression. Seeing everyone else on vacation or doing things you want to do but cannot afford, can be hard to see in your financially stressful situation. Taking a social media break can also be very helpful in freeing up more time as well to help you focus on taking care of yourself.
8) Look for entertainment you already own or cook at home.....
Instead of going to the movies, shopping or eating out when you are emotional, try these things instead. You can stay home and cook and watch a movie or read a good book. You could call a friend and meet up at a friends house for a fun day or evening together. You could bring ingredients to a friends house or have a friend over and prepare a meal together. Watch movies you own or if you have Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime you can just watch a movie that is free to stream. Playing board games with the family or a group of friends can also be fun (my family would laugh because I do not enjoy games but for those who do it's a great option), in fact you could plan a game night and make it a great time to get together with friends.