The Psychology of Spending Money
for About.com
The Real Culprit Behind Your Urge to Splurge
In a perfect world, we would all avoid too much credit card debt and would never have to deal with the desperation of being unable to meet our credit card payment obligations.
We'd never have creditors hounding us for payment.
We'd never know the frustration of not being able to afford what we really want because every extra cent has to go towards keeping up with the minimum payments on our credit cards.
But this isn't a perfect world, and unfortunately these distressing situations are the norm for many people.
If you find yourself in this position, or headed there, take control of your spending now. Don't wait until your situation is so dire that you have few options available to you.
An important aspect of debt that is not always addressed is why you got too deeply into debt in the first place. Why did you keep charging items you couldn't afford? Why did you feel the urge to use those little plastic cards for things that weren't necessary, even when you began to struggle to make the payments? What causes your compulsive shopping?
Facing the factors that give you the urge to splurge can be uncomfortable, but if you don't face them, you may never get control of your spending and your debt. If you're always trying to pay off yesterday's purchases, many of which have long since worn out or been forgotten, how will you acquire the things you truly want for tomorrow?
One negative aspect of using credit cards instead of cash is that you don't feel like you're spending real money. The pleasant feelings you experience when you purchase the item are disconnected from the unpleasant or painful feelings of making the payment when you get the credit card statement.
Studies show that most people are much less likely to buy, or less willing to spend as much, when paying with cash as opposed to credit cards. Try leaving your credit cards at home. Pay with cash, check, or a debit card.
To really get control of your spending and your credit card debt, you need to examine what money means to you. Make an effort to notice how you interact with money and what beliefs and attitudes you have about money. Studies also show that people with low self-esteem engage in more impulse spending and buying things they don't need.
Remind yourself daily that money or a lack of it doesn't determine who you are. Your worth as a person has nothing to do with how much money you have. Once you truly believe this, and money is no longer connected to your sense of self-worth, you open up the psychological barriers that were keeping you from wisely handling the money you do have and limiting your ability to make more.
Right now, your unconscious limiting beliefs may be keeping you from being financially successful, but as you begin to build up your feelings of self-worth and develop a positive attitude about yourself and about money, you'll attract positive things into your life. As you do so, you'll feel less of a need to generate positive feelings by purchasing things, and you'll find it easier to stop buying items you don't really need.
There are hundreds of books, magazine articles, and Internet web sites about getting rid of credit card debt. Some of them offer sound advice about the psychological aspects of money and spending that you'd do well to consider.
If psychological factors influence your spending, credit reduction programs are like using perfume to cover body odor: they will treat only the symptoms, not the root cause. Working on the psychological aspects while taking steps to reduce debt will greatly increase your chances of long-term success.
Several of my favorite books on this subject are listed below, all available at Amazon.com. To explore this topic more, read one or more of them:
The Courage to Be Rich by Suze Orman
Your Money or Your Life by Joseph R. Dominguez and Vicki Robin
Money Harmony: Resolving Money Conflicts in Your Life and Your Relationships, by Olivia Mellan
Consuming Passions: Help for Compulsive Shoppers, by Ellen Mohr Catalano and Nina Sonenberg
MY THOUGHTS
Better grab these books. Shopping is such a feel-good activity. Discipline and wisdom recede into the farthest regions of our minds when we see the sale signs. I know I have misspent when I do not even have hangers for the new clothes I bought or when the old shoes have to go in plastic bags to give way to the new shoes. Having clutter is an indication that you bought way too much, over and beyond what you need. It's not worth it as a stress reliever.
Showing posts with label excessive spending. Show all posts
Showing posts with label excessive spending. Show all posts
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
"bad" stress relievers
Unhealthy Responses to Stress and How These Bad Habits Affect You
Here Are 5 Of The Most Common Bad Habits:
By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., About.com
Updated: December 31, 2008
About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board
If you tend to deal with stress in less-than-healthy ways, you are compounding the negative impacts of stress on your health by exacerbating the stress levels and creating new problems in your life and health. The following are some common unhealthy ways of coping with stress, along with some of the negative effects of each, and ideas on how to curb or change the bad habit itself or lessen its impact.
Bad Habit #1 - Consuming Too Much Caffeine:
Multitudes of people enjoy a daily caffeine intake, as evidenced by the extreme popularity of Starbucks and other coffee houses. And while the occasional coffee isn’t going to do you great harm, it’s important to remember that caffeine is, in fact, a drug, and it’s possible to have a full-blown caffeine addiction. More likely and common, however, is caffeine dependence, where people use caffeine to jump-start their energy in the morning, use it throughout the day to stave off a ‘caffeine crash’, and then find their sleep disturbed by caffeine, causing them to wake up tired and need the caffeine jolt to get going again the next day. As the cycle continues, caffeine affects stress levels as well. If this sounds a little too familiar, here are some resources to help kick the caffeine habit.
Bad Habit #2 -Smoking:
For smokers, a cigarette can feel like a good stress reliever. In fact, during times of stress, a cigarette feels almost necessary, and quitting the habit can seem virtually impossible. (Due in part to physical addiction and in part to habit and other social and lifestyle factors, it’s been said that quitting smoking is as difficult as quitting heroin!) Unfortunately, we all know that cigarettes can be costly—financially speaking and especially health-wise—and because smoking creates much more stress than it alleviates, it’s more than worth it to kick the habit. For help, visit the Smoking Section of the Unhealthy Behaviors resource category on this site.
Bad Habit #3 -Drinking In Excess:
Many people find that a glass of wine can be a good way to unwind at the end of a stressful day, and most physicians and researchers agree, citing studies that show that red wine has benefits for heart health. However, drinking can be a slippery slope, as excessive drinking can cause problems in virtually every area of a person’s life, causing much more stress in the long run. If you are one who has trouble limiting alcohol consumption to one or two drinks, and even if you can drink very moderately, but find that this is your only regular stress management practice, it would likely be in your best interest to pursue other forms of stress relief. For more on alcohol consumption, see the Alcohol Section of the Unhealthy Behaviors resource category. For additional ideas on stress relief practices, here’s a long and varied list of stress relievers.
Bad Habit #4 -Compulsive Spending:
People have many ways of relieving stress or of filling a void inside themselves. While buying yourself a nice gift once in a while can be a nice pick-me-up, and an effective self care strategy, compulsively buying things to relieve stress or feel good about yourself, spending money you don’t have on things you don’t need, can only cause more financial stress in the long run, and cause feelings of shame, a cluttered home, and add to the stress you were trying to alleviate.
Bad Habit #5 -Emotional Eating:
Most of us let our friends Ben & Jerry help us reduce stress with ice cream on occasion (or at least most of the people who took this poll on emotional eating said they did), but if eating the wrong things becomes a main coping mechanism for stress, it can lead to compromised health, excessive weight, and additional stress stemming from these effects. A poor diet can cause additional stress also by leading to blood sugar imbalances that make stressful situations seem more overwhelming. If you find that stress leads to poor dietary habits because of emotional eating, or for other reasons (like you’re just too busy to cook healthy dinners at home), you can learn to adapt healthier eating habits with these resources.
Additional unhealthy responses and bad habits include self sabotage and lashing out at others, working to the point that you live an imbalanced lifestyle, and other things. For more help with bad habits and mild to moderately unhealthy responses to stress, visit the Unealthy Behaviors section, read the Stress Relief Game Plan, and take the free e-course on Living a Low Stress Lifestyle. I also highly recommend this article on maintaining healthy habits!
MY THOUGHTS
Stress relief strategies can indeed lead to more stress - if you're using the wrong
techniques. Caffeine causes insomnia and lack of sleep adds up to stress since your human systems failed to regenerate. Smoking (ouch) clouds your thoughts, causes headache and leads to more health problems. When you drink, you tend to forget the stressors for awhile but that's about it. You wake up with a humongous hangover and you get more stressed trying to remember what crazy things you did while intoxicated. Well, uncontrolled eating, we all know where that would lead us. And a sure fire way to get more stressed. Eating is definetely a no-no when you're trying to relieve stress. Now,shopping! This doesn't seem harmful does it? especially if you have tons of money. But when we buy what we don't need and buy what we can't afford then we're in big trouble. First, because the extra, unnecesary, unplanned
expense will catch up with us. But more importantly, unwise spending is not a good
stewardship. In truth, all of these "bad" stress relievers are "bad" examples of
stewardship. Everything we have are God's gifts and we were commanded to take care of everything we own. The best stress reliever of all is to pray - constantly, unceasingly. Who else can give us comfort from stress but the One who loves us the most.
Here Are 5 Of The Most Common Bad Habits:
By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., About.com
Updated: December 31, 2008
About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board
If you tend to deal with stress in less-than-healthy ways, you are compounding the negative impacts of stress on your health by exacerbating the stress levels and creating new problems in your life and health. The following are some common unhealthy ways of coping with stress, along with some of the negative effects of each, and ideas on how to curb or change the bad habit itself or lessen its impact.
Bad Habit #1 - Consuming Too Much Caffeine:
Multitudes of people enjoy a daily caffeine intake, as evidenced by the extreme popularity of Starbucks and other coffee houses. And while the occasional coffee isn’t going to do you great harm, it’s important to remember that caffeine is, in fact, a drug, and it’s possible to have a full-blown caffeine addiction. More likely and common, however, is caffeine dependence, where people use caffeine to jump-start their energy in the morning, use it throughout the day to stave off a ‘caffeine crash’, and then find their sleep disturbed by caffeine, causing them to wake up tired and need the caffeine jolt to get going again the next day. As the cycle continues, caffeine affects stress levels as well. If this sounds a little too familiar, here are some resources to help kick the caffeine habit.
Bad Habit #2 -Smoking:
For smokers, a cigarette can feel like a good stress reliever. In fact, during times of stress, a cigarette feels almost necessary, and quitting the habit can seem virtually impossible. (Due in part to physical addiction and in part to habit and other social and lifestyle factors, it’s been said that quitting smoking is as difficult as quitting heroin!) Unfortunately, we all know that cigarettes can be costly—financially speaking and especially health-wise—and because smoking creates much more stress than it alleviates, it’s more than worth it to kick the habit. For help, visit the Smoking Section of the Unhealthy Behaviors resource category on this site.
Bad Habit #3 -Drinking In Excess:
Many people find that a glass of wine can be a good way to unwind at the end of a stressful day, and most physicians and researchers agree, citing studies that show that red wine has benefits for heart health. However, drinking can be a slippery slope, as excessive drinking can cause problems in virtually every area of a person’s life, causing much more stress in the long run. If you are one who has trouble limiting alcohol consumption to one or two drinks, and even if you can drink very moderately, but find that this is your only regular stress management practice, it would likely be in your best interest to pursue other forms of stress relief. For more on alcohol consumption, see the Alcohol Section of the Unhealthy Behaviors resource category. For additional ideas on stress relief practices, here’s a long and varied list of stress relievers.
Bad Habit #4 -Compulsive Spending:
People have many ways of relieving stress or of filling a void inside themselves. While buying yourself a nice gift once in a while can be a nice pick-me-up, and an effective self care strategy, compulsively buying things to relieve stress or feel good about yourself, spending money you don’t have on things you don’t need, can only cause more financial stress in the long run, and cause feelings of shame, a cluttered home, and add to the stress you were trying to alleviate.
Bad Habit #5 -Emotional Eating:
Most of us let our friends Ben & Jerry help us reduce stress with ice cream on occasion (or at least most of the people who took this poll on emotional eating said they did), but if eating the wrong things becomes a main coping mechanism for stress, it can lead to compromised health, excessive weight, and additional stress stemming from these effects. A poor diet can cause additional stress also by leading to blood sugar imbalances that make stressful situations seem more overwhelming. If you find that stress leads to poor dietary habits because of emotional eating, or for other reasons (like you’re just too busy to cook healthy dinners at home), you can learn to adapt healthier eating habits with these resources.
Additional unhealthy responses and bad habits include self sabotage and lashing out at others, working to the point that you live an imbalanced lifestyle, and other things. For more help with bad habits and mild to moderately unhealthy responses to stress, visit the Unealthy Behaviors section, read the Stress Relief Game Plan, and take the free e-course on Living a Low Stress Lifestyle. I also highly recommend this article on maintaining healthy habits!
MY THOUGHTS
Stress relief strategies can indeed lead to more stress - if you're using the wrong
techniques. Caffeine causes insomnia and lack of sleep adds up to stress since your human systems failed to regenerate. Smoking (ouch) clouds your thoughts, causes headache and leads to more health problems. When you drink, you tend to forget the stressors for awhile but that's about it. You wake up with a humongous hangover and you get more stressed trying to remember what crazy things you did while intoxicated. Well, uncontrolled eating, we all know where that would lead us. And a sure fire way to get more stressed. Eating is definetely a no-no when you're trying to relieve stress. Now,shopping! This doesn't seem harmful does it? especially if you have tons of money. But when we buy what we don't need and buy what we can't afford then we're in big trouble. First, because the extra, unnecesary, unplanned
expense will catch up with us. But more importantly, unwise spending is not a good
stewardship. In truth, all of these "bad" stress relievers are "bad" examples of
stewardship. Everything we have are God's gifts and we were commanded to take care of everything we own. The best stress reliever of all is to pray - constantly, unceasingly. Who else can give us comfort from stress but the One who loves us the most.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)