STOP Impulse Spending with These 4 Behavior Change Hacks

Spending money is a behavior.

A lot of people don’t realize that. But seriously, think about it. Your urge to buy that new notebook on Amazon is not different from your urge to eat a third cupcake or your urge to watch another episode when you really should go to bed.

Hi, I’m Dr. Karin Nordin and I’m a PhD expert in behavior and mindset. Here at Body Brain Alliance, we help people like you develop the mental skills you need to move your life in the direction you actually want to be going.

In this blog, you’re going to learn how to stop impulse spending with 4 behavior change hacks — and exactly how they work, so you can cross-apply them to other areas where you might be struggling with impulse control.

Prefer to learn on video? Watch here:

Hack #1: Move From Avoidance To Approach

Have you ever told a toddler they couldn’t have something? It goes pretty poorly — and honestly, we as adults aren’t that different when we tell our brains, “No, you cannot have, do, or think that.” The brain will hyper-fixate on having, doing, and thinking that exact thing.

Whenever our clients have avoidance goals — such as spending less money, or spending less time on their phone — the first thing I ask them is: When is that behavior okay? When is the special time when you do get to do that thing?

In this case: How much money do you want to spend on impulsive purchases and what kind of things do you want to purchase? Focusing on how you do want to spend instead of how you don’t want to spend is a small mental shift that makes a big difference.

Hack #2: Move From Deny To Delay

“Not right now” is a much easier answer than “nope, never.”

Let’s say you’re scrolling through TikTok one night and stumble across the viral veggie chopper. You think to yourself, “This thing is going to change my whole life!” Here’s what I recommend you do:

Pull up a note on your phone and make a “Purchases List.” Every single time you find something you have the impulse to purchase, put it on that list. Then at the end of the month, review the list and pick the few things that actually still feel desirable.

If you’re feeling the urge to shop, you can even go wild on Amazon, put a ton of stuff in your cart, and simply not choose to buy it.

Personally, I have a 24-hour required delay on anything over $50. If it’s over that amount, it has to sit in the cart at least a day before I make a decision.

Hack #3: Surf Instead of Resist

A lot of us, when we feel an urge coming, push back hard. That desire builds and we start mentally screaming at ourselves. We end up buying just to get ourselves out of the fight we’re having with our own brain.

The solution: Urge Surfing.

Urge Surfing is a psychological tool where we imagine our desire or urge to take a certain action rising like a wave. We allow ourselves to experience it fully, instead of pushing back. It will rise and rise and rise and then peak — and then fall away.

It’s your job to be a kind and compassionate observer of your own urges, staying mindful and present as they rise and fall.

Techniques like urge surfing can be used on a wide variety of urges — from the urge to emotionally eat, to the urge to procrastinate. This is just one example of how improving your behavior change skills by just 1% can have a positive and cascading impact across your entire life.

Hack #4: Use A Value Rubric

One of the things we do in Change Academy is have members identify four values they want to embody for each quarter of the year.

For example, right now I’m working on becoming tidy, intentional, peaceful, and resilient. Those four qualities serve as a rubric when deciding whether or not to follow through on an urge or an impulse.

Every time I go to make a purchase, I ask myself: Is spending this money helping me become more tidy, intentional, peaceful, or resilient? If the answer is no, it’s pretty easy to move on.

If you’re interested in learning more about setting goals that line up with your values, make sure you check out our previous blog on goal setting.

Join The Discussion

I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below! What values are you working towards right now? What are 2–4 values that your next-level self might embody?

Thank you for reading, see you in the next one!