Author: Emily Guy Birken / Source: Wise Bread
The office supply section of the local pharmacy has a nasty habit of extracting money from my wallet. You’d think I could easily fix this problem by avoiding that aisle, but nearly every time I’m at the pharmacy, I’m convinced that I need to buy some mechanical pencils, and perhaps some sticky notes, too.
Some of what’s going on here is my personal affinity for office products, but my growing collection of highlighters also reflects a universal problem: the inability to resist impulse buys. But according to a 2018 study from Rice University, an easy and free way to keep yourself from making impulse buys is simply reflecting on the items you already own.
Here’s how this trick can help you keep more money in your wallet, and fewer notebooks and binder clips from following you home. (See also: 10 Classic Impulse Buys We Need to Stop Falling For)
Think about what you already have
The Rice University study asked one group of participants to describe an item they purchased, currently own, and have recently used. For instance, a 29-year-old female participant wrote:
“I just purchased a Kindle Fire. It is black. I can read books and access the internet. It opens a world of novelty to me. I read a book in bed and checked the weather this morning before even getting up. I spent about 45 minutes. I also downloaded several apps. I was lying down and the ease of Kindle use allowed me to comfortably read without noise to wake up my partner.”
The “recently used” aspect of this thought exercise seems to be the important factor in helping to reduce your interest in spending money on something new. A second group of participants was asked to make a plan to use items they already owned but had not used in some time, while a third group — the control group — was asked to do nothing.
Surprisingly, the participants in the first group, who had reflected on something they owned and had recently used, found their willingness to pay for something new reduced by 14 percent compared to…
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