Get Control of Impulse Purchases

Impulse purchases kill budgets.

Adopting changes in the way you shop can help make impulse purchases disappear. Sometimes a completely different approach is what you need to achieve the results you want.

Many people have decided they want to rein in spending due to current economic conditions, but they often find it's more difficult to accomplish than they anticipated. Even though they know they shouldn't be spending as much as they are, they have fallen into a habit that is hard to break. Here are five simple ways to reduce the amount of impulse purchases you make.

Price it in work hours: Many people buy things because small price tags don't seem like much. What is $5 here or there? Instead of looking at the price of something as a dollar amount, switch your thinking to what it costs as a part of your earnings. Take the item's price and convert it into the number of hours of work it takes to purchase.

This is easy to do. Calculate your take-home pay and divide it by the number of hours you work. Don't use your yearly salary. A simple example would be that if your take-home pay is $2,500 a month and you work 50 hours a week ($2,500 divided by 4 weeks divided by 50 hours), your hourly rate would be $12.50.

You can then convert the price of the things you buy into the number of hours it takes to earn them. Is that movie worth an hour of your work time? Are you prepared to work two days for that piece of clothing? And the latest gadget? By considering how long you have to work for each of the items you want to buy instead of looking at the price, it will make you stop and consider whether the purchase is truly worth the price.