Shopaholic Intervention

Shopaholic Intervention
          “When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping” (anonymous). Or should they? For most people, buying is a normal and routine part of everyday life. Nearly everyone loves to shop, but there are a number of people that can go overboard, purchasing items that are not needed, maybe useless, and possibly leading to impulsive buying. It can be incredibly difficult to stop the urge once it is there. It is the enemy of being frugal to the monthly budget. It can actually lead to serious problems with the household financial budget, relationships, or even damaging to oneself. It may produce immediate gratification, but can lead to long-term consequences.
          Everyone has done it at some point, making that unintended, immediate, unplanned purchase. What causes consumers to buy on impulse? Possibly, in the way retailers arrange their products and use promotional sales, attracting more impulsive buyers. There is the really cute shirt on sale, or the tabloid magazine with the latest gossip, and the few candy bars picked up while waiting in line to check out. It didn’t really amount to much. Were they top priority on the shopping list? Probably not. Many think it is harmless since the total purchase may not have cost that much. A few dollars here and there can add up over time without realizing it. If the weekly budget is set at $100 for groceries and various needed items, the $20 shirt on sale will start to impact the budget quicker than may be expected. Upon balancing the checkbook, that $20 appeared to be needed to make ends meet to pay the water bill for that week. The snowball effect begins, carrying unpaid debt over from week to week. Carrying credit cards is also easy access for those that have a shopping problem.   Credit card debt can be the central part of the issue. They make it easy for undisciplined spenders to get into trouble. There are many people that have low credit rating due to the inability to pay their bills if...