8 Tips For How to Avoid Shopper's Guilt

1. Manage your money properly

Number one on my list of tips to stop you from having buyer's remorse is to have your money properly managed. If you have your money set up properly and in a realistic budget that works for you, then you should have built into that budget a portion of your money that allows you to spend your money on whatever you want.

If that budget has been properly set up and is realistic, it lets you know that all your bills, savings, and investments are handled. The money that you have set aside to allow yourself

to shop and to do that entirely guilt-free.

2. Have a separate bank account for spending

This is how I manage my own money that is in my budget. I have a section of money that is set into my budget for shopping.

That money is set aside separately, and I transfer that into a separate account. That money is entirely guilt-free. I take a spending pause when that bank account gets too low, as it did not that long ago.

I stopped shopping for three months and allowed that account to build back up because I was uncomfortable with how low that account was getting. Because my money is in that separate account, I know exactly how much there is to spend. If the money's not in there, I can't buy it.

3. Do not impulse shop

Another reason why I think we often can feel buyer's remorse about what we're buying is that what we buy doesn't live up to what we thought it would be.

We thought this item would change our wardrobe; we would wear it all the time, and it would look fantastic. That can be a disappointment because we haven't considered that item for our lifestyle.

Avoid this feeling by not impulse shopping. Give yourself a moment. You set whatever the time frame is for you. For me, I try to do it for at least 24 hours. Give yourself time, a cooling off period to consider that item.

Take a moment to consider if it will work for you or if, when you get home, you will have that feeling of regret. This also allows you to take that moment to see if you're even still thinking about this thing.

Quite often, by giving myself that little bit of time, I've realized that that item has been out of my mind as quickly as it went in and would have been a complete waste of my money.

4. Go through your wardrobe regularly

Go through your wardrobe and remind yourself what is there. Put together outfits. Put together things you haven't tried before. Try your outfits with your different shoes, with different bags, with different coats, and with different jackets.

5. Keep a wish list

Keep a wish list of the items you're thinking about buying or want to buy. You keep a list of what you want your funds and attention towards.

If something is on your wish list and you have to get the funds together to buy that thing, by the time you come around to having the funds, you will know if that's still on your wish list, if it's something you still really, really want.

6. Shop from somewhere with a good return policy

Shop from somewhere that gives you a decent length of time to return your goods, somewhere that offers a refund, and ideally, somewhere that offers free shipping for the returns, if possible.

Buying from somewhere that has a good returns policy gives you the

peace of mind that when you get that item home, if you try it on and put it with your wardrobe and it just doesn't work, there's an inbuilt protection there that you can return and get your money back.

7. Do not shop with credit

Do not go into debt to shop, have the money to buy the thing in full. Once you've saved up that money and you're not using credit, it will help you know that you love that item enough to pay all that money in one go.

Quite often, it's harder to hand over our cold, hard-earned cash than to put it on a card where we don't have to hand the money over right now.

8. Do not buy for your fantasy life

Embrace your real life. I have wasted so much money on buying things for my fantasy life, and I thought I would wear them to this event or occasion, and I thought it would work perfectly with that outfit.

Those things are still hanging in my wardrobe or sitting in my wardrobe because I couldn't wear them or there hasn't been anywhere to wear them.

As well as buying things for your real life and not your fantasy life, buy things for your actual size and not your fantasy size. I have fallen into this trap so many times.

I bought something because I thought I was going to lose weight or I was suddenly going to be taller or whatever I was going to change about myself. That doesn't work. Buy things that fit you and will work with your life.

How to avoid shopper's guilt

Those are my eight tips on how to avoid buyer's remorse and shopper's guilt. If I have shopping regrets, it's because I haven't done this and I bought something that, if I followed those tips, I shouldn't have bought in the first place.

Do you have strategies to avoid shopper's guilt? Share in the comments below.