How to Avoid Shopper’s Guilt

For many of us, the act of shopping is as much a part of the joy as the purchase itself. Wandering through a shop or department store…examining styles and fabrics…spotting the perfect items…all of these contribute to the overall experience.

It’s easy to get caught up in the frenzy of a good shopping day. When the planets align just right and the shopping gods are smiling, over-buying can sometimes be the inevitable result.

I admit to falling victim to this phenomenon–buying more than is reasonable, gleefully hanging it in my closet, and then forgetting that I own it. Once, on a shopping trip with my friend Heid, I bought a lovely jacket to the tune of several hundred dollars. Several months later, she called to tell me that she’d seen the jacket on the half-off rack. At first, I didn’t know what she was talking about, but after a few more prompts, I remembered. I found the jacket in the back of my closet, tags still on, a slight sprinkling of dust on the shoulders.

The good news is, this stuff doesn’t have to happen. The easiest way to avoid overbuying is to memorize the following phrase: “Would you please hold this for me?”

Chant it like a mantra until it feels real. And it will–eventually.

If you need to, make a list of what’s being held for you and where. At the end of the day–or the next day, if you can possibly wait that long–review your list. Decide what can go and what you can’t live without. I promise you–you’ll end up buying less that if you had bought everything that originally intrigued you. And shopper’s guilt will be nowhere in sight.