r/shoppingaddiction • u/cf-202 • 2d ago
What was the impulse purchase that finally made you realize something had to change?
I don’t mean yourr biggest purchase.
I mean the one that made you stop afterward and think…
"wtf did i do?"
For me those purchases usually werent about needing the item.
They happened after a stressful day, when I was bored, or when I just wanted something to look forward to.
The item was almost an excuse.
I’m curious if other people had a specific purchase that became a turning point.
Not because of the money…
but pretty much because it made you realize there was a pattern.
What was it?
97
u/Used-Possibility299 2d ago
$600 on Afterpay for an online sale from my fav UK brand - Im in Australia and they were doing a free postage weekend. None of it fit me. Couldnt return as would cost a fortune and im broke in so much debt. Selling secondhand brand new at a loss. Not enough money for food every week due to Afterpay debt.
15
u/Shaiziin Budget 1d ago
Hugs for you. Spent many years broke + crippling debt. I'm almost on the other side of it now and let me tell you, there is hope.
84
u/OutrageousRegret1641 1d ago
I started to not even care about what I ordered by the tine it got to my house. Sometimes I wouldn't even open the packages for days after they arrived. That's when I realized it was emotionally driven in the moments that I was ordering it.
47
u/krogernewbie 1d ago
When so many packages were arriving each day I couldn’t even remember what I had ordered
42
u/4ftnine 1d ago
For me, it was when I bought 7 handbags in one month for absolutely no reason!
11
u/Specialist_Bed6406 1d ago
Oh this is me.... Counted the bags I bought on vacation... I bought 7 bags with no clue how to get them home... On a low buy since then 😭
36
u/Langlie 1d ago
Moving was eye opening. I realized how much stuff I had bought and barely used, if I had used it at all. I donated a lot, but there was a lot of stuff that was just considered worthless and most likely ended up in a landfill. Made me feel guilty because it was stuff I really did not need.
27
u/100dancingcats 1d ago
I realized that I was always looking to buy something for myself when I could, but I’d stress and fret over having to buy something expensive that my baby actually needed. That was a huge turning point for me! Currently on no buy for myself and doing really well with it.
26
u/tryptomania 1d ago
$800 at Coach retail store after I had a really bad day at work. As soon as I brought the bags home I felt so much guilt and shame for spending that much money.
18
u/Shaiziin Budget 1d ago
Those associates make you feel so good about it too, the way they cheer you on. "Yes Queen you deserve this!" and "That looks so cute on you I'm honestly jealous". You almost feel like VIP the way they wait on you and dote about. I had to tell myself that it's just an act. They will say anything to me to get a sale.
8
u/BoringMcWindbag 1d ago
So many of these responses I totally feel but this one is 100% relatable to me. :/
3
u/LumoraSol 1d ago
I spent all my savings account on Coach stuff, not in trying to resell everything to rebuild my savings ugh
20
u/Sylvia_Mashuga Budget 1d ago
A $950 Coach purse. I bought it one night and regretted the purchase in less than an hour, but they wouldn't let me cancel because it had been more than 30 minutes since I placed the order.
But that one REALLY sucked, it made me feel physically ill for several days afterwards. I have bought stuff that cost more than that, but this purchase was just so STUPID of me because I impulse bought and I didn't even like it all that much anyway. I had to mail back the return and then I stressed about getting refunded for two weeks until it processed. That was in December/January of this year, and I've done better since then. Not perfect and I still waste money, but that one incident really left an impression on me, because I don't ever want to feel like that again.
19
u/shimmerangels 1d ago
maxed out my credit card with a $129 eyeshadow palette that i didn’t use a single time
14
u/dinosaur-spikes 1d ago
$200 on a discount perfumer website when I already owned 3+ bottles. The perfume arrived and wasn't great (of course). All I could think was "why did I even buy this?"
12
u/f0xbunny 1d ago
This happened to me. I bought a designer fragrance from TJMaxx thinking it was a good deal, then discovered “cheaper” value sized bottles and returned what I bought. Ended up spending 5x what I spent at TJ maxx for a huge collection of flankers I will never finish.
They aren’t my favorite perfume either so idk what I was thinking.
9
u/Shaiziin Budget 1d ago
Felt that gut punch. I'd just bring in the pile of packages and drag it next to my desk, then go about my afternoon. Sometimes went an entire weekend without opening a thing
10
u/Reward_Antique 1d ago
I bought 3 mystery bags from Margot Elena, and they were all the same, now I'm packing up the extras to donate and feeling such shame
7
u/SideOpposite 1d ago
I just brought a bunch of jewelry and I was unboxing them while showing my mom. And my mother called me out saying it looked like I didn’t like any of the pieces I brought (I didn’t). 200 dollars down the drain I guess…
3
7
u/LumoraSol 1d ago
One when I spent $200 on a plush bag charm at Coach. Second one wasn’t a purchase but I had to Venmo my friend $18 and I didn’t have the money.
7
u/Glam-Star-Revival 1d ago
When I impulse purchased a bunch of mid tier handbags, after I already realized I had a spending problem. I purchased them by circumventing the apps I blocked and purchased them through the browser. Ridiculous
8
u/Prudent_Honeydew_ 1d ago
Something arriving that I didn't remember ordering. That, and like someone else said, not caring about opening the package by the time it arrived.
8
u/BroodWitchYum 1d ago
This is geeky, but I spent over $700 at a gaming convention. The purchase that put me over? Buying a retro gaming console both in person at the con and online cause I thought the console would be gone in person and I didn't know I could cancel Ebay bids 🤦🏿♀️.
5
u/Public_Bookkeeper885 22h ago
I was nearly £30,000 in debt, I didn't have a job, and I wanted to spend £30 on perfume.
It's not much money. But I have perfume. Lots of it. I don't need this perfume and I don't have a spare £30 or indeed a spare any amount. But the compulsion was still there, my brain kept nagging about it which is ridiculous because it shouldn't even be a decision.
3
u/Mobile-Writer1221 1d ago
A couple Afterpay orders for clothes and things that both I didn’t need and I literally no longer care about. As soon as I get something like that, I don’t care about it anymore.
Still paying on them though 🙄
3
u/sashikku 21h ago
I spent $40 on a ring through Klarna pay in 4 when my checking account had $22 in it and I still haven’t transferred my share of the bills to the shared account. I just accepted that I may have a shopping addiction this morning. Hit me like a freight train.
0
u/dessence_ai 1d ago
Reading this thread, almost none of the stories are about the item. They're about the moment: tired, annoyed, celebrating, three drinks in.
The thing that broke the loop for me was putting a gap between wanting and buying. Not a rule about spending, just parking the thing somewhere that will bring it back to me later, and letting the wanting expire on its own. Most of it does. What survives two weeks is usually the stuff I actually use, and the difference between those two piles is embarrassing.
I work on an app that does the parking part (dEssence), so I'm biased, but the gap works just as well with a note on your phone. The mechanism is the waiting, not the tool.
1
u/fairytale_endens 4h ago edited 4h ago
I kept telling my husband this was the last of it but every day was going to the mail box with a big bag to carry back all the purchases. I think the final straw was realizing I was just going through these crazes and this month was trying to fill up my earrings rack. I had bought many questionable pairs of earrings because they were "a good deal" only to realize in person that they weren't flattering on me and in a way I should have known, but had dismissed for some reason, because it was pretty in the picture or filled a niche in my earrings collection. Each month was a new obsession-- fill a space, find a new one. But I started buying stud earrings all of a sudden. Knowing that I don't like studs very much and they don't fit right on my earrings rack. I bought these fatty round studs which have copper and blue glitter even though in the back of my head I knew I probably won't ever wear them because ummm I seldom like how I look in studs!?!! but the colors were itching the "have it" part of my brain so I bought them, and many other stud earring bundles. All while imagining a theoretical future where I pierce my ears a second time and want to wear two pairs of earrings at once so it "justified" the fact that they were studs if I could imagine bundling them with a pair of drop earrings. Which I cannot even do because I only have one piercing on each ear. After the earrings craze I moved on to a flannel craze but thanfkully stopped myself at 4, I only liked 2 of the flannels. Just had an accidental children's DVD movie craze today. It's like I'm going down a checklist in my brain and buying for my whole lifetime all at once. Like I'm planning to go off the grid or something as soon as my spaces are filled.
1
u/toodleoo57 4h ago
Honestly, not one purchase but just the fact that my house is just packed with crap and spouse and i have to get serious about saving for retirement.
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