From Shopping To Savings: Personal Banking For A Recovering Shopaholic

Shopping and overspending are tempting if you tend to enjoy purchasing things. Some people get a high from purchasing items while others just enjoy having material things. If either of these applies to you and you want to heal these habits, there are a few ways to get your spending and saving back on track. For a recovering shopaholic, here are three ways to heal your spending by going out of the box with your personal banking.

Freeze credit cards

Instead of closing credit cards, which can hurt your credit in the long run, you can freeze the cards by putting them on actual ice. Place your credit cards in a jar of water and place them inside of the freezer. This means that you cannot take a credit card out to do impulse spending without having to wait for the card to actually melt. This gives you time to think about your purchase and to change your mind before blowing the money. If you are having an actual emergency, it is worth waiting for the card to melt. If you have any credit card numbers saved online through your computer and on other websites, request a card with a new number before placing this card into the freezer. 

Open an account specifically for shopping

If you like to shop, depriving yourself of any new thing by going cold turkey with your spending is likely to make your desire to shop worse. Instead, you should open up a savings account specifically for purchasing items that you desire but do not need. Open this savings and contribute either a monthly amount from your check or make deposits as you see fit throughout the month. Once you have the amount saved that you need for your purchase, transfer the money to a checking account to make the purchase. Instead of instant gratification, the new feeling that you experience will be from a job well done after purposefully saving for it. 

Set up a sellers account and link to a savings

Looking at items that you have and no longer need can make you sad and make it more difficult for you to stay on course. Open up a seller's account on popular resale sites in order to begin getting rid of these items that you no longer need. Link your account to a savings account to refund yourself some of the money that you lost on these items. By turning your personal banking into a savings field instead of a spending field, you will find yourself in a good long-term financial position. 

For more tips, contact a personal banking service near you.