Emotions versus logic, we have all faced that dilemma. Logically, we know that we should stick to our budget, save money, and pay off debt. Emotionally, we are tired, irritable, and feel that we have earned a little splurge now and then. If you have a well-rounded budget, it will include these splurges, so no problem, right? The problem arises if your emotions allow you to rationalize an excessive splurge. So what do you do?
Do not beat yourself up
The first thing to keep in mind is that no one is perfect. I write for this site on a weekly basis, offering tips and clues to help you along your chosen path. I would love to pretend that I have never made an emotional purchase, but there is no sense in lying to you. It happens every five to six months, no matter how I fight it, somehow I end up rationalizing an excessive purchase. The purchase is followed by rationalization and self negotiation, like I can skip this in order to cover that. If I gave into that thinking, I would soon be dipping into areas of my budget that can not be borrowed from and risk losing control of the whole process.
How does this happen?
These emotional purchases can happen simply because we have overloaded ourselves doing the right thing. You could have a great budget, but decide to add a second job or a bit of overtime in order to pay something off. While either is a wise way to pay off debt, we can exhaust ourselves. When we are exhausted our brains become overloaded and we can lose our ability to make the most rational decisions, allowing our emotions to take over. Hence, doing the right thing, budget wise, can lead to budget destroying emotional purchases.
What can you do?
The best way to avoid these purchases is to add to your support system. Is there someone whose disapproval you try to avoid? Is that aversion strong enough to help you control yourself? If so, you can call them when you are shopping or add them to your credit cards as an authorized user. If you know that they will be able to see your purchases online and question you about them, the aversion to their disapproval may help you rethink some of those purchases.
Personally, I do not have someone like that, so I rely on self-talk. It has been several years since I was drowning in credit card debt, yet I still do not carry them with me. The cards are five hundred paces from my back door. Those five hundred paces are very tedious and aggravating when I am doubting the need for making them the whole time. Frequently, the walk gives me enough time to talk myself out of using the card. The system is a good one. The only flaw is that I am human, but each time I use my card makes me work harder to avoid it the next time.
