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Identifying Your Shopping Triggers

2024-01-11 Mama Minimalist

You’ve likely been there. That moment when you look at your credit card statement and your heart sinks. Sometimes logic gives way to desire, and nothing’s worse than realizing you overshopped on impulses. A lot.

It’s time to take a look at what happens in the moments *before* we impulse buy. On today’s show: honing in our 5 shopping triggers so we can insert that crucial pause before buying.

Here’s a preview:

[3:45] Advertisers shape our desires, and the credit industry makes these desires seem affordable. Yikes!

[9:30] Buyer, beware: when your mind becomes your own worst enemy.

[15:00] The shopping trigger that’s the most common and the most difficult to overcome

[23:00] Got parental guilt? Why you should stop buying stuff for your kids to compensate

[29:00] Hankering to buy food when your kitchen is full? How to determine whether a physical trigger is colliding with an emotional one

Resources mentioned:

To Buy or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop and How to Stop (by Dr. April Benson)
Insert that pause with this free printout for your wallet
The Poverty of Affluence: A Psychological Portrait of the American Way of Life (by Dr. Paul Wachel)

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The Sustainable Minimalists Podcast

Latest podcast:

The Cost of Constant Connection

In this era of relentless connectivity, taking an exit ramp from our digital lives has never looked more inviting. In fact, emerging science is now confirming what many of us feel: Smartphones are draining our cognitive reserves, shattering our focus, and keeping us in a state of low-level chronic anxiety.

To see if there’s a better way, reporter Courtney Lindwall shelved her iPhone for a $45 Nokia flip phone. Courtney is on the show today to discuss the "dumb phone" movement, the logistical friction of navigating an app-dependent world, and why research says our brains are so desperate for a break.

Here's a preview:

[7:00] Continuous partial attention, instinctual muscle memory, and other ways in which our smartphones are working against us

[9:00] Gray scale? screen limits? Here's why the tools and tricks don't work for the vast majority of us

[14:00] Thoughts on our emotional attachments to our phones—and the emotional experiences they provide

[22:00] The psychological benefits of embracing a bit more "friction"

[33:00] Our brains are malleable, and we get used to a new normal quite quickly. Lean into that!

Resources mentioned:

How an old-school flip phone changed my life (via Consumer Reports)
This detox may erase 10 years of social media brain damage, researchers say (via The Washington Post)
The Brick phone access blocker device

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My Story

Hello there, I’m Stephanie. I live a crazy, beautiful life as a full-time wife, blogger + mother to two spirited daughters. I’m on a mission to simplify eco-friendly living so as to greater enjoy life’s sweeter moments.

Want to know more? Read my story.