ADHD and impulse buying

Impulse spending is the hardest thing for people with ADHD.

I sometimes struggle with this as well. I bought both of my cats (where I live even if it’s a stray adoption it costs a pretty penny) without concern for expenses. It turned out OK and my life better with the both of them. However, that isn’t always the case is it?

I am lucky in that numbers are also my hyperfixation and tracking expenses is something I am good at. But that isn’t the case for all of us.

What’s best to do is give it a cool down period. I will now: go into the store and put the thing in my basket (if it’s the last of it’s kind, if it’s not leave it on the shelf). I will walk around with it or if still on the shelf, I will circle around to it again. At the end of my shopping journey I will look at it or hold it and try to search within myself if it is worthwhile. How much joy does it bring? How much use does it bring? Does it break the bank? Is it something I can save up for and buy later? Is this going to break in a month or two? What do I know about this object?

Sometimes I’ll end up deciding that I no longer need it after I’ve soul searched with the object a bit. Sometimes at the end of the journey I’ll already have decided I don’t need it. Sometimes I do need it and buy it.

Another important aspect is: deciding your buying budget for every month. If you go over that, you take away from another budget that is flexible. For me, I have been able to readjust my grocery budget and maybe buy less expensive meats or less meat in general. If that’s not as flexible for you, it’s possible to figure out where else in your budget you can be flexible. Perhaps that’s taking away from next month’s “fun” budget.

That set budget should be strict with the aim to hit below it every month. If you have that amount in your mind, it will be a lot easier to decide whether or not you need something or not.

Example (I live in Japan so basing it off the not-large-city where I live):

10,000 JPY for groceries

10,000 JPY for fun budget

If I spent a bit too much on the fun budget, like I did recently, I reduce groceries and fun for the following months.

I ended up spending a bunch on one of my hobbies so now I aim to hit groceries for 6,000~7,000 JPY and for fun I try to keep it around 2,000 JPY per week.

You can see here I also don’t blame myself for having slipped up. I got excited and bought something (this has decreased from past me, so it’s not as big an impact when the excitement hits). I do not blame myself as I am happy I bought it. Instead, I plan for the future to mitigate impact.

If this still doesn’t work for you, maybe we can soul search together to figure out what tools will work best for you.