Impulse Buys and Shopping the Sales

'Shopaholic' is a bit of an understatement for me, especially when it comes to sales and a good bargain. I just can't resist! Buying things on impulse is starting to become a bit of a habit and also a bit of a problem for my bank account. I tend to fall in love with clothes, and shoes, a little too quickly and just can't resist buying them. Some of my impulse buys have been things that I've got my moneys worth out of and some are sat at the back of my wardrobe unworn. Even though some people wouldn't admit to it, no one can deny that an impulse buy gives you a little buzz.

So.. Why do we love impulse purchases so much? Shopping the sales is always fun and when you come across something you love it really is hard to say no. The discount is always a big help when weighing out pros and cons of buying something even if it's only a small discount, any extra reasons to convince yourself to buy something are always good. Although it's usually being in the shop and seeing the item which causes me to buy it, emails sent to me by stores are also a way of dragging me in to the sales and usually lead to me spending more than I anticipated.

Many sites haul you in with discounts and offers that aren't actually very beneficial for you in the end however I've recently discovered a new website that is really helpful called Raise.com  which allows you to buy discounted gift cards and sell your unwanted gift cards. This is really useful for people like me as I'm always receiving gift cards for shops I'd never dream of stepping into and they just sit in the back of my purse unused or if I do end up dragging myself into the shop, there's very little, if any, products that take my interest and when I finally do buy something it barely leaves the wardrobe. Raise have also created a blog post on 'Impulse Buying' which you can take a look at here.

Let me know what your weaknesses are when it comes to impulse buys and your best tactics to shop the sales in the comments!