It can often be hard to resist splashing out on gifts, clothes or other goods, but a personal finance strategy is advising to wait 48 hours before making purchases \u2013 to decide if you really need it, to help people curb their impulse spending.<\/p>\n
We spoke with experts to delve into what the 48-hour rule actually means and how it can help people take control of their finances.<\/p>\n
What is impulse spending?<\/strong><\/p>\n Kara Gammell, a personal finance expert and financial journalist based in Britain, explains this term is when you buy something that you didn\u2019t plan on doing. \u201cWhether it was late at night or when you\u2019re out and about, or it\u2019s just something that hasn\u2019t been particularly thought out beforehand, but you just act on the desire to do it in an instant.\u201d<\/p>\n What is the 48-hour rule?<\/strong><\/p>\n Gammell says: \u201cIt\u2019s like a hack to prevent impulse spending.\u201d<\/p>\n She explains that we are all human and impulse spending isn\u2019t a bad thing. \u201cIt becomes a problem if you\u2019re doing it too often, spending more than you can afford, or if you regret the purchase,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a couple of hacks you can put into place to create a bit of a buffer for yourself and one of those is the 48-hour rule.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you see something on social media or online, you might go and buy it right there and then. But the 48-hour rule is to wait, put it in your basket, give yourself 48 hours and if you still want it, then make the purchase. Once you start practising it, it does often work.\u201d<\/p>\n What are the benefits of the 48-hour rule?<\/strong><\/p>\n The first benefit Gammell explains is that it could help save money instead of buying something that you don\u2019t want, regret or need. \u201cIt pumps the brakes on your purchasing so it creates a bit of friction, slows you down, makes you think and maybe the next day or two later, you might think the purchase wasn\u2019t really a good deal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe all live in a consumer culture and oftentimes we may buy stuff that we already have or don\u2019t have enough room for.\u201d<\/p>\n Matthew Sheeran, external relations manager at Money Wellness, adds: \u201cPeople underestimate the positive impact that having control of your finances can have.<\/p>\n \u201cI think if you\u2019re able to have more control of your impulse spending, not buying things immediately and being far more conscious of what you\u2019re spending and why, it has in turn a positive effect on your psyche and mental health.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re able to feel more empowered about your finances and I think that in itself is a massive positive.\u201d<\/p>\n He also adds that as we live in a society when you can buy things with a single click, there is much more temptation. \u201cIt\u2019s at least just worth trying and mentioning to be a bit more balanced. It\u2019s all about budgeting really.<\/p>\n \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be about deprivation \u2013 it\u2019s about making conscious spenders choices that align with your financial goals. All of these tools help you achieve the things that you want to do long term, rather than being bogged down by impulse decisions that are giving you things in the here and now.\u201d<\/p>\n Are there alternatives to the 48-hour rule?<\/strong><\/p>\n Gammell gives the example of the \u201cstranger test\u201d, as another option to help save money. \u201cI\u2019m trying it with my 13-year-old daughter when I\u2019m trying to help her when she\u2019s spending her birthday money.<\/p>\n \u201cI ask, if somebody said here is money for a new perfume or trainers, would you rather have that item or the money for it? The chances are you\u2019ll take the money.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a psychological thing that makes you think would you prefer the money or the product? If you pick the cash, you don\u2019t want the item that much.\u201d<\/p>\n She adds it\u2019s about starting to identity what you\u2019re spending. Another option is the budget management apps like Emma which analyses your spending.<\/p>\n \u201cIt looks at all your spending and, for example, at the end of the month it might let you know you spend more at Boots than 80% of the population or you spend more at Deliveroo. It pulls together a monthly snapshot of what you\u2019re spending and it helps to reflect upon that.\u201d \u2013 dpa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It can often be hard to resist splashing out on gifts, clothes or other goods, but a personal…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1048961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[15],"tags":[64,260943,6459,255,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1048960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-financial-management","tag-money","tag-personal-finance","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117230237280312725","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1048961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}