From the MoneyClub Groups Online, Carn writes:
Haven’t had any experience with emotional spending, but I have with emotional eating. Things that worked for me were- (you can substitute the word eating with spending…)
- Joining a group that kept me accountable for my eating (spending).
- Wrote down what I ate and kept track (write down your expenses)
- Deal internally with the emotion- feel it, know it, but not eat over it (deal with the emotion and act in a different way to cope rather than eat over it. ) It took a counselor to help me with it.
- Be mindful about my emotions and know that I’d always have an urge to over eat (over spend for you). Learned to like myself and say “It’s okay to have a little but eating the entire jar of jelly beans will not help me not get laid off work, what else can I do to feel better?” You could say the same thing in a money related thing.
Good luck. Just knowing that you are an emotional spender and wanting to do something about it is the first step.
carn- I still feel like I could eat the entire house out when life stuff happens, but I always remind my self that stuff happens and I can choose something else to cope. Walk, garden, make a cup of coffee, call a friend, etc. My counselor calls it “acting” instead of “reacting”.