How to reduce back to school stress shopping with HelloFresh
If you’re anything like our family, then the bulk of our back to school shopping happens during the last week of the summer holidays. This means ramped up prices, out of stock items, stuff we don’t need and stress. Lots of it! Do we learn, though? No, we don’t.
Stress shopping comes with a whole heap of other problems too, like overspending and lingering negative emotions, as well as unproductive and/or compulsive behaviour, which could be linked to low mental health too. Certain stressors such as credit card debt, holiday blues and even a shopping addiction can result from stress shopping.
HelloFresh* has recognised that not all the pain of back-to-school stress shopping is linked to stationery and the ever-inflating school uniform costs. In a new HelloFresh survey conducted by OnePoll, 54% out of the 2,000 parents surveyed feel their stress shopping comes from buying the weekly grocery, more specifically, staying within budget and accommodating everyone’s food preferences..
But, we’ll look into stress shopping in more detail in this article and how HelloFresh has combatted part of this problem by offering parents a timesaving and cost-cutting alternative using their weekly subscription meal service. We’ve even worked out that HelloFresh* saves us money in our weekly shop (article with breakdown of costs coming very soon!). So, let’s look into what stress shopping is and how we can reduce our need to buy everything but the kitchen sink when we’re stressed.
What is stress shopping?
Stress shopping is spending money to improve your mood or eliminate your stress. You may know it better as having a little retail therapy. However, what some people don’t realise is that stress shopping or ‘retail therapy’ is not something new and could very well be linked to emotional issues like depression, anxiety and loneliness.
When does shopping to relieve stress become a problem?
To understand how shopping affects us when we’re stressed, we need to look at our triggers and where they are coming from. A little retail therapy can relieve stress and is actually a professionally advised activity for those who need to lower their anxiety. But, when shopping becomes a daily need to reduce stress, then stress shopping is counteractive and often leads to more problems afterwards.
But why do we use shopping to relieve our stress?
When we’re stressed, we react to shopping differently, with less control and more emotion. Just like that sweet treat you crave when you’re low in energy, shopping restores a sense of control in an otherwise uncontrollable environment. We feel stronger impulses to buy ourselves sweet treats – or in my case the whole aisle – when we’re stressed or low in mood.
Stress shopping is a short-term mood boost.
A Penn State Researcher1 surveyed a group of shoppers who had bought themselves a treat that week. 62% stated that treat was to lift their mood. 82% had only positive feelings about these purchases and they were long-lasting, which demonstrated that the retail therapy worked as a ’pick-me-up’ – they hardly felt buyer’s remorse.
However, when the purchases are more compulsive, especially when money is tight, then the aftermath can feel quite different. When you consistently shop to enhance your mood, other issues can arise, like financial implications, crashing moods and buyer’s remorse – these all have adverse effects on the buyer’s psyche and therefore doesn’t offer any kind of therapy – this is what we call stress shopping.
Get 60% off your 1st box, 25% off the next 2 months & 3 free gifts!*
How to identify a problem with stress shopping
Much like stress-eating has an impact on your weight, stress shopping can impact your finances. Here’s how to tell if you have a stress shopping problem.
Stress shopping example
You’ve just found out your son has gone up a whole size in the last two weeks and you have to go out and buy black trousers two days before he starts school. You need to take three other kids with you so you’re rushed to buy two pairs of over-expensive black trousers (two of them the next stage up in case he has another random growth spurt), knowing full well if you had travelled to other stores, you could have bought them all for half the price. If you had time on your hands, you could have just ordered them online.
The toddler has a tantrum in the shop and everyone is hungry. You go home and think, sod it, I need a break! So you order a takeaway.
Believe it or not, the trouser-buying fiasco wasn’t the stress shopping (yes, it was stressful). Ordering expensive takeaway was the ’retail therapy’ and therefore I stress shopped a takeaway rather than cooking dinner, which is what I had originally intended to do.
Takeaway shopping is my stress reliever normally, but it becomes stress shopping when I’d already ordered a takeaway once this week. The trouser shopping is stressing me out because I’m not in control of the situation, so to get back in control I order a takeaway.2
So, is stress shopping a thing? It most certainly is and it can come in all shapes and sizes, even when shopping online. And, it’s important to note that shopping is a stress-buster if you’re in control. But if you lose control and use it as a form of addiction, then it may even develop into a stress shopping disorder.
“Compulsive buying disorder (CBD) is characterized by excessive shopping cognitions and buying behavior that leads to distress or impairment. Found worldwide, the disorder has a lifetime prevalence of 5.8% in the US general population.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1805733/
Tips to help you stop stress shopping
Let’s look at the following key tips to avoid stress shopping.
Find and address your stress shopping triggers
Make a note if you do any of the following:
- Overspend or often buy things you don’t need
- Shop when you’re bored or procrastinating
- You buy things on sale even though you don’t need them
- You shop when you feel stressed
- You feel guilty or ashamed after you’ve shopped
- You hide your purchases from your loved ones
If you do any of the above, then you are likely stress shopping. Once you find out what triggers your stress shopping, you can take steps to prevent it from happening again. For example, if you’re bored you can find another activity to replace shopping. Below are some tips on how to stop stress shopping.
Get 60% off your 1st box, 25% off the next 2 months & 3 free gifts!*
Make shopping less accessible
Put away your credit cards or do what I do and transfer everything, bar £20, out of your account to your savings so you have to go into your money app, transfer the money and then you can spend. Sometimes I can’t be bothered to go through the hassle, so I end up leaving the purchase.
Next time you go out, you can leave your purse at home. Or take a certain amount of cash, so that’s all you spend.
Improve your mood by window shopping
Window shopping is a great pastime and it’s free too! If you know you haven’t got the willpower to stop yourself from going into the store, then window shopping might not work as well.
Plan your shopping trips ahead of time
Only go for certain items or when you have a clear goal in mind, for example, ingredients for a dinner you’re making. Create a list of items you need beforehand and do everything in your power not to deviate from that list.
Mood benefits from online shopping
Online shopping and stress is real, but it doesn’t have to be stressful if you keep it within your limits. If you’re looking for something in particular, then online shopping has the benefit of choosing from a variety of stores, each with competing prices. Google Shopping allows you to check the lowest price of an item, as does Amazon.
Shopping for groceries online lets you see the amount before you buy, which is better than going to the store blind and merely guessing how much everything costs. I have always been not-so-pleasantly surprised when we used to shop at the grocery store because my maths was always way out.
Set a shopping budget and stick to it
A budget is a great way to keep purchases to a minimum. Set a budget and try to shop for what you need within that amount. There’s nothing wrong with basic brands to do the job. Look for sales and vouchers too to help stretch your budget.
Use HelloFresh to take the stress out of grocery shopping
“The survey revealed one way that parents combat stress in the kitchen: meal kits. In fact, 47% of parents said they’re likely to use a meal delivery service during the school year and 21% report doing so already.”
OnePoll survey on HelloFresh parents’ grocery shopping habits for back to school
Get 60% off your 1st box, 25% off the next 2 months & 3 free gifts!*
Having to think about what to cook every day is just part of the stress. But preparing for your meals and ingredient shopping when it coincides with after-school activities, homework and tired kids makes up the bulk of my stress shopping.
Grocery shopping is stressful. So, we’ve taken the stress out of grocery shopping and automated our meals every week with HelloFresh*. If we can out-source the meal-planning and grocery shop, we can spend less time in the kitchen and more time with the kids. I’d happily take that over worrying about what to cook every week. From just £3.15 per serving, you can receive five meals for four people every week. That’s ridiculously cheaper than what we spend in our grocery shop. And you get a choice of six weekly recipes, so the only headache you get is choosing the recipe.
Signing up for HelloFresh* was the smartest things we could have done. One of the biggest headaches was figuring out what to make and online shopping is stressful when you’re rushed to make the delivery slot, so there’s food at dinnertime. A weekly HelloFresh Family box helps me save money and time and we get social media, Masterchef-style dinners on the table every weeknight.
Oh, and guess what? The leftovers make up for pretty great lunchboxes too!3
Get 60% off your 1st box, 25% off the next 2 months & 3 free gifts!*
Alternatives to shopping while stressed
Shopping can be a light way to relieve stress, but only if you are in control over what you’re spending. But if stress shopping is more detrimental than therapeutic, it might be time to try something else. Some stress relief shopping alternatives include:
Get exercising instead
You’re feeling stressed, you feel the pull of the Amazon app and you want to buy that new scarf/game/chocolate. STOP! Put on your running shoes, get on the treadmill, or jump up and down on the spot. Get the heart pumping, do a mini workout, then sit down again and see if your mood has lifted a bit. Perhaps all you need was to get the body moving, as exercising is one of the greatest natural highs you can enjoy that doesn’t need money or anything external to enjoy.
Put some music on
Your favourite song can instantly lift your mood when you’re feeling down. Tell yourself you’re going to put your favourite song and go at it with the dancing (great way to get fun exercise in) and sing at the top of your lungs while you’re cleaning/working/doing whatever. See how you feel after the song is over. Still want those pair of shoes on Amazon?
Make something with your hands
That could be cooking, crafting, building a world with Lego, whatever it takes. Tell yourself to take an hour doing something with your hands and see how you feel afterwards. It may be hard to shut the ‘buy it!’ devil up on your shoulder, but after a while you may enjoy the activity and forgetting about shopping altogether. Do what it takes to take the impulse out of shopping. That’s the aim.
Create another to-do list of things you want to achieve
I have millions of unresolved to-do lists, but the mere act helps me forget about spending for a minute. Sometimes I might even put things down I will never complete. Doesn’t matter. Whatever it takes.
Sleep on it
Very, very hard to do, I know. When I’ve got my gears into a particular item I want, I want to stop at nothing to get it, no matter how unnecessary it is. But, if I make myself sleep on it, I often feel differently the next day. If you think about it all day, the next day and dreaming up ways you can use it, then maybe just get it, if you really need it. But, those unnecessary, impromptu impulsive wants and needs will have blown into the wind by the next day and you probably won’t give it another moment’s notice. Problem solved.
Let subscriptions like HelloFresh do the work for you
Yes, it is spending, but it’s a set weekly spend on something you could otherwise massively overspend on unnecessarily. Plus, you get discounts and freebies to help you spend even less on your grocery shop. It’s definitely worth looking into HelloFresh to help curb your spend on groceries every week, especially in time for back to school. Plus, there are tons of different types of boxes to choose, including the vegetarian Family box for non-meat eaters and a meat box for the carnivores of the family.
Plus, HelloFresh are even offering customers Free Gifts with any subscription signup – just like that classic ‘toy in the cereal box’ these free gifts are great to help keep kids engaged during dinner time. Double plus, new customers can now receive 60% Off Your 1st Box, then 25% off for 2 Months + 3 Free Gifts! Just use the code ‘HFMOTHER60‘ when checking out.
Get 60% off your 1st box, 25% off the next 2 months & 3 free gifts!*
Stress shopping bottom line
The goal is to stop stress shopping and improve your finances and ultimately your mental health, so your mind doesn’t immediately rely on shopping to help you feel better. But how do you do that when you have external stress being thrown at you from all directions?
First, recognise that you stress shop, find out what’s triggering the stress and take steps to remove the stress element from shopping. Find alternatives to stress shopping and opt instead for convenience shopping, like HelloFresh, which are offering mad deals right now in time for back to school.
There’s nothing like a bit of retail therapy to calm the mind after an otherwise stressful day. But, don’t rely on shopping to continually fix your stress because it won’t – it may even make it worse.
Get 60% off your 1st box, 25% off the next 2 months & 3 free gifts!*
FAQ
Does shopping cause stress?
Other questions asked were:
- Why is shopping stressful?
- Why do I get so stressed when shopping?
Shopping can also bring up financial and body insecurities. Fearing embarrassment over having to put something back because you can’t afford the total bill can trigger anxiety. People in larger bodies may perceive being judged for their food or clothing choices, which can trigger anxious thoughts.”
https://psychcentral.com/blog/ocd-and-shopping-anxiety
How can I stop stress shopping?
Other questions asked were:
- Why does shopping stress me out?
- How do I stop stress shopping?
- How to stop retail therapy
- Tips to stop shopping stressfully
- Ways to stop shopping stressfully
- How to stop shopping stressfully
“Get regular, moderate exercise
Listen to your favorite music.
Make something with your hands.
Meditate.
Make to-do lists and check off tasks as you complete them.”
https://www.takechargeamerica.org/heres-how-to-stop-stress-shopping-and-save-money/
Why is grocery shopping stressful?
Other questions asked were:
- Why is shopping so stressful
“Grocery stores are filled with uncertainty — think parking spots, crowds, food decisions, malfunctioning self-checkout scanners and unbearable cashier lines. That’s why they’re a hotbed of anxiety triggers.”
Huffington Post
Is it true that going shopping online can relieve severe stress
Other questions asked were:
- Can online shopping help relieve stress and depression?
- Will shopping relieve stress?
- Does shopping relieve stress?
- Does shopping reduce stress?
- Can shopping reduce stress?
- Why shopping relieves stress
- How can shopping ease stress?
- Can shopping relieve stress?
“Research has shown that making shopping decisions can help reinforce a sense of personal control over our environment. It can also ease feelings of sadness. A 2014 study from the Journal of Consumer Psychology found that retail therapy not only makes people happier immediately, but it can also fight lingering sadness.”
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/retail-therapy-shopping-compulsion/
References
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229931025_Retail_therapy_A_strategic_effort_to_improve_mood
- The benefits of retail therapy: Making purchase decisions reduces residual sadness – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1057740813001149
- It certainly helps when you have to pack lunch multiple times a week! 40% of parents said they don’t have time to make lunch, so I’m not alone in feeling this added stress.
*This article was sponsored by HelloFresh
*Links marked with a ‘*’ are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you click through to buy at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support 😀
