This is one of the videos we produced with the Central Bank of Malta in our budgeting series.

Download the Central Bank of Malta and ĠEMMA Video on ‘Impulse Buying’ by clicking here.

Let me introduce the ĠEMMA family. I am Tony. I am Maria’s husband. I work as a manager in a large business in the services industry. My wife, Maria is 40 years old and works in her father’s family business. We have two kids:  Matthias, our son who is 11 years old, and is now in secondary school, and Angele, our daughter who is 17 years old and is finishing upper secondary school this scholastic year.

Angele has the past year been working part-time whilst studying – boosting her income. I always encouraged her –  it helps her to understand the value of money, and that it takes hard work to have the good things in life.  However, Angele has a tendency towards impulse buying – particularly when exams are around the corner when she tends to splurge on clothes and accessories.

I sat down with Angele and shared my concerns with her. She acknowledged that around exam time she manages tension by splurging out as it helps her boost her confidence during this tough time.  I nudged her to remind me the saving goal she had set for herself – to go to that dancing school in Italy as soon the pandemic is over. I explained to Angele that if impulse buying is her solution to manage tension, then it is going to take her a long time to achieve her goal. I explained to her that every time she does that, her budget is messed up, and her goal becomes somewhat more distant. I explained to her that I too had an urge for impulse buying but have learnt to manage it.

For example, when feeling tense a replacement to impulse buying is going to the gym. Not only does it not blow my household budget apart, but it is far healthier too.  When the impulse buying mood comes around, I go out but only take enough money to cover my needs and leave my debit and credits cards home.  Thus, no matter how tempted I might be I simply do not have the money with me to cave in to my urge.

View this ĠEMMA video by clicking on the above – and learn more on how you should manage impulse buying and more. Let us know your thoughts. We look forward to hearing from you. We look forward to hearing from you. And we at ĠEMMA encourage you to share this link or the video or the calculator or all of them with your friends or publicly on Facebook.

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