According to Heather Gilmore, a writer for The Dollar Stretcher.com, “emotions can lead to the desire to shop or, on the other hand, shopping can lead to emotions. Shopping can be prompted by sadness, grief, loss, insecurity, guilt, and excitement.”

Shopping can create a pleasurable experience making people want to experience the “high” again.

The after-shopping experience can involve positive or negative emotions that can affect future decisions about shopping. A person might feel guilt over having spent more money than what they had set aside in their budget. This may then create an unsettling feeling during future shopping experiences. It may create an aversion toward shopping (a feeling like a person should not purchase needed things), which might make future spending less likely, or create such an increased feeling of guilt or shame that there is no desire to purchase anything in the future.

Experts understand this and market to your emotions – merchants from grocery stores, furniture marts, and car dealerships are all targeting your feelings towards shopping. By learning to separate your identity from the things you buy, you will spend far less money in pursuit of making yourself feel good. That is why God’s Word makes it clear that we enter the world naked, we leave naked, and naked has no pockets. We should recognize we are not going to take any of those purchases with us after we die. Hopefully, that will help us remain emotionally neutral towards our spending choices.

If you have found yourself in a situation where you are overwhelmed with unsecured debt, there is help. Christian Credit Counseling is a non-profit credit-counseling agency.  Their mission is to help families eliminate credit card debt.