Bulimic Shopping

Bulimic Shopping, if you haven’t heard the term, it is where someone makes a lot of purchases only to return them and get a dopamine hit from the money received back.

*Disclaimer – I am not making light of the very serious condition of Bulimia, and if you are suffering from it please seek help.

Now returns are a necessary part of shopping, sometimes things don’t fit or we are sent the wrong item via online shopping. Bulimic shopping occurs when the thrill of the purchase is not the purchase itself but the return. I know a couple people who have this habit.

For me the purchasing is the dopamine hit and returning is actually just very annoying, to the point that I miss the return windows because I wait too long and then I cant return or exchange the items, which can be annoying.

I need to get my spending under control one more time. It is a marker of hypo-mania/mania to be reckless and frivolous about things (not think things through) and that includes with money. However I am from a “treat yo self” generation and I want all the things when I see them- I need to seriously work on that! I will be making a bunch of returns today, I am so proud of myself because I am still within the return window and I have not lost the receipts!