← Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
290 | Impulse Buying vs. Smart Investing: How to Shop With Strategy and Clarity
00:20:06
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
Today's episode is a vulnerable one because I'm not talking about something I've always been great at. I'm talking about something that used to have me completely trapped. Impulse shopping. And I don't mean snagging an extra lip gloss on your way to the checkout counter at Sephora. I'm talking about emotional spending. Those quick add to cart moments that promise to boost your confidence but never quite deliver the one off purchases for a party or event that don't go with anything else in your closet. The all almost right pieces you talk yourself into only to regret later the sale finds that seem too good to pass up but never make it into your regular rotation. You tell yourself you'll wear them eventually, but deep down you know you won't. And instead of feeling more confident, you're left with more clutter, more guilt, and that same sinking feeling every time you open your closet. I know how hard that cycle can feel because I've lived it. And if I can break it, you absolutely can too. If you're tired of wasting money on clothes you don't wear, this episode will help you understand what's really going on behind those impulse buys. And by the end of this conversation, you'll know what you need to do to shop with strategy, confidence and clarity so you can finally have a well curated wardrobe that works. Open your closet and see only yes pieces and get ready for your day in five minutes flat. This is the episode I wish I'd heard 20 years ago, but it's never too late to break the cycles that aren't serving you. Let's make today a defining moment in your style journey and start making smart investments to build a wardrobe you love. Welcome to Her Style Podcast where we're all about empowering you to show up and get dressed every day with confidence. I'm your host, Heather Riggs, a 15 year and counting certified image consultant and color specialist ready to build a wardrobe and a personal style you love. Let's get started. I am so glad that you're here friend. If this is your first time listening to Her Style podcast or your 20th or 200th episode, welcome back and welcome to this community. I will say it will not take you long to realize that I haven't always had this intentional style thing all figured out. For years, shopping was my favorite hobby and it didn't feel like a problem to me. It felt really fun. I loved working in retail when I was in high school because that meant I got first dibs on all the latest styles as everything was Coming into the store, I got to see it first and try it on and buy it. And without any real bills at that time. As a teenager, I was able to spend every paycheck on pretty new pieces. And that kind of started me on the cycle of just buying shiny new objects whenever I wanted. I loved wandering through the mall on the weekend with my friends and hunting for the next great outfit that would make me feel stylish and put together. Back then, there weren't influencers or online hauls or Pinterest boards telling us what to wear. It was just me, sometimes a stack of glossy fashion magazines. And I had this dream of being the most stylish girl in the room. And not necessarily from a competitive standpoint, but just a confident one. I wanted to be able to walk in knowing that I looked great, that I had my outfit pulled together, and that I could show up anywhere. Meeting new people, that's what that time in your life is really all about. It's a lot of socialization and trying new activities and then making that transition into college, meeting a whole new group of people. I really wanted to show up and look the part. And when I bought something new, it always worked for a minute. I felt that immediate rush of confidence. My wardrobe felt shiny and new and full of possibility. And it took longer than I care to admit to realize that those feelings never lasted. Because as soon as the newness of that item wore off, the self doubt would creep right back in. I would have to repeat the cycle and buy something new and then something else that was new. And I would often think, okay, I just need one more outfit for this thing that's coming up, or, okay, I need one more pair of shoes. I always thought I kind of had one more chance to get it right, to get the thing that was gonna complete my closet, make me feel stylish and amazing forever. And. And that was how it started for me. And before long, my fun and frivolous hobby started to come at a real cost. I'm going to be super vulnerable right now and share a lot of things that I am not proud of. Number one, and I've already talked about this, that I ran my bank account into the negative more than once because of excess shopping. I'm not proud to admit that I hid receipts from my husband and downplayed how much things cost. I've already told you, my husband is not traditionally the saver and I'm the spender. And we really got into a vicious cycle with that narrative in the earlier years of our marriage. And his trust in me definitely diminished during those days when I was just buying all the things that I wanted and not considering how that impacted our long term goals and what we were working to build together as a couple. In the early years of our marriage, we also had separate bank accounts, so it was easy for me to sneak things in and, you know, act like I didn't buy anything new. I've had this forever and just really be sneaky in my ways of shopping in that time. And I also deeply regret that. My grandfather gave me a very generous check when I graduated high school with the intent that I would use it for college expenses. Books, all of those things. I was living on campus for my first semester away in college, and I ended up spending a good majority of that check on clothes. And at the time, it didn't feel reckless, it felt very necessary. I was so good at justifying every single purchase. I was also studying fashion design and merchandising for goodness sake. So in my mind, I'm like, I have to look the part. I have to buy the latest clothes and all the trendy pieces and show up for class looking like I know what I'm doing and I belong here. But looking back now, I can see that I wasn't making smart style investments. I wasn't building lasting confidence. I was renting it one purchase at a time. I don't have any of those pieces that I bought with that check from my grandfather. And I remember really struggling that first semester because I didn't realize how expensive the books were actually going to be. And all of those little things that do add up over time. And so all of that to say if you've ever been caught in that same loop, if you are buying clothes to feel better, to feel ready for something, to feel more like the version of yourself that you want to be. I want you to know I've been there, friend. I have so been there with you. And you're not shallow, you're not irresponsible. You're just looking for confidence and contentment in the wrong place. And I think once you start to understand that and really zoom out and look at the big picture of your habits, your decisions, then everything can really start to change. You just have to get out of the weeds of the cycle that you're in and start to look at it from another perspective. I will tell you the good news is you can completely rewrite this story. I did it. I know that you can do it too. I'm gonna walk you through first steps to get started in this episode today. I think one of the things that we don't realize is that impulse shopping isn't really about the clothes at all. It's about emotion. It's about chasing that feeling. And when you hit Buy now or if you purchase something at the checkout counter, your brain releases dopamine. And that is the same little chemical hit you get when you eat a piece of dark chocolate or you cross something off your to do list. It gives you that rush of relief, that moment of, ah, maybe this will make everything better. But as we know, that feeling is only temporary. And so when the excitement fades, the guilt will then start to creep in and before long, you're right back where you started scrolling for that next quick fix. So it's not that you're careless, it's not that you're bad with money. You're a human being and we all want to feel capable, confident and safe. Inspired. Shopping just happens to be one of the easiest ways to get a taste of that feeling. And I think that the real shift can start to happen for you when you ask a different question and you shift it from what should I buy? To what am I really looking for here? Because most of the time it's not actually the blazer or the dress or the pair of shoes that you need. It's the confidence or the joy or excitement or the sense of possibility you think that piece is going to bring to your life. And each time you buy something on impulse, you get that short lived spark followed by regret. Often, I don't know about you, most of those impulse buys that I bought over the years I deeply regretted a little bit further down the line. And over time, that back and forth is going to start chipping away at your self trust and you're going to start to think thoughts like I had, which is why can't I get this right? Or what's wrong with me? Or why am I so bad at shopping and making stuff smart decisions with my money? And I started believing that I couldn't be trusted with finances. I really fed into that story that my husband was the saver and I was the spender. And I adopted that as my truth. And you probably even heard me say that on this podcast because that narrative became so ingrained in me for so long. But that actually wasn't true. In fact, today my husband is far more likely to impulse buy something than I am. It wasn't who I was, it was just a pattern that I was stuck in at the time. And the same goes for you so don't make those beliefs mean something about you. There's nothing wrong with you. You've just been shopping from emotion instead of intention. And the next time you feel that urge to buy, I want you to just take a quick pause, take a breath before you hit the button that says add to cart. That tiny pause is going to give you so much power. It really is the first step, step to taking control back from those old habits. So the first thing I want you to do is really just slow down. And when I talk about smart investing, I don't mean that you have to follow a strict budget. You don't have to give yourself cash in an envelope each month for all of your expenses, and that's all you can buy. You don't have to spend hours building out cost per wear spreadsheets. What I mean here is just buying intentionally. It really is just taking the time to think it through and choosing clothes that work for your real life, that flatter your body, that make you feel amazing, that align with your personal style, and that ultimately move you in the direction of a wardrobe that you love and you cannot wait to wear. When you start shopping this way, your wardrobe stops feeling random. You're going to see outfits that make sense together. And when you open your closet, you can actually feel a sense of calm, even excitement. Like a calm excitement. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but you will feel peaceful and inspired at the same time about getting dressed. And shopping really will become so much more fun when you're doing it with the thought behind it, and this time without any regret, because you're not gonna get all of those icky feelings that come along with the impulse buys. You don't have to overhaul your closet or stop shopping altogether. If you need to put yourself on a temporary shopping freeze just to kind of get some perspective. Take some time to think through what I'm gonna share with you today. You can do that. If it's easier for you to just quit cold turkey and take an intentional pause for a set amount of time, you can absolutely do that. But I really think that you just need to start shopping more thoughtfully. Shopping isn't inherently good or bad. It's just thinking more about the way in which you go about it. And so I'm going to give you a couple of tips that I think will really help you get started on this shift from impulse to intention. And the first thing, as I already mentioned, is to pause before you buy. I just want you to give yourself a little space to think about why you want it. And you can start small with this. Ultimately, I would love you to really take a week between seeing something and buying that thing. I feel like that's a good stretch of time to really see if it is still exciting for you as you come back to it later to think about whether it's really going to fit into your life. But you could start with one hour. Set a timer on your phone. If you need to set one hour on your timer, don't buy it right away. Give yourself just a little fraction of space to think about it and ask yourself, are you bored? Are you feeling stressed out right now and just looking for an escape? Are you comparing yourself to someone that you saw online? Maybe you saw that influencer looking amazing on her last post or reel and you're like, okay, I need that outfit so I can show up looking that amazing. Give yourself an hour and ask yourself what is the feeling that you're chasing? Because awareness is everything. And then the second thing is to notice your patterns. And when you're most likely to shop impulsively. Is it after a long week when you're feeling tired and uninspired? When you need a little pick me up? Or when you have to get ready for an event and you look at your wardrobe and you realize you're not prepared for it and you gotta go scramble to pick up something random? Is it when you are scrolling on social media and being tempted by all of the cute clothes that you see online? Whatever it is, once you can see that pattern, you can start to change it. Third, create before you consume. So when the urge hits to go buy something, I want you to redirect and try playing around in your closet instead of buying something new. Go shopping in your own wardrobe. I know, it's a brilliant concept, right? You have a boutique already in your home, so go look at what you have in your own inventory. Try playing with different combinations. Mix and match the pieces you already own in new ways. Because you might be very surprised when you with what you come up with. And that that feeling of okay, I need to go get something different can completely evaporate. And then finally, I always want you to buy with purpose. So when you do shop again, there's nothing wrong with shopping. We just want to go about it with a different approach. I want you to choose pieces that fit your life, your personal style, goals and your values and ask yourself, will I love this piece six months from now? Small shifts like these are really gonna help you start to build some more self trust satisfaction so that you can finally break the cycle for good. Are you gonna have some setbacks in the beginning? Probably, yeah. I mean, we're not perfect. It does take practice to make these habits really second nature for you. So give yourself a lot of grace throughout this process. But I do wanna give you a couple of questions that you can start thinking about this week. The first one is, what emotion am I usually chasing when I hit add to cart or end up coming home with a random purchase? How could I give myself that feeling in another way? What would change if I trusted myself to make smart shopping decisions? You want to start seeing yourself as that smart investor. And then if my wardrobe truly reflected who I am right now, what would it look and feel like? What would I see when I open my closet doors to get dressed every day? Having that vision for the wardrobe you want, having that clear picture and the why behind your desire to make these shopping changes and to shift into a more intentional mode of purchasing is so critical. You've got to see where you're going, where you're headed. What is the value in slowing down the process and being more thoughtful to bring in only those yes. Pieces that work well together, that are easy to put on into an outfit, and that make you feel like a million bucks. And, friend, if this conversation is hitting home for you, if you are nodding along like, yes, this is my problem. This is what I keep doing over and over. I want to get out of it. I want you to know this is exactly the kind of transformation that we create for you inside Her Style Collective. Together, we are going to figure out what actually works for you. You're going to uncover your best colors, your style, personality, what is truly flattering for you, and how to make it fit with your lifestyle and your budget, no matter how big or small that is. Right now, we're going to identify what's actually missing in your closet, if anything, so you can create a clear shopping list and build a strategy so every purchase has a purpose behind it. You're going to learn how to shop with confidence and clarity, using color, science, style psychology, and wardrobe strategy to curate a closet that you absolutely love without waste, guilt, or guesswork. So if you're ready to stop impulse shopping for good and you want to start feeling empowered in your choices, I will tell you the collective is your next step, best step. You really can break this pattern. I mean, if it is possible for me, I believe it's possible for anyone. And I have seen client after client achieve this milestone. In fact, my client, Teresa, just emailed me this week. And she said, despite it being a busy time, I've achieved one of my her style program goals so far and that I've paused on the impulse shopping. Yay. And she put like a million emojis. She had all of that text in color. It's just I could feel the excitement brimming from her email. She's not even halfway through the program and she's already saying no to impulse buys that do not serve her. And I know that you can do this too. You deserve a wardrobe that makes you feel good and a shopping experience that doesn't come with a side order of guilt or second guessing. So please remember, shopping isn't the enemy. It's just been the easiest way for you to chase confidence for a while. I think you've been letting your clothes be the source of your confidence, your excitement, your inspiration, whatever it is, rather than a way to reflect. Reflect those feelings that you already have inside of you. You already are the woman that you want to become. You don't need clothing in order to be her. You just need clothing to support that on the outside. And so we can get really clear and strategic about what that looks like for you doing in a way that is empowering and really start to rewrite that narrative of the type of shopper that you are. Until now, I think you've literally been putting the shopping cart before the horse. We gotta just flip the script and lean into the inner confidence that you already have. Look other healthy ways to feel those feelings that you're really looking for. And it's okay that you're in this cycle because I've been there too and now we just get to do it differently. And if you are listening to this episode in real time when it drops, I want you to keep an eye out because I do have a little pre Black Friday something something coming your way soon to help you get started with all the support that you need. I'll share more in our next episode or you can get the first peek and my upcoming style guide email, which is going to be dropping this weekend. This episode's coming out on November 13, 2025, just to give you some perspective on that. So if it's not too late, just go ahead and head to herstylellc.com VIP to make sure that you don't miss a thing. And then I'll meet you back here on Monday for even more style strategies to help you buy less, shop smarter, and build a wardrobe you love. That's what we're all about here. And I promise you can absolutely make this happen. Until then, go ahead and pause on those purchases and have fun proving to yourself that you can. I'll meet you back here soon. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you want to stop copying everyone else's style and start dialing in your own swoon worthy signature look, head over to take my free 5 minute personal style quiz, which you can find at the link in the show notes. If you've enjoyed our time together, please be sure to rate, review and subscribe to her style podcast so you never miss an episode. Finally, I invite you to make this a two way conversation and send me a DM over on Instagram eatherigstyle to let me know how I can best support you on your style journey. I'm always here for you in style and service. Until next time.