Also referred to as oniomania, shopaholism is a form of escape camouflaging your emotional needs for affection, recognition, attention, or simply as a means to cover up an underlying boredom or depression. Your inability to confront your issues has led you to be enslaved by an irresistible compulsion to shop. Buying items to pleasure yourself compensated for all the emotional needs you may have unconsciously been unable to sustain.

However, the comforts and benefits of mindless spending are anything but effective. Fleeting as they are, the troubling reality you were trying to avoid comes back to haunt you once more as soon as your shopping sprees have run their course. Worse, the financial burden you have no choice but to deal with only compounded your troubles.

If you are a newly recovered shopaholic or one who is still in the process of recovery, being seriously mindful of these four important rules would help prevent you from slipping back to your old ways, getting your life, not to mention your finances, back on the right track.

Rule 1: Be a very responsible credit card holder.

The many conveniences of using plastic money, more commonly known as credit cards, come with the equivalent threat of easily losing control over your own expenditures. During the early stages of your recovery from shopaholism, it would do you best to keep away from them for a while, until such time that you have fully regained your control over your own emotions and financial situation.

Limiting yourself to cash purchases with a well-budgeted daily allowance that would prohibit you from making unnecessary expenses would greatly help in warding off the temptation to spend mindlessly. And once you have finally succeeded in properly managing your tendencies and finances, narrow the number of credit cards in your possession to either one or two—and store them in a special place in your purse to remind you that they are only restricted to emergency, special, or necessary expenses.

Rule 2: Distinguish your wants from your needs from a stringent black and white vantage point.

Confusing your needs from your wants can leave you in a murky dilemma where your finances are concerned. Oftentimes emotional issues get caught up with reality that shopaholics fail to distinguish their true needs from their wants. Having experienced this, at this point, you may already have learned your lesson the hard way that it would already be very traumatic on your part if you were to relearn it all over again in exactly the same manner.

Hence, it would be most reasonable to solicit the aid of a pen and a notebook to help you sort out your needs and wants. The act of recording them in written format focuses your mind on the mechanical process of differentiating them, preventing personal emotionally associated issues from intercepting. Over time, repetition would turn this exercise into a habit, and a most beneficial one at that since it helps you keep your expenses in check all the time.

Rule 3: Be diligent in recording your daily expenses.

One effective way of reigning in your impulsiveness and taking control of yourself and your situation is to enforce a detailed documenting system of your daily expenses. By chronicling how you use your money—items purchased, quantity, amounts, etc., you put on the breaks to mindless spending. Furthermore, this sets you off to the right path of getting full control of your finances because it keeps you in touch with the truth, that if there is one person who would suffer most from the brunt of your own recklessness, it would be none other than yourself.

Rule 4: Remember that there would always be someone who can help you recover from shopaholism.

With the current social awareness on how shopaholism affects people's lives, rest assured, there would always be a support group available to help you out if necessary. Credit counseling and assistance programs offered by companies or any other credible support group are easily accessible these days. Whether you ask a close friend for assistance in getting in touch with them or you do it on your own, either way you still reap the valuable benefits such help groups offer.