This is one of the videos we produced with the Central Bank of Malta in our budgeting series.
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 my 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 and is finishing upper secondary school this scholastic year.
Angele has the past year worked part time whilst studying – boosting her income. I always encouraged her since she was young to do paid work, whether helping out at home or working somewhere – my goal was to help her to understand the value of money, and that it takes the hard work to have the good things in life. I, however, lately realised that Angele has a tendency towards impulse buying – particularly when exams are round the corner she has this tendency of splurging on clothes and accessories.
I sat Angele down – and I shared my concerns with her. She acknowledged that around exam time she manages the tension by splurging out – helps her to boost her confidence during this tough time. I nudged her to remind me what the saving goal she set for herself was. Hu ejja, Ma – you know. I am saving to go to that dancing school in Italy as soon as I complete the last three levels in my dancing training. 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 impulse buys, her budget is messed up, and her goal becomes somewhat more distant.☹☹☹☹
I explained to her that I too had an urge to impulse buy but I have learnt to manage it. I told Angele the disciplines I imposed on myself to prevent me from impulse buying. For example, when tense and not feeling too good 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 over me, when I go out I only take enough money to cover my needs, and leave my debit and credits cards home. Thus, no matter how tempted I may be I simply do not have the money with me to cave in to my urge to impulse buy.
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