In a study published early this year, it was advised that shopping early or often can prevent people from being carried away in impulse buying during Christmas rush. Remember, panic buying leads to a wrecked budget.

The researchers at the A&M University researchers analyzed how well people keep self-control for tasks like shopping, and they found out that people should skip themselves if they want to accomplish bigger goals.

In a statement released by Marco Palma, co-author of the study called the “Self-control: Knowledge or perishable resource?”, and director of the Human Behavior Laboratory at Texas A&M, he claimed:

Palma also advised to make a list and divide it into sub-goals of small purchases. Shopping online and shopping ahead of time can help conserve consumers’ energy. Also it can help them to practice self-control.

He further noted that committing to a shopping list will help people stay on a budget.

The worst shopping scenario when it comes to self-control is waiting until the last minute to accomplish the bulk of holiday purchases according to Palma.

During the study, researchers used biometric data which includes eye tracking and brain scanning to assess how well people complied with easy and difficult tasks that require self-control skill.

However, people would always be humans and even when they are nice, they tend to be a little naughty. Typically, a person who completes a holiday shopping list as pre-planned may splurge with a little or big reward for themselves and that is absolutely true.