Buy or Bye?

ADHD's Effects on Spending

We live in a world where shopping is everywhere. It’s in our pockets, on our wrists, in our feeds, in the “recommended for you” section that somehow always knows your weaknesses.

Our phones didn’t just make buying easier, they made it frictionless. A few taps and you’ve ordered a hoodie you didn’t plan on, a “life-changing” kitchen gadget you don’t need, and a skincare product you saw in a 12-second video at midnight.

So, when someone asks, “Does ADHD affect spending and impulse control?” the answer is… yes. In the same way the grass is green. Not because people with ADHD are “bad with money,” but because ADHD can make the modern shopping ecosystem hit different and hit harder.

Let's unpack.

ADHD isn’t a personality trait. It’s a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how the brain regulates attention, motivation, and self-control. One of the core challenges is inhibitory control, the ability to pause, evaluate, and choose a response instead of going with the first urge.

Simply, not thinking and just doing, which is very common for most walking around target. Inhibitory control matters for spending because buying is often an emotional reflex, not a spreadsheet decision.

You see something, You feel something, You act.

For many people with ADHD, the “pause” is shorter, quieter, or missing entirely, especially in moments of stress, boredom, excitement, or fatigue.

Impulse spending tends to follow a recognizable loop, Dopamine seeking, hyperfocus, time blindness, emotional regulation...

ADHD brains often have lower baseline dopamine activity (oversimplified, but useful). Dopamine is tied to reward and motivation, the “this feels good, do it again” signal. Shopping is a dopamine slot machine, new item, new possibility, new identity (version of me that has it all together), quick rewards.

It’s not just buying a thing. It’s buying a feeling.

Hyperfocus and the Rabbit Hole

ADHD isn’t really an “attention deficit” as much as it’s an attention regulation thing. The frustrating part is you can’t focus on a budget spreadsheet for ten minutes… but you can hyperfocus on researching “the perfect running shoes” for three hours, compare nineteen reviews, watch two YouTube breakdowns, and somehow convince yourself it’s not spending, it’s “health” and “future me” and “I’m basically being responsible.”

I’ve done versions of this. It starts as a harmless idea, like “I should look into this,” and suddenly I’m deep in a rabbit hole with a cart full of “essentials” that felt completely logical at the time. Hyperfocus doesn’t feel impulsive in the moment, it feels intentional. That’s what makes it sneaky.

Time Blindness

A lot of ADHD spending isn’t “I don’t care.” It’s more like “future me doesn’t feel real right now.”

That’s time blindness: bills feel farther away than they are, “I’ll fix it later” feels easier than it will be, and the consequences get discounted because the present urge is loud and immediate. It’s like your brain is living in “right now mode,” and anything beyond that is a vague concept instead of an actual deadline.

Emotional Regulation

Stress spending, boredom spending, “I’ve had a hard day” spending, everyone does that sometimes. But ADHD can crank the volume up on emotions and make quick comfort behaviors way more tempting.

Sometimes you’re not buying an object. You’re buying relief. You’re buying a mood shift. You’re buying a tiny moment where your brain stops buzzing.

And then later, when the dopamine wears off, you’re stuck with the receipt and the weird emotional hangover of “why did I do that?”

And phones, don't help.

If you designed the perfect environment to encourage impulsive spending, you’d build one-click checkout, stored payment info, targeted ads, limited-time offers, social proof, personalized recommendations, dopamine-heavy short videos, and buy-now-pay-later options. You would've created the internet, congrats.

And if you have ADHD, where impulse control, emotional regulation, and reward sensitivity can be harder, it can feel like playing the game on hard mode with extra pop-ups. This isn’t a moral failure. It’s a mismatch between brain wiring and an economy optimized for impulsivity. “But I Also Forget to Buy Things I Actually Need”

Yep. That’s the other side of it.

ADHD spending isn’t always “spendy.” Sometimes it’s forgetting to return something until it’s too late, missing subscriptions you meant to cancel, paying the ADHD tax (late fees, duplicate purchases, rush shipping), or putting off a necessary purchase until it becomes urgent and expensive.

So, the pattern can look chaotic, impulsive splurges, then avoidance, then panic spending, then guilt. Rinse, repeat. And the whiplash alone is exhausting.

And then there's the shame trap. A lot of people with ADHD carry money shame that sounds like, “Why can’t I just be normal?” “I’m irresponsible.” “I’m terrible with money.”

But shame is gasoline for impulsivity. When you feel bad, your brain looks for relief, and shopping offers a quick hit. The goal isn’t to become a robot with perfect self-control. The goal is to build friction, structure, and systems that protect you when your brain is tired, bored, stressed, or overstimulated.

So, what now? Here are some practical habits and ways to improve your spending, without becoming miserable.

Here are strategies that work because they don’t rely on willpower alone.

Start by adding friction, make buying slightly annoying. Remove saved cards from shopping apps, require Face ID for purchases, delete shopping apps and use the browser only, and disable buy-now-pay-later if you can. Impulse thrives on speed. Slow it down just enough to give your brain a chance to catch up. Or try the “24-hour cart” rule. Put it in the cart, but don’t buy until tomorrow. If you still want it after sleep, coffee, and daylight, it might be real. If not, it was probably dopamine dressed up as logic.

Create a “dopamine budget.” Give yourself a monthly fun-money amount you’re allowed to blow guilt-free. The point isn’t to restrict joy, it’s to prevent the all-or-nothing cycle. ADHD brains don’t do well with deprivation. They do better with boundaries that include permission.

Separate needs from wants visually.

Make two lists, “I need this to live/function” and “I want this because it feels exciting right now.” Writing it down helps you zoom out when your brain is zoomed in.

Automate the boring good decisions. Set up automatic savings transfers, automatic bill pays, and separate accounts for bills versus spending. If you have to remember and decide every time, ADHD will eventually lose that fight.

Automation reduces the decision load.

And identify your triggers. Mine tend to be if my life is messy. For example, when my bathrooms messy, I will by a new razor, or new shampoo, but if I really looked, I would fine all of those things in a drawer, or not fully empty bottles. Some triggers could be boredom, stress, late-night scrolling, feeling behind in life, social comparison, and the “reward myself after hard work” impulse. Once you know your patterns, you can interrupt the loop with something else that gives relief, walk, shower, texting a friend, ten minutes of a game, a snack, anything that helps your nervous system downshift without costing $87.

So, to answer the question, it’s most likely a bye, not a buy, at least not today.

ADHD can absolutely affect spending and impulse control. Not because you’re careless, but because your brain can get pulled toward whatever feels urgent, rewarding, or relieving in the moment.

But the point isn’t to label yourself “bad with money.” It’s to spot the pattern clearly enough that you can design around it, especially in a world where every app is trying to turn your attention into a receipt.

And if you’ve been blaming yourself, let this be your permission slip to stop. Your brain isn’t broken. It’s living in a marketplace built to exploit impulsivity, and you deserve systems that have your back. Also, rewards and self-gifting is needed, and you deserve it, just watch how much self-gifting you are doing!

Thanks for reading! - Love Rebecca