From Stanley Cups to snail mucin skin care—here's the No. 1 way to keep viral TikTok products from draining your wallet

If you've spent any amount of time on social media apps like TikTok and Instagram, you're probably familiar with the seemingly endless stream of viral products popping up on your feed.

And while something like a $45 Stanley Quencher cup or $25 bottle of COSRX Snail Mucin skin-care essence probably won't break the bank, regular, impulsive spending can seriously damage your finances if you're not careful.

Americans spend hundreds on social-media driven impulse buys

Americans spend around $754 a year on spur-of-the-moment purchases made on social media platforms, according to Bankrate's September survey, the latest available data.

And that number skews even higher for younger generations of consumers.

Gen Zers, defined as those between the ages of 18 and 26, spent an average of $844 on impulse buys and millennials, defined as those ages 27 to 42, spent an average of $1,016, per the survey.

While you shouldn't feel bad for treating yourself every now and then, you should be aware of how those purchases may be impacting your long term financial stability. A budget of $1,000 or so may not feel like a lot, but it's more than the majority of Americans have on hand to cover an emergency expense, according to Bankrate.

How to get impulse spending under control

Thankfully, the No. 1 way to keep impulse buying in check from is relatively simple, says Keith Barron, a personal finance expert and head of marketing at Jenius Bank.

"One of the biggest things you can do is take a beat," he tells CNBC Make It. "Don't just hit that button in the moment. Maybe wait to the next day or a couple of days."

That can be easier said than done, especially since retailers are making it more convenient than ever to purchase their products where you're already spending your time online.

"Your favorite retailer isn't exactly altruistic," Barron says. "They're spending millions of dollars to gain great consumer insights on how to sell more of the product or service they're offering."

That's why its important to find ways to help yourself if you discover you're spending more on impulse purchases than you would like to.

Before the days of using your phone to make purchases, Barron recalls hearing stories of how some people would literally freeze their credit cards in a block of ice to prevent themselves from impulse spending.

"If they wanted something, they had to wait for the thing to thaw out before they could use it," he says.

While you may not need to use a strategy that extreme, there are other measures you can take to help you resist the urge to spend your hard earned dollars on passing social media trends.

Say you're scrolling on your favorite social media site and see a product that interests you. Instead of immediately buying it, consider adding it to a wish list that you can revisit at a later time. You may find that after some time has passed, you're no longer interested in buying the product and you can redirect the money you would've spent elsewhere.

It can also be helpful to give yourself a solid reason for not spending impulsively so that you don't feel like you're depriving yourself. It may be easier to resist small impulse buys when you're setting aside money for a vacation or other large purchase, Barron says.

"The big thing about goal setting is deciding what's really important to you in the long term," he says. "That way it's not always about sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice in the short term."

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