The part about an interruption in one's regular routine interfering with one's usual shopping behavior resonates with me for sure! I had gotten into the habit of browsing and buying online for reasons that seem similar to your reasons -- it's there, it's easy, it's a fun reward both when you click "buy" and when the items arrive.
But being abroad for three weeks, mostly in third-world countries, both interrupted the routine and made me appreciate what I have and just plain got me out of the mood to want to acquire more and more. I have three big closets full of clothes and at this point it just seems silly and selfish to keep adding to the collection. Plus I have spent thousands on clothes in the past couple of years and I want to re-direct that money towards more fantastic trips going forward!!
All of which is a long-winded way of saying that the best (maybe only) way to extinguish an undesired behavior is to replace it with a new, incompatible behavior. For me, my new incompatible behavior is planning and saving up for the next trip, as well as committing to a 12 x 12 shopping strategy for 2013.
Maybe 12 x 12 would be good for you, Una? The way I am doing it is per these rules: (a) stick to the budget; (b) no more than one item per month, but if I don't buy something in a given month that month's item rolls over into the next month (i.e. if I don't buy anything in January through November, I can buy 12 items and spend the whole year's budget in December).
