I am truly grateful to be blessed with a well-paying job. Spouse and I just turned 30, with no major debt. We earn more than $500k in a HCOL area. I grew up in a middle class family in a South Asian country where we went through several ups-and-downs. This did have a profound impact on me, where saving up and not splurging has been my primary mode of operation.

Unfortunately a lot of this has carried over to my adult life and marriage. I am particularly addicted to deals (spend hours on Slickdeals and other websites, hunting for coupons) and get a dopamine high when I end up buying something at a deep discount.

* Buying clothes (even below 20$) or shoes? Gotta wait until a sale goes up!
* Looking to upgrade some much needed tech like a keyboard? Search and compare all websites for hours and days to see where the best deal comes up.
* Buying food? Gotta see if that Subway accepts a coupon for a 8$ sub.

I am pretty certain that every purchase &gt; 10$ has come off coupons or discounts.

These habits of mine are eating up so much time every day and every week. It has gotten to a point where my spouse and family have brought this up multiple times, and I was ashamed of myself. I am conscious of what is happening, but somehow am unable to overcome this anxiety of spending and of not 'optimizing' my purchases. Somehow my mind thinks that spending 5$ more on an item will end up bankrupting me down the road. Has anyone else experienced this? Do you have any tips of how to handle this?