I receive about 50-60 emails a day through my personal email account. Of those, about 5 are actually important. The rest? Emails from stores, group deal sites, travel deals, or other subscription emails.

Although I usually go through and delete these emails right away, they can be troublesome, especially if the subject line is intriguing. If my favorite stores have a 50% off sale or there’s a daily deal for something I want to do or a store I shop at frequently, I’m extremely tempted to open it.

The problem isn’t opening the email, it’s the actions I take after opening these emails. If I see that my favorite store is having a sale, I may browse their website, find some cute things that I don’t need, and probably close the window without making a purchase. But later, I might drive past the store and stop in and buy something because I remembered their sale.

If I was just using my debit card to make these purchases, it probably wouldn’t be as big of a deal. But for certain stores, I may have a store credit card and have to use it to get the deal. Since these purchases usually aren’t in my budget, I have to find a way to pay for it unless I want to carry a balance (which I don’t).

One step I’ve taken to avoid these temptations is to start unsubscribing from these emails. It’s not easy, but for certain stores, it’s necessary. My other technique is to delete without question. Unless it’s an important email, I just delete it without opening it.

Do you have problems with email subscription overload?