How To Make Sure Your Partner Doesn’t Find Out What You Bought Them Online

Buying presents for a partner used to be somewhat risky, because there was always the chance you’d be seen. You could be out in the local jewellers looking for that nice diamond ring, only for them to walk past with friends and see you. Not only does that then give the game away, but it can also lead to trouble as they start asking whether or not you were perhaps looking for an engagement ring, or perhaps even buying a ring for someone other than them.

The web in theory makes this much easier. Now we can do out shopping online and that means you only have to worry about covering up a small screen: which you can do easily with your body.

That’s the theory anyway, but as we know it doesn’t always go that way. Thanks to search histories and people coming home earlier than they’re meant to, it’s still all too easy for a partner to catch us out and see what we have planned. Ruining everything…

Fortunately there are ways around this problem, you just have to be cunning and a little tech savvy. Read on to find out how you can buy your gifts in private.

Use Incognito

Incognito mode was a stroke of genius by Google for the Chrome browser which ensured that a lot of IE’s previous fans jumped ship. The idea behind Incognito mode, is that you can open an ‘incognito window’ for browsing the web that won’t show up in your history and that won’t save things like passwords, search history etc.

This is very useful if you want to browse the web without your partner finding out. All you need to do is to right click on your Chrome icon, and then select ‘New Incognito Window’. Don’t have Chrome? Well don’t worry as Microsoft has now wised up and added the feature to IE – only it’s called ‘In Private’ browsing.

Other Strategies

There are other strategies you can use too though. One of course is not to use a shared computer at all – browse on your phone or on your work PC, and your partner will be much less like to see what you’ve been up to. That said though, if your partner is prone to steeling your phone out your hands then that plan won’t quite work. Another option is to just clear your browsing history, or if you’re a smart cat you could install a different browser that they don’t know about or even program your own.

Tips

That’s not the whole story though, and there are a few more things you need to remember if you’re going to keep your actions a secret. For one, you need to make sure that the game doesn’t get given away when the parcel arrives: so make sure that you address it in a non-obvious way or get it delivered to a friend/your parents/your office.

Another tip is to make sure you only browse when you’re sure your partner isn’t around – and put yourself in the back room so you get early warning when they arrive home.

Today’s feature writer, Nancy Baker, is a freelance blogger who is currently a part of the team at Lior Diamonds, an online provider of engagement rings. She loves surprising her partner with gifts. In her free time, she enjoys sharing her ideas via blogging.