Pumpkin spiced latte (PSL) season is right around the corner. 🎃☕ What better time to dive into the latest TikTok personal finance trend: GIRL MATH! 💁🏼♀️🔢
So what exactly is “girl math?” 🤨 Basically, it's a cheeky way to rethink your spending habits by imagining that anything under a certain dollar amount is free (like those $5 coffees). It's also a way to measure the cost of more expensive items by thinking of them in terms of cost-per-wear. 👙
If you wear those Christian Dior heels 33948823 times, they pay for themselves, right ladies? 👠
Here’s Five Fast Facts on the girl math trend:
- 🧮 Cute Calculations - We can thank the New Zealand podcast Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley for making "girl math" go viral. The episode where the hosts break everything down got over 1.6 million views on TikTok. They girl math-ed $400 hair extensions and a $330 dress based on cost-per-wear. Who needs discount codes?
- 🏴☠️ Buried Treasure - Another equation in the girl math universe is "found money." Basically, found money is when you buy something on sale and put the money you saved towards something else.
- 🛍️ Buy Now, Freak Out Later - Some say the girl math trend is just our latest way of hyping up bad financial behaviors. One expert drew similarities between this and the all-too-common “buy now, pay later” financing that has wrecked so many people’s Paychecks. “Buy now, pay later” breaks big-ticket purchases down into smaller payments over time. Buuuuuuuut lots of people use those payment methods to justify buying expensive items they don't need.
- 💅 Cost-Per-YASSS - Girl math isn't all bad. For example, when buying clothing or shoes, considering the cost per wear is a good way to figure out whether or not a purchase will be worth your while. Luxury items do tend to last longer, and breaking things down by cost per wear helps you turn up the rational part of your brain while turning down your emotional side.
- 🆘 It Ain't Adding Up - However, we shouldn't be girl math-ing our entire lives away. If you're using girl math to justify buying things you don't need, you could wind up broke or in debt pretty quickly. Spending outside of your means is always a recipe for disaster. Don't compare yourself to the bougie girl bosses on social media.
🔥Bottom line: We're liking this new era of personal finance trends on social media! In case you missed it, here's an article on the concept of "bougie broke" and here's one about "quiet luxury". To tie everything together, read up on how social media impacts the way we think about money. Spoiler alert: it's not great.
Do you use girl math on your shopping sprees?
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