You pay for a latte with money from your Starbucks app, so your bank account balance doesn’t change. That means the coffee was basically free, right?
This is just one example of “girl math,” a trend overtaking social media and popular culture. The hashtag “#girlmath” on Tiktok has millions of views, primarily including videos of women explaining how they justify their discretionary purchases.
Though girl math seems to be a collective joke millions of women are in on, it has real-life ramifications regarding your personal finance strategy. In some cases, girl math might be helping you find the purchases that really bring you joy, while in others, it could be used as a tool to rationalize overspending.
What Is Girl Math?
Paige Pritchard, a spending coach who runs the TikTok page Overcoming Overspending, describes girl math as “the mental gymnastics we go through to mathematically justify a purchase we want to make.”
It’s a humorous trend making fun of bad math, she says, though it does describe a very real process used to decide if a purchase is worth the money.
Girl math is a term used to describe a strategy women use all the time, according to Kelly Ann Winget, founder and CEO of Alternative Wealth Partners LLC in Dallas. It puts a name to the process many women go through to make discretionary spending decisions.
Winget adds that it’s important to qualify that girl math is used on “fun” purchases, too.
“It’s not money spent putting a roof over our heads or food on our table,” she says.
What Are the Principles of Girl Math?
So what kind of justifications does girl math actually encompass? Pritchard outlines a few of the most popular examples cropping up on social media:
— Anything paid for with cash is “free,” because your bank account balance doesn’t change.
— Once money is loaded onto an app (like Starbucks), those purchases are “free.”
— If you make a return and get money back, you’ve actually made money.
— Anything less than $5 is “free.”
— Paying for something with a Venmo, CashApp or PayPal balance is “free.”
— Clothing with a low cost per wear (meaning you use it frequently), reduces the price you paid upfront.
— Extra money spent to qualify for free shipping or a similar discount is justified, as it saves you money.
— If you’ve spent money for something in the past (like a concert or vacation) and enough time goes by, the event is “free” by the time it actually arrives.
Some of these examples are exaggerated for humor, but the fundamental principles of girl math boil down to the emotional cost of spending money and the value of the purchase you are making.
That’s why things like spending cash — and not having to see your account balance change — have a different emotional cost than swiping your credit card.
Girl math also puts more importance on what exactly a purchase will add to your life.
For instance, Winget describes one example of girl math featured on a podcast, where a woman broke down the cost of a Dyson hairdryer.
“When the caller broke down why she decided to buy it, she talked about using it three times a week, getting back an extra 30 minutes of time in the morning and what the value of that time has,” Winget says.
In this case, the time saved and the value of that time factored into the cost — girl math.
Applying Girl Math to Your Financial Strategy
This kind of justification can be both positive and dangerous, depending on how you apply it to your financial strategy.
[Related:Read: How to Create a Financial Plan Like a Pro]
According to Winget, considering factors like value beyond the dollar is valid. Time saved can be worth spending money on, she says.
Pritchard adds that this equates to a long-term focus on your purchases, which can actually be a good way to make purchase decisions.
“It does get you giving more thought to your purchases and spending choices that you might not otherwise, Pritchard says.
For instance, she adds, it might make you ask yourself things like why you need it, how long you’ll use it, how many times you’ll use it, and can you resell it or rent it out.
The same goes for spending cash versus spending on a card, if used in moderation.
“[The idea that cash is free money] has a real place because people exist in the digital currency world. Five dollars in your pocket isn’t going to change your entire budget, so in your mind it is free money. When it’s for discretionary spending, it’s not turning your budget on its head and putting you in bad situations. If you aren’t doing that, you aren’t doing girl math,” Winget says.
That said, the danger comes when you get too detached from the money you are spending and forget its real implications.
“Girl math detaches us from our money and makes our money feel less real than it really is. When we think about and talk about our money not being real, or being ‘free’ when it really isn’t, it detaches us mentally and emotionally from our money, which also means we will feel more detached from the financial consequences of these spending choices,” Pritchard says.
Jenny Groberg, CEO of Utah-based BookSmarts Accounting and Bookkeeping, adds that girl math can be used to justify impulse spending based on emotions.
[Related:Shopping Rules to Slash Impulse Spending]
“When you walk into a store and see an amazing outfit, pair of shoes or fabulous jacket, you have to have it! You tell yourself, ‘I work hard, so I totally deserve it,’ right? This is the emotional story we often tell ourselves to justify our overspending,” Groberg says.
Using Girl Math Successfully
Clearly, using girl math in your day-to-day life doesn’t have to be a bad thing. You just have to be careful to adopt good practices like considering cost-per-use while leaving behind justifications for impulse spending.
Winget, Pritchard and Groberg each have a girl math concept they believe is part of a healthy financial strategy.
For Winget, it’s taking advantage of loyalty programs like the Starbucks app.
“Reward programs are actually a great way to strategize and stretch your money … If you’re buying coffee every day and you’re going to spend that money, you might as well make use of these benefits. Those tumblers could even resell online as a collectors’ item and make you money — girl math,” she says.
Pritchard says that girl math helps us focus on the purchases we value, which is an important part of building a budget.
[Read: How to Make a Budget — and Stick to It.]
“Maybe you value your daily latte from Starbucks, concert tickets from your favorite artist or a nice dinner out at your favorite restaurant. Girl math can bring your attention back to how you can spend your money to reflect your unique goals, preferences and values,” she says.
According to Groberg, girl math can actually help you combat emotional spending by identifying the purchases you want to make and really thinking about how much you can spend on them.
“You can totally buy a new outfit, you just need to figure out in advance what you can spend,” Groberg says.
So no, those Taylor Swift tickets weren’t “basically free,” but your girl math can help you make responsible discretionary purchasing decisions.
More from U.S. News
12 Best Discount Shopping Apps
The Best Time to Buy Everything
What Is Girl Math and How Can You Apply It to Your Financial Strategy? originally appeared on usnews.com
