 There are no limits to the powers of girl math. From justifying your luxury shoe purchase to bypassing your drained bank account by paying in cash; girl math offers a unique perspective on the power of justification. It goes a little something like this:
You’ve dropped by your local shopping centre to buy a gift for your mum. You ultimately decide to indulge her handbag obsession rather than pointedly ignore it, so you enter Strandbags with a careful optimism and $75 to your name. It turns out that the shopping god’s have bestowed you a gift, as the Faux Italian Leather Clutch in mauve grey is part of a buy-one-get-one-half-off deal. When we ignore the principal of girl math, the $40 clutch and the $20 clutch combined are still $20 more than we wanted to spend. We left Strand bags $60 poorer. When we factor in girl math, we actually saved $20 with the second clutch. So, really, we only spent $40, which means that we got two clutches for the price of one, which ultimately means we only spent $20. Girl math. Other examples of girl math are:
The common thread amongst all of these is justification. Why is girl math so inherently linked to this idea of justifying purchases? Some have shamed girl math for encouraging people to spend money. But girl math doesn’t convince us to buy. It’s not an active part of the shopping process. Rather, girl math is a comfort applied retroactively. It soothes the blow of a big purchase we may feel, for one reason or another, was not justified. Girl math brings back control to the situation in a roundabout way, shaving off the guilt of a purchase with much needed reassurance that it’s in fact a good deal; that it is deserved. Simply put, girl math is a psychological comfort. So, how can we avoid the guilt in the first place? Budgeting is an amazing way to control the amount of guilt you feel over purchases. This is because a budget, while initially quite confronting, allows you to spend the money you allocate to yourself without the nagging feeling that you’re doing something wrong. For example, spending $50 every two weeks to get your nails done may feel like a frivolous expense, hence why we feel the need to girl math our way out of it. But when we budget, we know that the $50 is there specifically for the purpose of getting our nails done. We know we can afford it and that it’s not going to eat into any of our other expenses. Applying logic to girl math We can take this a step further by not only limiting our spending but actively increasing our savings. Take the stock market, for example. When the market is down, it’s easy to think of it as shares being 'on sale'—which, in a sense, is exactly what’s happening. But what are shares? A share is a small ownership stake in a company, and when you buy shares, you’re buying a piece of that business. The value of say the S&P 500 (which includes 500 of the largest companies in the U.S.) can go up or down based on how the company is doing and broader market conditions. When the stock market dips, the prices of S&P 500 drop as well. Just like shopping during a sale, this can be a great time to buy, because you're getting more shares at a lower price. Over time, when the market recovers, those shares you bought at a discount could grow in value, potentially leading to greater returns. So, in a way, buying shares in the S&P 500 when the market is down is just like buying that dress for 20% off--you're investing in your future while getting an amazing deal! So, is girl math good or bad? Like most things, it depends on how you use it. If you consistently overspend your budget and endcap it with ‘girl math’, you’re probably not doing yourself any favours. Yet girl math can be a great placeholder for when that guilt seeps in and there’s no other way to plug the leak. An occasional splurge here or there is okay, so long as you can afford it. Or better yet, you can put aside some of that money you would have spent and save or invest it for something you really want but have never been able to justify. A nice car, a boat, a new computer, a month off work, or a renovation to your office space. The ultimate takeaway from girl math should be ensuring that you don’t put yourself into positions where spending is something that brings you guilt. Set up that budget and get saving! Comments are closed.
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