‘Girls math’: a simple way for girls to justify how they spend their money. It’s a known stereotype that women spend more money than men or that they aren’t very good at saving/budgeting money. But, in reality, girls are able to find ways around spending money that ultimately make sense in the mind of a woman.
Since its growing popularity on Tik Tok, ‘girl math’ has become more common. On Tik Tok, videos of women explaining ‘girl math’ to either their spouse or dad cause much debate over if women are crazy or do they actually make a point when spending money?
‘Girl math’ obviously makes sense to girls, but here’s the rundown in case the math isn’t mathing for you:
Whenever you return something to a store, you make money. Even though you bought that twenty-five dollar skirt last week, you just made more money. If they give you store credit instead of the money back, the next time you come back you’re free shopping. Also, if you return something but purchase something at the same time, your new purchase is free.
“They’re basically paying me to return my item,” said Elena Hughes ‘24.
Now, let’s say you go to Starbucks. You have money on your Starbucks account: your drink is free, no cost. Obviously that money was placed into your account at some point, but by the time you spend it, your order is free.
“Anytime I put money into my Starbucks account I earn two stars per dollar, so it’s basically like paying half of it. Since it’s not coming from my card, it’s free,” said Jamie Duskey ‘24.
As you’re doing your daily online shopping spree, you add another item to your cart in order to receive free shipping. You saved money. You needed to spend that extra ten dollars because you now saved on shipping.
Whenever you pay for something with cash, it’s free. Cash is not real because it did not come out of your bank account. Now, if you come to checkout with a total of sixty dollars but pay forty dollars in cash, you only spent twenty dollars.
“If you’re using cash it’s free, but if you use your card, it comes from your account that has actual numbers. There’s no trace on cash,” said Reese Lipscomb ‘24.
If you don’t spend any money today, your budget for tomorrow doubles. You saved money for that day. Also, if you only put twenty dollars of gas in your gas tank today, you save money for when you go to fill up your gas tank tomorrow or the next day.
Let’s say you buy something for twenty dollars, and you wear/use it twenty times. It’s basically a dollar for those twenty wears/uses, but after those twenty uses, it’s free.
If you spend money before the day you get paid, you don’t lose any money. The money appears back in your bank account the next day. It’s like it never left.
Let’s say you spend one hundred dollars while shopping and receive a ten dollar reward. You made money. You profited off the purchase you just made so your next round of shopping is free.
You’re having a little girl night with your friends and you buy all the food. Later, all of your friends venmo/pay you back their portion of the food. You made money.
“If I pay for my friend’s food one night, but the next night she pays for mine, it was all free,” said Vienna Horvath ‘25.
These are only a couple examples of the complexity of ‘girl math.’ If you don’t get it, try shopping with a girl who does and you’ll learn so much more.
Hopefully you have a grasp on ‘girl math’ by now. Women might spend a lot of money, but their reasons are arguably true and make sense. ‘Girl math’ is a simple way for girls to make sense of their purchases and ultimately have more fun. #girlsjustwannahavefun
