UK Edition
If you buy something and use it all the time, it is basically free. If it costs less than £5, it is free. If you spend money on the gym and therefore do not need therapy, your workout is saving you money. If you buy Taylor Swift tickets a year in advance, by the time you get to the concert, they are free.
These are some of the basic tenets of “Girl Math” (or “Girl Maths” for those of us who speak the King’s English), a new online trend that has gripped the TikTok pages of British women in their 20s.
Girl Maths sees young women explain away extra spending with a series of logical missteps designed to justify expensive and often irrational decisions.
This can include such calculations as spending £4.50 on a coffee because you did not spend £3 on a bus, and buying a £500 hairdryer on the basis it saves you the £30 blowout you get twice a year.
Or if you spend hundreds of pounds on a new dress or handbag, but divide it by the number of times you will use it, then “it’s basically free”.
While consumers, male and female, young and old, have long used complicated explanations to justify purchases they can’t quite afford, Girl Maths takes things one step further.
The term originated from a morning show on New Zealand radio station FVHZM, where presenters Hayley, Fletch and Vaughan use questionable Googling and assumptions to explain away thousands of dollars worth of spending.
But is the entertaining online trend harmless, or a symptom of misguided financial management?
One young professional, Chloe, said she convinces herself that if she spends on tickets or clothes that she then returns for a refund, the money she gets back is “basically free money”.
“I then convince myself that that money is basically free money and I can spend it how I like (this is why I have no money).
“Or if I WFH then I use my ‘tube budget’ and go to a restaurant or treat myself to breakfast.”
But she said she knew that the mental gymnastics was “toxic”.
Personal stylist Sandy Lancaster said she recommends that her clients employ a form of Girl Maths when buying clothes, in order to encourage them to buy better quality.
“It sounds very flippant and very demeaning, but at the heart of it is a way of making serious decisions,” she said.
“Rather than buying more things, buy fewer things but buy better. Use the Girl Maths for that.”
Consultant Esme Robinson, 23, said she enjoys the latest trend and that she thinks Girl Maths, alongside Girl Dinner, is a reclamation of the ways in which women are infantilised.
“I personally love the ‘but I’m just a girl’ trend right now, I think feminism online has reached a pretty nice self-aware ironic phase.”
But she is worried that it will reinforce the message that women aren’t good at maths, especially as many students suffer from “maths anxiety”.
“Embracing that term kind of gives me the impression we are okay just accepting we ‘aren’t good at maths’ because we are women, when it’s a socialised issue more often than not.”
Experts warn that those taking Girl Maths seriously could be putting themselves at risk of debt and financial difficulties.
Rosie Hooper, chartered financial planner at Quilter, said while the “light-hearted” trend was fun, it is crucial that consumers understand the full impact of their purchases.
She said: “While dividing the cost by wear-time offers a new perspective, it shouldn’t replace prudent financial habits.
“Relying solely on this method could potentially lead individuals into financial pitfalls, especially if they overlook the actual costs and potential debts incurred from impulse buying.”
Carla Morris, financial planner at wealth manager RBC Brewin Dolphin, said she would rather refer to it as “Deluded Maths” than “Girl Maths”.
She said: “Whilst it’s easy to dismiss this trend as nonsense, in reality people’s attitudes to spending do differ. We are not machines. We are emotional human beings and that reflects in our attitudes to spending. But I don’t think it differs by gender. I would prefer to call this ‘Deluded Maths’.
“For example, a male friend said to me the other day ‘I’ve just saved £5 by switching supermarket’, before going out and spending £100 on a night out saying, ‘that’s different, that’s my beer money’.”
But the adviser said that the trend did offer some valuable insights, adding: “There are good points that could be taken from this. If you want to choose skipping your daily coffee to make money, that’s great, but what are you going to with that?
“If you’re saving or investing it, that is a good outcome. But you need to have a handle on your income and outgoings to know if you should be buying any coffees when out.”