In the year 2023, “girl math” has become a trend on social media, as it expands the way girls think about the spending process. According to CBS News, “girl math” is a new personal finance TikTok trend that has people thinking more humorously about spending money.
Freshman Mabel Wall said an example of “girl math” is using cash because she sees it as free because it’s not coming out of her bank account. Wall uses “girl math” in less conventional ways as well.
“If you text somebody and … they leave you on delivered for … two hours and then they text you back, … then you text them back in 20 minutes because [they left you on delivered for two hours].”
Wall believes if they leave you on delivered for three hours, then you text them back in 30 minutes. The minutes it takes you to reply correlates with the hours you were left on delivered.
“They don’t deserve a fast response if they didn’t give a fast response,” Wall said.
Wall said “girl math” is sometimes useful because it just makes sense to her. She uses “girl math” a lot when it comes to her texting method and when shopping.
“If you go shopping with $20, and you don’t buy anything, … the next time you go shopping [you can spend] 40 [dollars] because you didn’t spend anything the first time,” Wall said.
Sophomore Alyssa Killian uses “girl math” when she is buying something with cash.
“[‘Girl math’] is when I have cash and I use it, it doesn’t count … It only counts if it’s on the card and if I see it go away,” Alyssa Killian said.
Killian believes that the “girl math” trend came from TikTok.
“[I think “girl math” is useful], it makes me think it’s useful,” Killian said.
Junior Iris Whitlock said “girl math” is her reasoning for making bad decisions, which is normally spending money.
“If I see something that I’ve been meaning to buy that is 35% off or more, then I’d be losing money by not buying it because I was probably going to buy it eventually … for full price,” Whitlock said.
Whitlock says some of her friends buy Starbucks three times a week which is around $20, so if she buys a $2 Sonic Dr. Pepper every day for lunch, it’s not that bad. Whitlock said “girl math” is a useful and reasonable concept depending on the person, how much you use it, and how much you are spending.
“You just can’t take it too seriously,” Whitlock said. “Use ‘girl math’ to buy a Starbucks drink after a long day, not to buy $300 [worth] of clothes.”
Sophomore LaChelle Ragsdale gave her example of “girl math” through a survey that was sent out to the student body.
“If I eat a bunch of junk food and [then] eat a couple of carrots after, it cancels out,” Ragsdale said.