As women, a very predominant part of girlhood is shopping and spending money. It may sound like a stereotype, but be honest: we love to spend money on pretty things that we don’t always necessarily need. A somewhat trendy topic recently on the social media platform, TikTok, has been the concept of “girl math.” You either believe in it or you don’t. Personally, I take the girl math theory VERY seriously. The final outcome could very possibly be that I am now broke, but some of these theories make sense.
Under $5 theory
When shopping for anything, whether it’s clothes on SHEIN or dorm stuff from Target, this theory works anywhere. It’s good to be smart about what you spend your hard earnings on, but if you pick up/see an item that you may want and it happens to be under $5, then sweetheart, it’s your lucky day. IT’S FREE!!! Don’t get me wrong, I understand that every penny you save counts, but if you see a cute going-out top that’s $3.49 and you’re running out of shirts to wear on the weekend, just buy it.
venmo transfer theory
Let me put it into a hypothetical perspective for you: Suzy and Gemma decide they want to grab lunch at Panera Bread. They thought that instead of making their waitress split the check, Suzy would just use her card to pay for it and Gemma can just Venmo Suzy her share of the bill. Suzy forgets that this money is in her Venmo account and a week later, she realizes that she has $22 to transfer into her account. That $22 (you guessed it) is free money. Since it never reached her account until now, the money was practically gifted to her and now she has a free $22 to spend as she pleases. Plain and simple.
pocket cash theory
This one doesn’t really need much explanation besides the fact that if you have cash on hand, it’s free. The downside to this theory is if you got that cash from an ATM and immediately spent it, then unfortunately, that is not free. But if you find an old wallet in your junk drawer and find some cash, you just found free money.
shopping at multiple stores theory
If you go to the mall with some friends and buy $120 worth of clothes at Garage, but walk into American Eagle and PacSun and don’t purchase a single thing, you’re actually saving money. Although you spent a hefty amount in one place, you refrained from spending any more money in another store, so you made smart decisions with your money that day.
return theory
When purchasing items, especially online, they can sometimes come to you faulty or just not fit, in terms of clothing. If you return that item within the allotted time frame, you almost always get your money back. That money just so happens to be free. You’re actually making money from returning that item, so now, it’s yours to spend as you wish.