Meaning
Spending money on impulse purchases as a way of coping with anxiety about the economy, politics, or the state of the world, instead of saving or paying down debt. Informal journalistic term used mainly in personal-finance coverage and online discussion, typically about younger consumers. Informal, mildly self-deprecating buzzword that usually signals concern about financial health. Regional use: General English; strongest in US personal-finance media and online discussion.
Origin
The expression circulated on social media first, and no single coiner is documented. It broke into wide use through a November 2023 survey by Intuit Credit Karma, which reported that 27 percent of Americans were spending on non-essentials to cope with stress and that roughly a third had taken on more debt in the previous six months; press coverage of that survey spread the phrase widely, and tech.co retraced this history in August 2024. CNBC reported a matching 27 percent figure around the November 2024 US election, showing the term settling into routine personal-finance vocabulary. Credit Karma is therefore best credited with popularising and quantifying the behaviour rather than coining the phrase, and the exact first social-media use is unknown.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- doom spend
Usage Examples
- After another week of grim headlines she did some doom spending on trainers she did not need.
- His doom spending spikes whenever the news gets stressful, so he deleted the shopping apps from his phone.
- The report found that doom spending is most common among Gen Z and millennial households.