Doom spending
Etymology
A term that spread in 2024, coined on the model of "doomscrolling" by joining doom to spending. Both describe self-soothing behaviors driven by a bleak outlook, one aimed at the feed and the other at the wallet.
noun · /DOOM SPEN-ding/
Spending money impulsively out of anxiety or fatalism about the future.
What it names
It names buying as a response to dread — when the economy, the climate, or one’s prospects feel so hopeless that saving seems pointless and small purchases offer momentary relief. It captures the logic of "why bother saving for a future I don’t believe in."
Example
Another grim headline, another cart full of things I don’t need — classic doom spending.
Related idea
The financial sibling of doomscrolling: one compulsively consumes bad news, the other compulsively spends in reaction to it.