Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at SBU chapter.

*Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor nor do I advise you to take any of this advice seriously* 

‘Girl math’ is a term that is used when girls do certain things that just make sense. This is mainly when it comes to using money but can also be used in other parts of daily life. Girl math has been a major trend over social media and Tik Tok and now everyone is aware of this sort of thinking. 

Buying concert tickets in advance 

When it comes to buying concert tickets, most people prefer to buy them in advance. This may be because of availability of tickets or wanting to be able to pick a good seat. In a girl’s mind we think that if for example the concert is in December, and we buy the tickets in July then by time the concert is here the tickets are basically free. 

Using cash instead of card 

When making any transaction, you have the option to use cash or card. Card is nice for those who don’t prefer to carry cash on them, but some people prefer to use cash because they don’t want access to all the money that they have on their card. If we use cash when purchasing an item it is basically free because as some would say, “cash is not real”.

Purchasing something using a split transaction 

If I go to Old Navy and I am cashing out the total comes to $40, I decide to use my $20 of cash that I have on me and then put the remaining $20 on my Old Navy store credit card. In my head I know that I still spent $40 but actually I only spent $20. This may sound confusing if you’re not familiar with this but honestly it just makes sense. 

Spending the extra money to get free shipping 

Many online websites offer you a way to be eligible for “free shipping” when you go to proceed to the payment. Usually you would see an option that would say something similar to “spend an extra $10 to earn free shipping”. Depending on the person you may either be interested or not interested in this. If you’re interested and you select an item that makes your order eligible for free shipping, you may be thinking that basically you just saved yourself an extra $10. We all know that you actually just spent more money that you initially had to but we are so distracted by the delusion that our shipping would be “free” that it creates this mindset that we just saved whatever amount the shipping had originally cost.

Using a credit card to pay another bill 

I swear I can explain this one. Let’s say you have two upcoming bills that are due to be paid off this week. One is your credit card bill and the second one is your cell phone bill. You decide to pay your credit card bill first and then use your paid off credit card to then pay your cell phone bill. Basically you are kinda paying 1 big bill in the end because the cost of your cell phone bill is just being added onto your next credit card bill.

“If I don’t spend anything today I’ve doubled my budget for tomorrow” 

This one is pretty straight forward I mean hey if we don’t spend any unnecessary money tomorrow I have some extra money to spend tomorrow or whatever I may need.

Returning items actually make us money 

I am 99% sure that we have all thought this before. Sometimes we tend to buy items that either we need to return because they were the wrong item or maybe just the wrong size. Normally we would return the incorrect item and exchange it for the correct item. In some cases we might just return things and just get the money back instead. In our minds we might be thinking that this is gaining us money because we now have the amount back that we just spent the other day. 

Amanda Ippolito is a member of the St. Bonaventure Her Campus chapter. She is responsible for writing at least one article each week. Amanda was a even a part of the printed magazine of HC at SBU. She is very excited to see what this year will bring and to continue sharing her writing! Amanda is a current junior studying early/childhood education, with hopes of becoming an elementary school teacher. Along with Her Campus she is also involved with the SBU Dance Team, Student Government Association, College Democrats, and The Bonaventure Education Association. During her free time Amanda loves to go thrifting, attend concerts, cook, and go on walks with her dog Bella. In any of her playlists you are guaranteed to find some songs by Fleetwood Mac, Drake, and even Deftones. A fun fact about Amanda is that she will put hot sauce on basically anything.