So the internet doesn't want to flaunt its extravaganza anymore?
Enter loud budgeting.
We've all heard about quiet luxury. But TikTok is so over it; it's bringing back "savings".
And that's the new (and viral) TikTok trend: loud budgeting, where people now endorse saving up and not splurging.
How did this trend start?
Lukas Battle, a writer and creator with 618.7K followers on TikTok, recently shared a video saying: loud budgeting is a new concept I'm introducing for 2024, and it's the opposite of quiet luxury.
"It's not I don't have enough; it's I don't want to spend," Lukas stated while comparing it with sneaking candy into movie theatres. This TikTok video fetched more than 1.5M views — but that's not it; many TikTok users and influencers have started talking about minimising expenses.
What Lukas might not have imagined when he posted this (kinda satirical) TikTok is how viral it would become, setting a tone for 2024.
Is everything expensive today?
Of course!
The rising expenses and trends such as girl math and quiet luxury have fueled the spending economy more than ever.
I also look at loud budgeting as an extension of the de-influencing culture we've been witnessing — particularly in 2022 and 2023. Thousands of influencers have been creating videos to de-influence and debunk viral (and expensive) products. Offering their community more affordable alternatives has helped these influencers gain more trust as the economy isn't entirely rosy.
"Nearly a quarter (22%) of consumers have engaged with de-influencer content since the beginning of the cost-of-living crisis." — Influencer Marketing Hub
No wonder we see millions of views on de-influencing content on TikTok, which also brings up "The Dupe Culture". Beauty influencers have been vocal about overrated and overhyped products while discussing dupes excessively. From Dior to YSL, dupes are everywhere — and these influencers will tell you where to look for them.
Loud budgeting is about not spending on anything, not even on affordable alternatives or dupes.
It's got a lot to do with financial transparency — especially with ourselves. In one TikTok, I saw a creator saying, "You can still do dinners and have fun with your friends. Just swap your fancy dinners with a potluck at home."
Thousands of videos discuss this culture, offering practical tips and apps to track and reduce expenses.
Financial transparency with your friends is something you don't have to be embarrassed about.
What's important to note is that loud budgeting has brought back the conversations around savings, impulsive shopping, and emergency funds.
Bankrate's Annual Emergency Savings Report (2024) says, "Only 44 per cent of U.S. adults say they would pay an emergency expense of $1,000 or more from their savings. Without savings to fall back on, 35 per cent of people say they would borrow to pay a $1,000 unexpected expense, either by financing with a credit card and paying it off over time, taking a personal loan or turning to friends or family."
Read the entire report here.
What does this mean for brands?
Will we shop a lot less now?
I mean, Gen Z has set the tone: loud budgeting is in and quiet luxury is out in 2024.
Brands will likely have to try harder. I'm not talking about marketing alone but also their product formulations, design, collaborations — pretty much everything.
So only time will tell whether we'll budget loud (and proud) or if it's a dying trend.
Till then, bye-bye, impulsive purchases! (I guess?)