Can 'loud budgeting' save you money?

A new money-saving trend has caught the attention of the younger TikTok generation: loud budgeting.

While there are plenty of savings challenges to help people budget and put money aside, some people are choosing to chart their own path.

A new "viral TikTok trend" called loud budgeting has become popular among Generation Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 – who don't want to be called stingy for "not shelling out", explained The Independent.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Instead, added the news website, the social media platform's users are "vocal" about "financial constraints" and prioritising their savings goals.

The trend is "taking the world by storm", said the Daily Express, with more than five million TikTok views and a 1,714% rise in Google searches in January.

What is loud budgeting?

It all started, said BuzzFeed, with TikTokker Lukas Battle, who proclaimed earlier this year that quiet luxury – "wearing luxurious well-fitted basics with not a logo in sight" – is out, and loud budgeting is in.

Loud budgeting is the “latest personal finance trend" to go viral on TikTok, explained Bloomberg. 

It is the "antidote to quiet luxury", said The Guardian, and a "wholesale rejection of aspirational consumerism" by openly embracing thriftiness.

The trend is "less about deprivation", added BuzzFeed, and more about "deciding what's actually important to you" when it comes to your spending and then shouting about it.

"It's about what I don't want to spend and the everyday person", explained Battle to VoucherCodes. "Put that dollar in your pocket. Choose a stock that is going to rocket".

The idea is to "proudly own your money consciousness", said HuffPost, so you may say no to going to dinner as you are prioritising paying off credit card bills or saving for a mortgage.

However, it also helps if you are rich as those embracing the trend include people who shout about having money, said The Irish Sun, "and the frugal things they do so they don't have to spend it".

Is loud budgeting an effective saving strategy?

Loud budgeting and living within your means "isn't new", explained VoucherCodes, but as Gen Z is "projected to be the world's largest consumer group", they are pretty influential.

It may be "irritating when young people adopt an ancient practice (i.e. parsimony), give it a new name and pretend they invented it", said Polly Vernon in The Times, but it is "embarrassing" not to be a loud budgeter in these "cash-strapped times".

Battle's videos have been viewed millions of times and many already seem "fully on board" with the concept, said Metro.

Rachel Kerrone, a family finance expert at Starling Bank, told the news website that "financial honesty is not only good for your bank balance but your health".

"From sleeping better to more honest friendships to stronger mental health, so many good things can come from talking more openly about your money," she added.

Getting rid of the "shame and stigma" associated with debt and budgeting could help you live a more "financially healthy lifestyle", budgeting expert Andrea Woroch told HuffPost. 

But with this trend, it is important to not be "all talk" and to actually take action to improve your finances with a detailed plan.