Sunday 14 June 2009

Girlynomics Part un



Why Girlynomics? What is Girlynomics?

Girlynomics is a mindset. It is a mindset that determines spending patterns and it belongs almost exclusively to women. It is how women justify their spending.

In simple terms this translates to by foregoing on a few items to get one biggie. It is the redistribution of personal income and the formula is simply expressed as 3x =y.
Where x = 3 bottles of pinot grigio and y = a chilled bottle of champagne.
(Cava doesn’t count). The formula is metaphysical, the thought process mentally calculates what could have been bought, what wasn’t and what can be bought instead. The values are approximates and not fixed, this dispenses with any requirement for a calculator enabling abstract ‘rounding up’.

It is the women who goes to the library and saves £13.98 on buying two books for her holiday. Feeling smug having managed to snag two holiday books for free she falls into a girlynomics trap. What is a girlynomics trap - well it's that rationale that defies the considered economic minds such as John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman.
It's the place in your mind that considers the wonderful savings made and instead of a good old pat on the back, a light comes on that gives you permission to spend said savings.

The mind freed of the cost of paying for two books happens to pop into TK Maxx and just happens to perchance upon a Vera Wang navy blue dress and just happens to purchase said item for £16.99.

Given the said person in question also walked to the library saving a further £2.20 in bus tickets, in girlynomics world the dress actually cost 81p - bargain!
Girlynomics is about redistributing personal wealth. It also factors in unit cost per wear. Unit cost per wear is a useful element of girlynomics when you need to make a serious purchase. Taking the price of the item and dividing it by the number of days you will use it gives you the daily cost per wear amount. A £575.00 handbag used for 5 days a week over twelve months actually cost £2.21 per day. (575 divided by 52 (£11.05) then divided by 5 =£2.21)

Even though the economy is experiencing a shift and potentially a downturn, the sale of handbags is up. Truly, girl power will save us all. If the girls keep buying, people will still be in work in the UK and across the globe. Whilst the men folk deal with having less of a disposable income by cutting back on spending – how many Xboxes do you need? The women folk will, on the whole, cut back a bit but not stop. After all there is no answer to how many shoes does a woman need. Girlynomics is a good system to attribute income and expenditure in a different way. In marketing terms, early adopters or hunters are the target group for many a campaign. Typically men are identified as early adopters of technology and new products. Every campaign will try to sang this group to make them spend. Think new tvs, mobile phones, Play Station, Xbox and iPod. Yet quietly with no fuss and stealth, women are consistently early adopters. We are the hunters of the world of new clothes, food, diets; exercise and beauty products. It is no surprise that the success of Wii is due to taping into this economic world of purchasing. MBTs and Fit Flops are great examples of get the product right and women are the perfect model of early adopters. TBC...

14 comments:

  1. This is hysterical! So witty, clever, and TRUE!

    xoxox,
    CC

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  2. Hi there-fabulous post, I like the sound of cost per wear, my Ossie Clark dresses and Chanel bag need to be worn a good few times to get to my normal thrifting levels, LOL!

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  3. It's innate. It's instinct. We're born with it. You've managed to put into exact terms the vagueries we've all been dealing with our whole lives. Does it extend to vacations and cars as well?

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  4. This post was worth the wait - love it!

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  5. hehe! my boyfriend is a master in the art of justifying spending through money saved on other things, except it isn't as rational as what you describe. If he'll save £10 on something, he's got no qualms about going out and spending £40 on something else. It's a tendency I'm doing my best to combat!

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  6. This really would make a terrific book. Great read and very rational, I love the girlynomics ideal!

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  7. SO guilty of that "I saved, so now I may spend" mentality. And have never met a man who's wired like that!

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  8. And, think of how much more energy you would burn if you wore your MBTs to walk to the library and then walk to TJMaxx and by the time you got there you would be skinnier and need even more clothes. Yes, these are the things I make myself believe. That said, the MBTs have not impacted my butt much as they spend a lot of time in my closet.

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  9. Girls will save the world! I love this post.

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  10. Ha ha ha, brilliant post, I nodded my way through it. I love that rationale of dividing the cost per wear - it's so stupid but I'll do it if I have to justify the price of something to myself (or others).

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  11. QUICK, trademark and copyright assap!

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  12. Sister Wolf - have done so already, own the websites the lot!

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  13. Fascinating. Reading this beautifully articulated post, I'm realising that I've been thinking that way all my life, and that rationale/logic has been handed down from my mom (who, like me, is good at math) and no doubt from her mother, and so on.
    The 'but I'll wear it to bits' rationale for spending more on an item - predicting it will be a classic - really does make sense, and I remember doing fractions on my clothing even at school. The one exception was, aged 14, there were a gorgeous pair of suede, lace-up boots in 'the city' (NY, that is) and I, a spoilt suburban teen, was told by my parents that they were too expensive, but they suggested I use my baby sitting money for it. Outraged that I had to part with my hard earned cash for them, I bought them - and then the season ended, they were no longer cool, and I maybe wore them once - if that.

    Fast forward a million years, I marry a Brit, move to the UK, trends shift, and I pull them out of the closet, and have worn them countless times, to great acclaim.

    Sorry for going on - I keep thinking this comment thing will cut me off - but just wanted to say I just stumbled on your blog via StyleBubble (great story about Ms. Hogg, by the way!) & will be adding you to my 'nice things' list. Love your masthead & blog name, too!

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Thank you for commenting, much appreciated. Sorry about no longer offering anonymous comments but spamming had become a very annoying issue. xxx