{"id":72,"date":"2023-12-11T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/consumerism-is-exhausting-choresumption\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T20:31:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T20:31:22","slug":"consumerism-is-exhausting-choresumption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/consumerism-is-exhausting-choresumption\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumerism is Exhausting: The \u201cChoresumption\u201d Phenomenon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

There\u2019s something stressful about consumption. <\/p>\n

It demands forethought, analysis\u2014but it\u2019s so often disguised as entertainment (#TargetRun! Women be shoppin\u2019, amirite?) that we forget how much effort it takes. <\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, I was reminded of the year\u2019s most acute variant of this feeling: \u201cWhat\u2019s on your list for Black Friday?\u201d The question prompts a tailspin of materialist self-inquiry.<\/p>\n

I scan my privileged life for \u201clack\u201d like a heat-seeking missile, searching for some inadequacy that could be improved by a \u201c20% off\u201d purchase. \u201cWell, my AirPods battery is crapping out,\u201d I think, grasping at technological straws; \u201cMaybe I could upgrade those?\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
>
\n \u201c<\/span>Black Friday [is] now an event for purchasing the on-sale version of whatever practical items you\u2019ve accumulated on a list all year long.\u201d<\/span>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

This commercial holiday was no doubt invented so people could stock up on gifts for the actual<\/em> holidays, but at some point, Black Friday morphed into something else: It\u2019s now an event for purchasing the on-sale version<\/em> of whatever practical items you\u2019ve accumulated on a list all year long. (Never mind the fact that many of these \u201cdeals\u201d are fake<\/span><\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Unleashing your pent-up desire in one discounted frenzy, the sense is that you better<\/em> not miss your chance to upgrade your kitchen knives or replace your comforter, because Lord only knows the next time the \u201csale\u201d will be this good. A frenetic online treasure hunt ensues. <\/p>\n

Competing bargains (or, more accurately, regular prices masquerading as bargains) parade through your browser\u2014in inboxes, in popups, in your algorithmically brilliant social feeds. Tabs mushroom across the top of your screen; you become disoriented. Wait, where did the parka go? Didn\u2019t I <\/em>just have the parka pulled up? What color? Oh, that reminds me, I needed to order new gloves\u2026but what material? Hm. <\/em>More tabs!<\/p>\n

It reminds me of a scene<\/a> in Stuart Little 2 that\u2014because of the snort-laughs it elicited from my mom and dad in the theater\u2014was embedded in my 2nd grade memory. \u201cI still feel bloated,\u201d Snowball the Cat complains aloud. He approaches his bowl and concludes: \u201cMaybe more food will help.\u201d This encapsulates my confusing, dopaminergic relationship with consumerism.<\/p>\n

Our material desires do not sprout from spontaneous generation. Lists upon lists proliferate online with \u201cideas\u201d for what to purchase; guides to the retail tsunami disguised as fun for the whole family. You don\u2019t know what you want?<\/em> they seem to say. Here, let us help!<\/em> <\/p>\n

We may be navigating a challenging economic landscape, but our consumption habits for the things we don\u2019t<\/em> need sure aren\u2019t helping. Take our relationship with what we wear, for example: Americans today reportedly own five times as much clothing<\/span><\/a> as they did in the 1980s (never mind the fact that the remote workers among us leave the comfort of our homes as little as possible). This is due, perhaps in part, to the social contagion of online trends, with turnover rates higher than the underpaid wage laborers<\/span><\/a> employed to supply them. It\u2019s estimated that influencers sold $3.6 billion<\/span><\/a> of product through LikeToKnowIt (or LTK) in 2022, a platform used to monetize recommendations. According to a 2020 Princeton review<\/span><\/a>, the fashion industry consumes one-tenth of all water used industrially, and 57% of discarded clothes end up in landfills. <\/p>\n

And while I\u2019m often irritated at the suggestion that individual consumers are to blame for the amount of waste involved, it\u2019s hard to deny the economic reality: The more we buy, the more they\u2019ll produce. \u201cYes, individual choices matter,\u201d Jag Bhalla and Eliza Barclay wrote for Vox<\/span><\/a>, \u201cespecially if you\u2019re affluent.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
>
\n \u201c<\/span>It\u2019s a part-time job we\u2019re paying to perform. Forget about consumption\u2014it\u2019s choresumption.\u201d<\/span>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

I know, I know\u2014Stop lecturing me about climate change, Katie, can\u2019t you see I\u2019m tired? Let me enjoy adding another pair of fleece-lined leggings to cart in peace!<\/em> <\/p>\n

And hey, I don\u2019t mean to rag on the post-Thanksgiving tradition of mowing down your fellow woman for the last pair of size 6 joggers. My point is merely that disengaging with consumption culture isn\u2019t something we should do out of pure altruism, but because it\u2019s not actually fun<\/em>. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a part-time job we pay to perform. Forget about consumption\u2014it\u2019s choresumption.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

In that sense, a worldview of ascetic frugality feels like a hall pass from this chaos. A sale on stuff you don\u2019t need anyway is no longer cause for interrupting your day. This, I think, was my favorite thing about my initial embrace of the FI\/RE mindset: There\u2019s quite a bit of marketplace noise that goes serenely quiet when you want nothing. You\u2019re liberated from the time-consuming commitment to constantly scour the marketplace for something that might make your life better (and, by extension, to find it as cheaply as possible). <\/p>\n

On the opposite side of the spectrum, finding yourself in a position of financial strength where you don\u2019t<\/em> feel compelled to shop sales\u2014instead buying the few things you need, when you need them, and moving on\u2014is similarly peaceful. It\u2019s just a happy coincidence that embracing the former philosophy often fuels your ascension to the latter.<\/p>\n

But the pull of this messy middle, this frantic consumption for sport\u2014where the thrill of getting 10% off a KitchenAid obfuscates the fact that you didn\u2019t need a KitchenAid\u2014feels especially bleak and miserable this year. A sale is, after all, still someone trying to sell you something.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
>
\n \u201c<\/span>There\u2019s quite a bit of marketplace noise that goes serenely quiet when you want nothing.\u201d<\/span>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

It\u2019s a sleight of hand\u2014save money by spending it!\u2014that feels so cheap, so degrading. Ultimately, it adds another \u201cto-do\u201d to an already-unmanageable list. \u201cI hate shopping,\u201d my husband said from across the room during the Cyber Weekend marketing blitz, staring dejectedly at his laptop, \u201cI never know what to buy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The implanted assumption that we should<\/em> be buying things bequeaths us with another problem to solve: You now must figure out what<\/em>. <\/p>\n

But hey, if you must<\/em> buy something, I have a suggestion<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s something stressful about consumption. It demands forethought, analysis\u2014but it\u2019s so often disguised as entertainment (#TargetRun! Women be shoppin\u2019, amirite?) that we forget how much effort it takes.  A few weeks ago, I was reminded of the year\u2019s most acute variant of this feeling: \u201cWhat\u2019s on your list for Black Friday?\u201d The question prompts a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178814,"featured_media":2452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"si-template-single-post-everyday-spending-and-budgeting.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spending-and-saving","tag-everyday-spending-and-budgeting"],"yoast_head":"\nConsumerism is Exhausting: The \u201cChoresumption\u201d Phenomenon - Money with Katie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/consumerism-is-exhausting-choresumption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Consumerism is Exhausting: The \u201cChoresumption\u201d Phenomenon - Money with Katie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There\u2019s something stressful about consumption. 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