Samantha Boyes’ favourite item is her Chanel purse. It cost her £5,500.
It’s not the only piece of fashionable clothing she has. Her closet still has a pair of gleaming Jimmy Choo heels with bejewelled straps. Delicate Dior jewellery in pure white boxes, accented with gold, lies on her dressing table.
‘My mother was a shopaholic, and she passed on the gene to me,’ she says.
Samantha recalls having roughly £20,000 worth of branded things in her home at one time. Samantha had a wardrobe that even the most glitzy members of the glitterati would envy, but in fact, she couldn’t afford a train ticket.
Samantha’s lavish spending habits are not unique. According to a new poll, people aged 16 to 34 are addicted to buying luxury products, to the point that they may risk financial ruin to satisfy their want for drip.
According to the report, 62 percent of 16 to 34-year-olds had spent money on designer items in the previous six months, even if they couldn’t afford it: 46% of 16-34-year-olds are in debt because they bought expensive products.
More than one in every five 16 to 34-year-olds are taking out credit or using purchase now pay later programmes monthly to buy items, with more than 10% in debt of more over £1000.
The societal preoccupation with seeming affluent without having the money balance to back it up is examined in the new Channel 4 documentary Addicted to Drip: Untold, with David ‘Sideman’ Whitely delving deep to discover what fuels our demand for drip.
Claro Wellbeing’s financial manager Stacey Lowman describes the situation as “concerning.”
‘I was stunned to learn that this age group just has little to no savings at all, but were leveraging debt of £1000 plus,’ she says.
‘I want to stress that I don’t think it’s the fault of the individual. It’s human nature to want to fit in. In that age bracket, we’re still trying to find our identity and find our tribe. Part of that may be looking a certain way, living a certain lifestyle. That’s human nature.’
Stacey also mentions the grim financial picture, which may be why people prefer to spend their money on more enjoyable, frivolous products.
‘Your rent is through the roof, the cost of living is soaring,’ she explains. ‘Investment markets are volatile and risky, savings interest is low relative to inflation, the jobs market is really competitive and your salary is not going to keep up with the cost of living.
‘It’s little wonder that young people are looking around and thinking, “What’s the point?” You’re fighting a losing battle even if you’re only spending money on the right things.
‘Then you look at this drip culture, which suggest you can still live that luxury lifestyle or be seen to be living that lifestyle, faking it until you make it. People are always going to buy into hope when other things seem hopeless.’
Samantha’s spending was the result of a very hurtful, emotional loss that left a large hole in her heart. Losing her mother, grandmother, and aunt in a matter of years left her feeling hollow, and she sought solace in shopping.
She squandered her inheritance, which she estimates to be between £50,000 and £100,000, in just over 18 months, with the great majority going on expensive clothing.
‘I lost control,’ Samantha reflects. ‘I was so mentally distraught and lost and anxious, I just didn’t care.’
‘If buying this one thing is going to give me some sort of joy in a really sad time, I’m just going to do it. I was trying to fill some kind of void.’
Buying frivolous stuff has a psychological influence on the customer, with the dopamine rush leading to an obsessive ‘treat brain’ mindset – always seeing us buying something to brighten us up.
‘When we buy something that we want, it gives us pleasure, therefore the brain releases those neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, also known as our pleasure and happiness hormones,’ clinical hypnotherapist and psychotherapist Jacqueline Carson explains. ‘It is said that this lights up the reward centre in the brain, however, what really happens is that the neurotransmitters spread around various parts of the brain including deep into the cerebral hemisphere.
‘When these transmitters are released together, the euphoric and pleasurable sensations are remembered by the brain and recorded as a reward for the action. The brain would like to experience this pleasure again so it notes that the action which caused those feelings should be repeated.
‘Our brain then becomes conditioned as it learns to recreate those feelings and sensations of euphoria and pleasure by making us crave the very thing that brings us those feelings.’
However, Jacqueline points out that there is a distinction between a shopping addiction and a compulsive spender.
‘People who are addicted to shopping will often buy things they don’t even need,’ she says. ‘However, some people are compelled to buy all of the latest fashions. These people are not necessarily addicted to shopping but may have other underlying issues related to their self-esteem. This type of shopping can be attributed to emotional reward, which also releases feelings of pleasure.
Young people are fighting a losing battle even if you’re only spending money on the right things
‘Such purchases help this person to feel more confident, to look good or to even attract attention to themselves, seeking approval from others. This almost always comes from a place of not feeling good enough, needing to prove oneself to others, almost like a validation or acceptance.’
Stacey further contends that a large purchase in the current economic situation is virtually a middle finger to the worries and conflicts that have limited our bank account.
‘It’s almost like a rebellious act,’ she says. ‘It’s often that feeling of resentment can trigger those financial behaviours. When young people are being faced with crazy rent, unfair landlords, bills going up, all this stuff, people are going to think, what’s the point? I need some way and some outlet to enjoy myself.’
The pandemic’s impact, as well as our growing dependency on social media, may have heightened the need for drip among people aged 16 to 34.
‘They weren’t able to spend money going out socialising, but people could still connect over social media,’ Stacey argues. ‘A lot of this drip culture plays out on their phone. It’s something you can splurge on whilst they’re sat at home. And it does give you a physiological impact. While you couldn’t go out and feel good because you’re socialising with mates, you can get that dopamine hit via looking on social media, making a few clicks and something is on your doorstep the next day.’
A lack of financial awareness, as well as the convenience of purchase now, pay later systems like Klarna, may be exacerbating our bank balance woes.
The Financial Capability Survey found nearly 2/5 UK adults don’t feel confident in managing their money, with nearly 11.5 million of us having less than £100 in savings. Meanwhile, nearly nine million of us are in serious debt.
‘So many young people are unaware that buy now, pay later is a form of debt,’ Stacey says. ‘They might think it’s a different way to buy an item, but that is debt and you are now a debt product. Information on what buy now pay later is, and then education on potential charges, interest pay, late charge fees, and the impact of not being able to keep up with your payments needs to be taught. For example, buy now pay later schemes are sharing their information with credit agencies so it ca now impact your credit score. Buy now pay later schemes need to take responsibility in educating vulnerable people using their products to truly understand what they’re getting in to.’
Fortunately, the ease of access to purchase now, pay later options is about to change. New guidelines from the Financial Credit Authority go into effect at the end of July, requiring purchase now pay later plans and credit card firms to identify and verify users have a thorough knowledge of credit before taking it out.
Things might appear dismal for young individuals who are on the verge of financial catastrophe. According to the London Institute of Banking and Finance, 81% of young people in the UK are worried about money.
Stacey, on the other hand, wants to reassure folks who are unsure about how to get out of debt that there is support and counsel available.
‘Organisations like Stepchange and National Debt Line can provide free, confidential advice on how to manage debt,’ she explains. ‘There’s behavioural measures people can take, too. It’s best to remove temptation, unfollowing profiles, stopping advertising on your shared social media feed, unsubscribing from newsletters which ask you for money.
‘We need to be more transparent with friends about what we present on social media really costs us. Having accountability buddies, where you can support each other is always a positive thing.
‘And it’s really important that we educate ourselves. There are so many personal finance profiles and influencers who can be out there to help teach us on the importance of financial resilience.’
A quick scroll at anyone’s Instagram account demonstrates that drip culture and the desire for luxury items aren’t going away anytime soon. With this in mind, Stacey contends that our whole attitude towards finance, as well as the true cost of our lives, need a dramatic shift.
‘We have a really flippant attitude towards money in the UK,’ she explains. ‘We’re coy about finance and our language about our purchasing power – referring to having “retail therapy” – needs to be challenged and discussed more openly. We only tend to learn about financial resilience by learning about it the hard way.
‘The pandemic saw many of us take a step back and consider what found important and what we valued. As individuals, we need to tap back into that. We need to think about what it is that really matters, what it is we really value, and set some financial goals and what you want to achieve in the future.
‘We really need to start weighing up the short-term instant gratification we get from drip culture and putting it against what we may really want for ourselves long-term.’
Samantha, who has now recovered from her excessive spending, has adopted a much healthier mindset.
‘It was obscene and ridiculous,’ she recalls. ‘But I had to make my own mistakes.
‘I’ve learned to be much more sensible. If I had that money again, I’d still allow myself a third to go wild with, but I’d put the rest with a professional finance manager.
‘I still think of the money I blew every single day. It’s like torture.’
Addicted to Drip: Untold is available on All4
Source My Celebrity Life.