Underconsumption Emerges as America's Defining Lifestyle Trend Amid Economic Pressures
Intentional spending choices are taking center stage across the United States as underconsumption becomes the word of the year. Tips and tricks for embracing underconsumption, along with its related concepts like anti-consumerism, minimalism, and sustainability, are proliferating rapidly across social media platforms including Reddit threads and TikTok reels.
The Rise of Intentional Buying in a Cost-of-Living Crisis
Thrifted table lamps, a battered water bottle from college, a winter coat that re-emerges every season—these items symbolize America's growing malaise with high inflation and a persistent cost-of-living crisis. Underconsumption, defined as intentionally buying less and making items last as long as possible, represents a significant cultural shift. This growing movement arrives at a crucial time, with a recent survey from career platform Resume Now revealing that 92 percent of Americans cut back their spending in 2025.
While it's challenging to pinpoint exactly when so many people became obsessed with buying and using less, dedicated social media accounts and hashtags like "underconsumption core" and "underconsumption queen" began proliferating in the thousands sometime late in the pandemic. Underconsumption and its cousins—anti-consumerism, minimalism, and sustainability—are catching fire across the internet, with dedicated blogs and Reddit threads attracting substantial followings. One popular thread reportedly draws 700,000 weekly visitors.
This trend may represent a reaction to the explosion in online shopping during lockdown periods, when e-commerce sales grew 41 percent in 2020 according to Census Bureau data. Alternatively, it could be a backlash against influencer culture with its endless streams of matching workout gear, bedazzled Stanley Cups, and dedicated gift wrapping rooms.
"Capitalism wins when we are individualistic, separated and not part of a community," explained underconsumption advocate shelbizlee in a recent TikTok reel. "Think about how many things you use in your home you literally use only once a day, once a week, once a month, once a year, that you could share with your neighbors—but we don't because the solution to our problems has been sold to us as, 'Just go buy it.'"
America's Overflowing Consumption Problem
The United States finds itself awash in "stuff," with recent revelations showing one in ten Americans rents a storage unit. According to shoe brand Kuru, the average American will own 256 pairs of shoes in their lifetime. U.S. consumers collectively buy and discard 400 million tubes of toothpaste annually, while life insurer Ladder found consumers spend $18,000 yearly on unnecessary items.
All these purchases contribute to the 292.4 million tons of waste the Environmental Protection Agency says the U.S. generates each year. This waste consciousness is pushing consumers toward "circular economy" principles—keeping as many products as possible in circulation for as long as possible. Instead of buying and discarding items quickly, products are repeatedly reused, repaired if broken, or recycled.
The concept encourages buying second-hand and utilizing products-as-a-service models, which have exploded in the digital age for everything from expensive baby products to various household items. Some underconsumption devotees have embraced circular principles with their wardrobes, bucking the American tendency to wear clothing 75 percent less often than the rest of the world. It's common to see underconsumption enthusiasts focusing on wearing thrift-store finds and hand-me-downs, while sewing pants, shirts, skirts, and dresses back to life.
For others, underconsumption ties directly to financial goals. According to Nerdwallet, 83 percent of Americans overspend, while the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported U.S. adults carried a combined consumer debt of $18.8 trillion at year's end.
The Psychology Behind Consumption Habits
Understanding why overconsumption occurs is relatively straightforward—the $284 billion U.S. advertising industry is designed to make consumers buy by leveraging human emotions. Targeted advertising, hitting phones, TVs, and laptops while specifically tailored to individual identities and online searches, has accelerated this process, particularly during times of stress or low self-esteem.
"Items branded with self-care or success marketing can help induce the spending of impulse purchases," John Donikian, vice president of mortgage lender Best Interest Financial, explained to The Independent via email.
Practical Steps Toward Underconsumption
So how can individuals jump on the underconsumption train? While the idea seems simple—just buy less—the reality proves more complex according to financial experts.
"It can be hard to go from overconsumption to underconsumption," said Andrew Latham, a certified financial planner and director of content at personal finance site SuperMoney. "For many, overconsumption is also stress relief, a form of reward, a fix for boredom and can be part of their identity. It is often tied to emotional facets and rewards and, as such, is hard to step away from."
Donikian emphasizes that breaking free requires a fundamental shift in thinking: "The first step is to understand your consumption is habitual and not needs-based."
Since emotion- or impulse-driven spending often leads to unnecessary purchases, experts recommend writing down monthly expenditures and considering the frame of mind during each purchase. Do you spend more on groceries when hungry? Do you shop online when frustrated about work or relationships?
Convenience frequently accompanies overconsumption. You might not need a pair of shoes, but if you see an Instagram ad with your credit card linked to the online store, you could end up with them faster than anticipated. Try to identify the underlying feeling that a certain purchase will make you feel more complete.
"Before you buy it, that $3,000 couch can seem like the missing piece that will pull your whole living room—and life—together," Latham noted. "Two weeks after delivery, it's just where you sit."
The Freedom of Living With Less
If you view underconsumption as restrictive, it won't set you up for success. Instead, try to see the process as liberating.
"It sounds like deprivation, but it's not," Latham clarified. "A family that keeps their car payment under $350 instead of stretching for a $60,000 SUV [with $750 monthly payments] isn't suffering. They are freeing up $400 a month for stuff that actually moves the needle for them."
The additional benefits include more space—both mentally and physically.
"The more clutter you have, the lower people report life satisfaction, the greater the stress," explained DePaul University Professor of Psychology Dr. Joseph Ferrari in a February 2023 podcast. "So here we are living in this consumer culture—buy more and more and more... You're actually not living a good, complete life because you'll be less satisfied."
People might be surprised by how little difference they feel in their standard of living, even after stopping hundreds of dollars in monthly spending.
"It's usually pretty easy to save a chunk of cash every month without hurting your quality of life much at all," Latham observed. "I've seen people cut $600 to $800 a month and feel zero difference day to day... The quality of life doesn't suffer because the purchases were never improving it in the first place."
Finding a way to live with less can leave you with substantially more in the long run. Consider Reddit user jackpineseeds, whose underconsumption efforts yielded significant results: "After 7 long years of being in debt I am happy to announce that my wife and I will be paying off $75,000 worth of debt this October," they wrote in a Reddit post three years ago. "Here's to living mindfully and with the purpose of being happy with what we have, and experiencing the beauty around us."
