The XX Factor : spending habits

Ever Wanted To Look Inside Another Woman’s Checkbook?

Noreen Malone — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:15:00 GMT

I sure have. We all know how we're supposed to apportion our budget (10 percent into savings, no more than 30 percent towards housing, etc.), but how many of us really stick to that? And when we veer off course, what are the sirens pulling us away? I...(read more)

Hormonal Shopping

Emily Yoffe — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:28:00 GMT

Meghan , Dayo , Dahlia , the study that purports to show that when women are premenstrual they tend to spend more impulsively sounds like so many of the other specious findings of evolutionary psychology about how women behave during different phases...(read more)

Rx Retail Continued

Dahlia Lithwick — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:43:00 GMT

Meghan , that British study doesn’t surprise me much, either. Any woman who’s ever purchased a Lanc ô me mascara knows that rationality has very little to do with the ways in which we consume. But I did just have my own strange shopping-based epiphany...(read more)

The $53,000 Question

Dayo Olopade — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:58:00 GMT

Meghan , that study on hormones causing wild-eyed shopping sprees among British women might irk those sensitized to stories blaming estrogen for every whimper, whine, or catfight under the sun. But let's not forget that men have hormones, too! And they...(read more)

Are Shopping Sprees Related to Hormones?

Meghan O'Rourke — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:54:00 GMT

A new study conducted of 443 women in Britain found they were more likely to indulge in an "impulse buy" and to "overspend" during the days leading up to their period. As this BBC News story puts it, "Almost two-thirds of the 153 women studied who were...(read more)