What Is Doom Spending? The Psychology Behind Emotional Spending in Ireland

TL;DR

Doom spending is a rational response to a system that keeps moving the goalposts; not a personal failing.

Here’s what this post covers:

• What doom spending actually is and why it’s happening right now

• Why it’s not a new phenomenon; and why big brands have always known this

• The broken social contract that’s driving it for younger generations in Ireland

• Why the “avocado toast” blame game completely misses the point

• How social media pours fuel on an already burning fire

• The dopamine loop that makes spending feel good: briefly

• How to know when emotional spending has crossed a line

• How to move from reactive spending to intentional spending, without giving up joy

I Get It. I've Been Here.

You’ve had a rough week. The news is grim. Interest rates, housing prices, the cost of the weekly shop; it all feels relentless. And then, somewhere between closing a doom-scroll session and pouring yourself a glass of wine, you click add to cart and buy something. A bag. A weekend trip. A new skincare set you didn’t need but absolutely wanted.

And for about twenty minutes, everything feels a little more manageable.

That moment; that specific, complicated relief; is what we’re talking about when we talk about doom spending.

And before we go any further: it doesn’t make you irresponsible. It doesn’t make you bad with money. It makes you human, living in genuinely difficult economic times.

As RTÉ Brainstorm recently reported, doom spending is increasingly visible among young people navigating a deeply uncertain economic landscape; one where the traditional milestones of adulthood feel perpetually out of reach. Read the piece here.

I talked about this on Ireland AM recently too; because this is showing up everywhere, in every conversation I’m having. Watch it here.

What this post is going to do is give you clarity. Not a lecture. Not a guilt trip. Just a proper, honest look at what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what (if anything) you want to do about it.

What Is Doom Spending?

Doom spending is the pattern of spending money in response to economic anxiety, negative news, or a general sense that the future feels too uncertain to bother saving for.

It’s not impulse buying driven by excitement. It’s spending driven by a feeling of helplessness; a kind of “well, what’s the point of holding back?” logic that emerges when larger financial goals feel impossible or distant.

The term has gained significant traction in the last few years, particularly as younger generations face a perfect storm of rising costs, stagnant wages relative to house prices, and a 24/7 news cycle that rarely delivers good economic news. But the behaviour itself, spending as a coping mechanism when the future feels bleak, is as old as money itself.

Doom spending sits at the intersection of emotional spending, financial anxiety, and social pressure. It’s not one thing; it’s a response pattern. And understanding it properly is the first step to deciding whether it’s serving you, or working against you.

1. Why Doom Spending Is Not a New Idea

Spending goes up in specific categories during economic downturns, and this has been documented for over a century.

During recessions, economists have observed something counterintuitive: while high street chains and mid-market retailers suffer, luxury brands often hold firm or even grow. Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and similar houses have historically reported resilient or increasing sales during periods of economic turbulence, while budget and middle-market brands took the hardest hits.

This is known as the Lipstick Effect; first named during the post-9/11 recession when Leonard Lauder of Estée Lauder noticed lipstick sales climbing sharply during a period of broader economic decline. Small, accessible luxuries, the things that feel like a treat without requiring a mortgage, become the emotional spending of choice when big-ticket dreams feel out of reach.

Companies that understand this pattern plan for it. The consumer goods industry has built entire product lines and pricing strategies around it. The next time you see a “little treat” culture post on Instagram, know that brands have been watching this human tendency for decades; and designing for it.

2. The Broken Social Contract; And Why It Matters

Doom spending is, in large part, a “carpe diem” response to a social contract that no longer delivers on its promises.

For generations, the deal was simple: work hard, save diligently, buy a house, build a life, retire. Delayed gratification was the price of entry to a stable future. And for a long time, that bargain held.

It doesn’t hold anymore. Not for most people in Ireland today, and particularly not for those in their twenties and thirties who are staring at property prices that have outpaced wage growth by a staggering margin. When the average house in Dublin costs twelve to fifteen times the average salary, “just save for a deposit” isn’t a plan; it’s a punchline.

Here’s the thing: if the finish line keeps moving, opting out of the race and enjoying the track starts to feel rational. Because it is rational. Sacrificing enjoyment today for a future that feels uncertain, unattainable, or simply very far away is a trade that doesn’t always make sense; and doom spenders know this. This is not impulsivity. This is a conscious, if uncomfortable, response to a structural problem.

The blame belongs to the system; not to the person who bought a concert ticket instead of adding to a savings account they can’t see the point of yet.

3. Why Boarding Passes Have Become the New Front Door Keys in Ireland

In Ireland, travel has become the primary marker of independence, identity, and achievement for a generation locked out of property ownership.

Consider this: approximately 70% of 25-year-olds in Ireland are still living in the family home. This isn’t a lifestyle choice for most of them. It’s a financial reality. Property prices, rental costs, and the sheer scarcity of housing have kept a generation in a form of extended adolescence; not by choice, but by circumstance.

And it matters, because independence and the experience of building your own life are core human needs. If you can’t express that through getting your own front door, you find another way. For many Irish people right now, that way is a boarding pass.

A holiday to Lisbon. A weekend in Barcelona. A month in Southeast Asia. These purchases represent what home ownership used to represent: a tangible sign that you’re building a life, making choices, going somewhere. They’re the one big-ticket purchase you can actually access.

And it doesn’t stop there. The accessible luxury pivot shows up in smaller ways too; the Chanel-adjacent fragrance, the premium skincare, the designer dupe that captures the feeling without the full price tag. The principle is the same: if the biggest milestone is out of reach, you spend on the milestones that aren’t.

4. Why the “Avocado Toast” Argument Gets It Wrong

Doom spenders are often among the most financially literate people in the room; they understand the maths, and they’re making a conscious choice anyway.

The avocado toast argument, the idea that small daily treats are what’s standing between young people and financial security, has been comprehensively dismantled by researchers, economists, and anyone who has actually done the sums. Cutting out a €12 brunch does not solve a housing affordability crisis. It doesn’t even meaningfully close a deposit gap when house prices are rising faster than any realistic savings rate.

Here’s what makes this framing so damaging: it shifts the narrative from a structural problem to a personal one. It implies that if you just had more discipline, more willpower, fewer nice things; you’d be fine. You wouldn’t be fine. The maths doesn’t support it.

Research consistently shows that doom spenders are not financially naïve. They know what they’re doing. They’ve often run the numbers. They’ve looked at the deposit they’d need, the timeline it would take, and the lifestyle they’d have to adopt to get there; and made a decision that optimising for joy now is a reasonable response to an unreasonable situation.

That’s not ignorance. That’s a values decision. And it deserves to be treated as such.

5. How Social Media Pours Fuel on the Fire

Social media doesn’t create doom spending, but it does make it significantly worse by closing the gap between craving and purchase to a matter of seconds.

TikTok and Instagram are aspirational lifestyle engines. They surface the most polished, most curated, most elevated versions of other people’s lives; holidays, wardrobes, homes, food, experiences. Constantly. Without pause. And the algorithm is specifically designed to show you more of what makes you feel something, which often means more of what makes you feel like you’re missing out.

The FOMO is real, and it’s not a weakness. It’s a neurological response to sustained social comparison. When your feed is full of people who appear to be living the life you wanted, a quick purchase can restore a temporary feeling of belonging - of being someone who also gets to have nice things, who is also living, not just surviving.

And it doesn’t stop there. Social media platforms have also collapsed the distance between inspiration and transaction. You can go from seeing a product to owning it in under sixty seconds. There is no cooling-off period built into the design. The friction has been deliberately removed. Understanding this doesn’t mean you need to delete your apps. It means knowing what you’re dealing with.

6. The Dopamine Loop: Why It Feels So Good (And Then Doesn’t)

Swiping your card triggers a measurable dopamine release; a short-term neurological reward that feels like relief, control, and pleasure all at once.

In an unpredictable world, spending is one of the few areas where cause and effect is immediate and reliable. You make a choice, you get an outcome, and that outcome is pleasurable. For a moment, you are in control. The world is chaotic, but this, this one thing, you decided.

That feeling is real. And it works. The problem is that it’s temporary.

The dopamine fades within minutes to hours, and the original source of anxiety; the economic news, the housing costs, the general sense of uncertainty; is still there. Nothing has changed. Except now you’ve also spent money you may have needed for something else, and there’s a mild guilt layered on top of the original stress. Over time, if spending becomes the go-to response to anxiety, the loop can deepen. The cycle can be hard to interrupt once it becomes the default.

This is the moment doom spending moves from a coping mechanism into a pattern that actively works against your financial wellbeing; and your emotional health.

7. How Do You Know When You’ve Crossed a Line?

Treating yourself is not a crime; the line is crossed when spending becomes your primary coping mechanism for stress, rather than one tool among many.

Gigs, holidays, nice dinners, a new pair of trainers, a spa day; these are not financial mistakes. They are part of a full, enjoyable life, and there is nothing virtuous about grinding through your days in relentless frugality. Joy is not a luxury. It’s a necessity.

So how do you know if doom spending has tipped into something worth paying attention to?

Here are the actual red flags:

• Your spending is triggered by anxiety or negative news rather than genuine desire. You’re not buying the thing because you want it, you’re buying it because you saw a grim headline and needed to do something.

• Guilt follows the purchase more often than enjoyment does. The brief high is replaced almost immediately by a sense of unease.

• Debt is building, not because of a considered decision to finance something valuable, but creeping upward in a way that feels slightly out of control.

• Your anxiety increases rather than decreases over time. If spending is supposed to help you feel better but you’re feeling worse, the mechanism isn’t working.

None of these signs means you’re failing. They’re just information; signals that the tool you’ve been using might not be serving you as well as it used to.

8. From Emotional Spending to Intentional Spending

You don’t have to stop enjoying your money. You just have to start choosing it consciously.

Intentional spending is not about deprivation. It’s about the difference between a purchase that you chose and one that chose you. Both might cost the same. The experience of each is entirely different.

Here’s the pause that changes everything: before you tap to pay, ask yourself one question. “Am I buying this because it will genuinely bring me joy, or because I just saw something upsetting and I need to feel okay?”

If the honest answer is the first one, buy it with full enthusiasm. Enjoy it without guilt. That’s the point.

If the honest answer is the second one, you might still buy it, but now you’re doing so with awareness rather than on autopilot. And awareness gives you choice.

Think about what this means in practice. Living fully in the present and building for the future are not opposites.

You can have the holiday and the investment account. You can have the nice dinner and the pension contribution.

The goal is not to choose between joy now and security later; it’s to make sure both are actually happening, rather than sacrificing one on the altar of a vague future that never quite arrives.

Why Does Doom Spending Happen? (The Short Answer)

Doom spending happens when people in economically uncertain environments rationally conclude that the future feels too distant or too unreliable to justify sustained sacrifice in the present. 

It is amplified by social media-driven aspiration, neurological reward loops, and a structural failure of traditional financial milestones (particularly housing) to remain accessible. It is not a character flaw, a lack of discipline, or financial illiteracy; it is a human response to a broken system, expressed through the only lever of control that feels immediately available.

“But Shouldn’t I Just Stop Spending and Save Everything?”

No, genuinely, no. And here’s why that thinking is also a trap.

The all-or-nothing approach to personal finance has a remarkably poor track record. Extreme restriction builds resentment, and resentment builds rebound spending. You know this if you’ve ever tried a crash diet, it’s the same mechanism. The harder you clamp down, the more dramatic the eventual release.

Balance is not a compromise. It’s the actual strategy. A life you can sustain is worth more than a theoretically optimal savings rate that leaves you miserable and counting down the days until you can spend again.

Two small things you can try this week:

1. Before your next purchase, pause for thirty seconds and ask the one question: “Do I actually want this, or am I reacting to something?” That’s it. You don’t have to change the outcome; just notice what’s driving it.

2. Set up one automatic transfer, however small (even €20 a month) to a savings account or investment. Not because it will make you rich on its own, but because it starts to rebuild the sense that you’re also building something, not just spending. Both things can be true at once.

If you want to go further; to actually learn how to invest in Ireland, build wealth in a way that works around your real life, and stop feeling overwhelmed every time someone mentions ETFs or pension contributions; that’s exactly what Rise Money™: Become a Confident Investor is built for. It’s a step-by-step course designed for Irish residents, covering everything from opening your first trading account to understanding Irish tax rules, in plain English. Find out more at mrssmartmoney.com.

You Are Not Behind. You Are Responding.

Let’s end where we began: with the truth.

Doom spending is not a moral failure. It is not a sign that you’re bad with money, weak-willed, or irresponsible. It is a rational human response to a genuinely difficult set of structural circumstances; a housing crisis, an economic climate that rewards capital over labour, and a social media environment designed to make you feel like you’re falling behind no matter what you do.

Understanding that doesn’t mean resigning yourself to it. It means you can approach your spending with curiosity instead of shame; and curiosity is where real change begins.

You have more agency than you think. Not by giving up everything that makes life enjoyable, but by bringing intention to the choices you’re already making. That’s the shift. From reactive to conscious. From autopilot to deliberate.

You’re not broken. The system is strained. And knowing the difference is the most useful thing you can do with this information.

FAQ

What is doom spending?

Doom spending is the pattern of making impulsive or emotionally driven purchases in response to economic anxiety, negative news, or a general sense that the future is uncertain or unachievable. Unlike typical impulse buying driven by excitement or desire, doom spending is driven by a feeling of helplessness; a “what’s the point of saving?” logic that emerges when bigger financial goals feel out of reach. It is a well-documented behavioural response to economic stress and has been observed across multiple recessions and periods of social uncertainty.

Is doom spending only a young person problem?

No; doom spending can affect anyone experiencing financial anxiety or uncertainty, regardless of age. However, it is particularly visible among younger generations right now because they face a specific set of structural pressures: housing costs that have dramatically outpaced wage growth, higher relative debt burdens, and a social media environment that amplifies financial comparison. Older adults experiencing redundancy, retirement anxiety, or economic displacement can exhibit the same patterns. The triggers differ, but the underlying mechanism, spending as a coping response to financial stress, is universal.

Is doom spending a sign of bad money management?

Not inherently. Research consistently shows that many doom spenders are financially literate; they understand the trade-offs they are making. Doom spending is better understood as an emotional response to structural economic conditions than as a reflection of financial ignorance or poor decision-making skills. The issue arises when emotional spending becomes the primary coping mechanism for anxiety, begins to generate debt, or consistently works against long-term financial goals. At that point, it warrants attention; not because the person is irresponsible, but because the tool they are using is no longer serving them.

How does social media contribute to doom spending?

Social media contributes to doom spending in two significant ways. First, it creates sustained, algorithmically curated exposure to aspirational lifestyles (holidays, possessions, experiences) that trigger social comparison and FOMO. Second, it has collapsed the distance between aspiration and purchase: integrated shopping features allow users to move from seeing a product to buying it in seconds, removing the natural cooling-off period that used to exist between impulse and transaction. Together, these dynamics make it significantly easier to spend in response to emotional triggers without conscious deliberation.

How can I stop doom spending without giving up enjoyment?

The goal is not to stop spending on things you enjoy; it is to shift from reactive spending to intentional spending. The distinction is simple: are you choosing this purchase consciously, because it will genuinely bring you pleasure? Or are you buying on autopilot, in response to stress or negative news? A brief pause before purchase, long enough to ask that one question, is often enough to change the dynamic. From there, small structural changes help: automating even modest savings contributions creates a sense of also building something, which reduces the feeling of helplessness that often drives doom spending in the first place.

Is the housing crisis causing doom spending in Ireland?

The housing crisis is a significant contributing factor to doom spending patterns in Ireland, particularly among younger adults. When the most widely recognised marker of adult financial achievement (homeownership) feels permanently out of reach, the rational calculus around saving and deferring gratification shifts. Spending on accessible alternatives (travel, experiences, small luxuries) becomes a way of marking independence and building identity when traditional routes are blocked. This is a structural issue, not a personal one, and should be understood as such. Doom spending in Ireland is as much a housing policy symptom as it is a financial behaviour.

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Kel Galavan

Kel Galavan is a Personal Finance and Investing Educator, QFA, author of Mindful Money, and a regular financial expert on RTÉ Radio’s Oliver Callan Show and Ireland AM (Virgin Media). With over 20 years of investing experience. Founder of Mrs Smart Money Ltd, and the flagship course Rise Money™: Become a Confident Investor.

Having navigated her own journey from six-figure debt to financial freedom, including a No Spend Year that saved €27,000, Kel combines personal experience with financial expertise to help others make confident money decisions.

Kel also focuses on workplace financial well-being, creating workshops on personal finance and investing skills for your workforce.

Disclaimer: The information on this blog is for general knowledge, education and discussion only, and does not constitute financial advice. You should seek independent professional advice before making any investment decisions. Investing carries risk. Links to third-party sites/products are not endorsements.