In Stylist’s new digital series In the Red, we investigate how debt is really impacting young women in 2022 – from our connection with credit cards and shopping to examining how debt informs our relationships, our beauty regimes and the way we operate in the world. 

Christina Mychas vividly remembers the moment when a pair of boots changed her life.

She’d been lusting after a pair of Chloe’s gold-buckled, intricately studded black Susanna ankle boots for months. When she spied them online in a Black Friday sale in 2018 for $1,500 (£1,180), she clicked ‘add to cart’ immediately.

Mychas had never spent that amount of money on anything before, and when the boots arrived, she knew she couldn’t afford them. “Instead of returning them, I hid them under my bed,” she tells Stylist. “I fully acknowledged that I didn’t have the money, but I decided to keep them anyway.”

It was at this moment Mychas knew her spending habits needed to change.

After graduating from university as a pharmacist with $120,000 (£94,000) of student debt, Mychas moved to Toronto, Canada, in 2015, which is where her spending began. Having a job that paid well for the first time and access to shops she’d long-coveted was an enticing combination.

“I’d get inspired by people in the street and on Instagram. I’d think: ‘I love those pants on her, I’m going to find those exact ones,’” Mychas reminisces. She’d notice trends and influencers on social media and seek out brands that had been tagged in posts.

When her shopping habit was at its height, Mychas never left the boutique fashion store Aritzia without spending less than $500 (£390) and believes she was spending around $1,000 (£740) a month shopping. “I was making more money than I’d ever made in my entire life, so I just assumed I would always be able to cover it,” she says. “But I never had any money left over and I was constantly feeling financially strapped.”

For many, Mychas’s story is all too familiar. Lots of people have struggled to keep on top of their spending and the immediacy of online shopping can be a huge temptation.

In fact, more and more of us are shopping online. In 2020, the value of online retail sales in the UK was almost £100 billion – a significant increase from the year before, when they exceeded £76 billion. Online shopping statistics suggest that 86.2% of people in the UK shopped online in 2021, and this figure is expected to rise to 86.7% in 2022.

The picture of online shopping has become ever more complex and it’s changing rapidly. No longer is online shopping a matter of googling a specific shop or painstakingly typing payment information into long forms. Now it can be done at the touch of a fingerprint and shopping apps and social media can feed us with notifications and brand influencers all day, every day.

Increasing numbers of us are also turning to automatic payment options, easily accessible on our phones. A study on the payment patterns of online shoppers revealed that while conventional methods such as credit cards or debit cards still accounted for a larger share of online payments, systems such as PayPal and digital wallets like Google, Apple, and Amazon are growing rapidly.

As social media and shops evolve into all-in-one e-commerce tools where users can discover, select and buy products in-app, it’s no wonder more and more of us are using our smartphones to shop. Forecasts predict mobile shopping expenditure is expected to surpass £100 billion by 2024.

But as online payments become quicker and easier, people who struggle with impulsive shopping are finding it’s impacting their finances.

For Alysia*, a marketing manager based in London, shopping on mobile apps has seen her finances deteriorate and it all began during the pandemic. “I was living on my own and on furlough when lockdown hit in 2020,” she tells Stylist. “I started buying things out of boredom really. It was a nice feeling to know a treat was coming in the post. A package arriving was usually the only major thing that would happen in my day.”

Alysia found herself clicking through to buy things while she absentmindedly scrolled through social media. She also downloaded specific store apps for ease. “I use Apple Pay, so if I downloaded a brand’s app, it meant I could easily buy things in a few taps,” she says. “My wallet’s linked up to social media so if I saw something an influencer was wearing, it could easily find it and buy it.”

It got to the point where Alysia couldn’t remember what she’d bought and how much she was spending. “I was buying so much in 2020, that packages would arrive at the door and I’d have a complete mind blank about why they were there and when I’d bought them.”

Alysia began dipping into her overdraft to pay for purchases over the pandemic and quickly reached her interest-free limit of £2,000. “It’s really ruined my finances,” she says. “Even though I’ve stopped buying as much now lockdown’s ended, I’m still stuck in my overdraft and I have no idea how I’ll ever get out.”

It’s something Rosie Thomas, an ADHD coach based in Berlin, can identify with. Thomas has also dealt with impulse buying and believes social media is exacerbating the problem. “It’s just so easy to buy things and feel like you’re getting your life together,” she tells Stylist. “Because I have ADHD, I’m always trying to add more dopamine to my life and purchasing things online is a quick dopamine hit.”

“It’s so easy to lie in bed and see an influencer who looks like they have their life together because she’s wearing great clothes or taking a new vitamin that made her hair grow. You think, ‘Oh, that will help me’ and you can buy it super quicky,” says Thomas.

Out of all her clients, Thomas says she’s only worked with two who haven’t had any sort of issue with shopping apps. “I think the people who design these apps create them in a predatory way that keeps us spending,” she says. “People say it’s our own fault for getting into debt, but if these apps weren’t built in such a way, I don’t think these issues would be as widespread.”

Thomas suggests strategies such as taking easy-access payment methods off your phone to create extra barriers to spending and unfollowing specific influencers who might entice you to spend. She also advises taking some time to really get to the root of what is influencing the way you spend.

The constant influx of purchasing temptation on social media apps is a key element of something Mychas refers to as ‘lifestyle creep’. Essentially this is where people slowly inflate their lifestyles as their income increases. “You might get a new job or a pay rise and start making more money and then begin to treat yourself more. It can be great, but when you have debt or other expenses, lifestyle creep really takes away your money power.”

It’s something Mychas believes is influenced by social media. “Looking at apps every day and seeing people share their highlight reels of going to fancy dinners, vacations and living in beautiful apartments. It makes you feel like you deserve that life too. But no one ever tells you where the money comes from. You don’t know if they’re in credit card debt. No one really says how they pay for it.”

Six years on, Mychas has curbed her spending habits and paid off her student loan. It’s something she achieved by determinedly incorporating ‘no spend’ months into her life, embracing minimalism and adopting a capsule wardrobe. She now hosts a YouTube channel, which has 85,000 subscribers, and a TikTok platform giving honest advice on how to spend wisely and save money based on her own experience.

But, dealing with social media’s incessant lifestyle creep is still something she struggles with. “Things like the beautiful French girl aesthetic or the Scandinavian aesthetic of very minimalist, effortlessly beautiful women can tempt me to buy things,” she says. “Viral fashion trends, like TikTok’s microtrend videos, also put pressure on women to spend because you want to be current.”

Despite this, Mychas believes social media can also be a source of change. “I think it’s a matter of transparency and authenticity,” she says. “The culture of consumption is rampant on social media and shopping hauls are very glorified. But at the same time, you also have people posting really honest videos about salary transparency or becoming debt-free. People are turning away from really curated social media and want more authenticity. I like the direction it’s going in.”

*Name has been changed

Speak to a Financial Conduct Authority registered financial adviser before taking financial advice, and think carefully before making any decision.

If you’re concerned about debt, please get in touch with Step Change, Citizen’s Advice or National Debtline. If you’re worried about your mental health, you can contact Mind or Samaritans. 

Images: Getty