{"id":49930,"date":"2026-11-08T06:34:44","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T05:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/08\/i-shopped-like-a-man-for-a-week-and-it-completely-changed-my-weekly-household-budget\/"},"modified":"2026-11-08T06:34:44","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T05:34:44","slug":"i-shopped-like-a-man-for-a-week-and-it-completely-changed-my-weekly-household-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/08\/i-shopped-like-a-man-for-a-week-and-it-completely-changed-my-weekly-household-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"I shopped like a man for a week and it completely changed my weekly household budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/girl-math-trend-tiktok-money-expert-b2440515.html\">\u201cgirl math\u201d trend<\/a> blew up on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/tiktok\">TikTok<\/a>, I couldn\u2019t help but feel frustrated. Yes, sometimes returning clothes feels like you\u2019ve made money, even when you haven\u2019t. But the large majority of women I know aren\u2019t fooling themselves about their finances. Instead, they\u2019re <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/home-news\/cost-of-living-crisis-older-women-b2130866.html\">counting every penny to make ends meet<\/a> during a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/cost-of-living\">cost of living<\/a> crisis that has hit women the hardest and caused the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/article\/cost-of-living-hits-women-hardest-widening-gender-wellbeing-gap-m5bb6rrwg\">gender financial wellbeing gap<\/a> in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/britain\">Britain<\/a> to widen even further, with women more likely to have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/tv\/news\/women-abortion-cost-of-living-crisis-emma-lewell-buck-rishi-sunak-b2541523.html\">lower wages and childcare responsibilities<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/money\/women-pension-savings-menopause-scottish-widows-b3078514.html?reloaded=1-restored\">less likely to have savings<\/a> or money for fun than men. <\/p>\n<p>On top of this, we\u2019re also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/ap-consumers-new-york-city-florida-email-b2299787.html\">contending with the Pink Tax<\/a>: when products and services marketed towards women cost more than men\u2019s comparable products, despite serving the same purpose with the same quality, if not better. For example, browsing for black <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/calvin-klein\">Calvin Klein<\/a> thongs on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/amazon\">Amazon<\/a>, I came across a three-pack for \u00a336. Meanwhile, men\u2019s boxers, which use far more material and contain 5 per cent more cotton, cost just \u00a325.97. <\/p>\n<p>Often,<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"echo_read_more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/pink-tax-women-spending-food-items-b3078098.html\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0More Info >>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the \u201cgirl math\u201d trend blew up on TikTok, I couldn\u2019t help but feel frustrated. Yes, sometimes returning clothes feels like you\u2019ve made money, even when you haven\u2019t. But the large majority of women I know aren\u2019t fooling themselves about their finances. Instead, they\u2019re counting every penny to make ends meet during a cost of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":49931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","wpai_meta_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[708,36],"class_list":["post-49930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netbuzz","tag-lifestyle","tag-mixtv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}