Trying not to spend

Abstract Financial literacy programs aim to prevent consumer overspending by teaching and encouraging fiscally sound habits (purchase restraint, responsible credit use, savings). Unfortunately, trying not to spend is at odds with the emotions consumers experience in a tempting marketplace. The theory of trying considers attitudes and intentions, but not emotions, when trying to consume. To address this gap, we examine indebted consumers opting into formal financial literacy training explicitly designed for debt repayment and avoidance of future debt. Through indebted consumers’ diary reflections and interviews with clients and debt management counselors, we show that financial literacy’s emphasis on budgeting needs versus wants is not sufficient when consumers try not to spend. To reconcile budgets with actual purchasing behavior when faced with temptations in the marketplace, consumers often adopt a linguistic exercise of imaginatively bending and blending utilitarian and hedonic discourses to justify purchases by recategorizing wants as needs. Further, consumers trying not to spend experience negative emotions; how they regulate those emotions impacts their success in getting out of debt. While financial literacy courses only give consumers budget-setting tools, indebted consumers cannot be successful without tools for trying not to spend in the marketplace.