It’s finally cool to wear the clothes you bought in middle school and boast about your studio apartment with no pictures on the walls. Gen Z doesn’t call that poor, they call it “under-consumercore.”
TikTok is chock-full of videos of young people choosing to use what they already have instead of buying new things. From limiting themselves to a single battered Stanley water bottle to not getting their nails done or forgoing art in their homes, Gen Z is making an effort to avoid buying new things and cherish what they already have.
Adeline Um, a 27-year-old musician from Boston, has made a renewed commitment to using every last bottle of skin care product, using worn-out but functional makeup brushes, and wearing clothes that are 15 years old. She’s exhausted by watching TikTok videos where influencers and content creators hawk the latest items that go viral within days, quickly luring the shiny new product into the spotlight.
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to buy things,” Um told Fortune, “but right now I feel like there’s an exaggerated feeling that if you don’t buy the latest things, you’ll be out of date.”
Underconsumercore is a cousin of TikTok’s de-influencer movement, in which users persuaded their audiences not to buy the trendiest items promoted by a host of brand-signed content creators. The influencer market is expected to balloon to $50 million by 2028, but some young people blame it for the hyper-consumerism it creates.
For a generation worried about their financial future and the environment, these trends are empowering and achievable: According to Bank of America’s “State of Gen Z Financial Well-Being 2024” report, released this month, of 1,091 Gen Z adults surveyed between April and May, more than 50% of young people believe the cost of living is their biggest financial challenge and biggest barrier to success.
“They’re seeing the cost of living go up,” Holly O’Neill, president of consumer banking at Bank of America, told Fortune magazine. “They understand they need to create a budget and they need to find ways to save, and they’re looking at that budget … to meet their priorities.”
I don’t need anything new
The underconsumer core is built on a foundation of financial literacy, but it goes beyond socioeconomic status or simply the need to save money. Um and her husband are financially stable after job changes and the pandemic, but they continue to be frugal when it comes to purchases.
“It’s really exhausting to see people say this is the latest thing I have to buy,” she said.
For Wu, the spending was a respite from the trend cycle that has dominated the internet: Gen Z is increasingly sensitive about screen time as scrolling addiction has fueled anxiety and depression among young people, turning to flip phones for a digital detox.
But a year spent in her husband’s native England taught her to appreciate the tranquility of the countryside. Her parents immigrated to the United States from South Korea, where food was scarce. To feed her family, her grandmother developed the skill to cook with whatever she could find. Shumming between her parents’ and her grandparents’ homes, Um came to deeply appreciate the joy of harvesting produce from a small backyard vegetable patch.
“That’s the way I learned to do it,” she says. “I really hate throwing food away or letting it spoil. I feel so guilty about it.”
For Sabrina Paré, a 31-year-old content creator from Detroit, guilt also motivates her to be mindful of her spending. Underconsumption is not a new concept in the world of sustainability that Paré covers on TikTok. To her, it’s an extension of upcycling, the practice of reusing and giving new life to things that would easily be thrown away. But while these trends have helped Paré make a living from her online content, she acknowledges there are limits to how they can help tackle climate change.
“The planet is getting warmer and warmer, and of course participating in reducing consumption isn’t going to solve the problem,” she says, “but it at least helps you feel a little bit more in control of the actions you’re taking.”
Even if participating in underconsumption is not a financial necessity for those taking part, O’Neill argued, it is consistent with the idea that younger generations are deeply conscious of their own financial well-being. This tendency coincides with O’Neill’s observations of this generation’s economic patterns, including less discretionary spending, more planned spending, and a preference for store and bargain brand goods over luxury items.
“You don’t want to waste something you’ve already invested in or purchased; you want to get the most out of it,” she says. “That impacts both budgets and sustainability; I mean, we all know the satisfaction of using everything you buy and not wasting anything. Gen Z is really attuned to that.”
Despite its virality, she said, the underconsumercore won’t dramatically change consumer habits: These online trends are born out of a generation’s broader economic thinking, but they won’t change that.
Um is the first to admit she’s not immune to influences and won’t promise not to buy certain products, but TikTok trends around spending and personal finance are welcomed on her “For You” page.
“You don’t have to buy a new curling iron just because yours has gotten hard,” she says. “If it’s still working, it’s still working. For me, it’s a really great reminder.”
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