Turning “Expenses” Into “Bills”: How Spending Categorization Impacts Budget Optimism and Likelihood of Success

We examine the very first step of budgeting process – setting budgets –to understand how it impacts budget adherence. We demonstrate that the expected spending optimism is confined to certain spending categories. This optimism predisposes consumers to failure and is unresponsive to informational prompts or actual spending.

Citation:

Eleanor Putnam-Farr and Anastasiya Pocheptsova Ghosh (2018) ,"Turning “Expenses” Into “Bills”: How Spending Categorization Impacts Budget Optimism and Likelihood of Success", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 46, eds. Andrew Gershoff, Robert Kozinets, and Tiffany White, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 252-257.