Fashionable Frugality

Wherever people gather and whatever is up for discussion, there comes a time when pretty much everything has been said but not everyone has said it. So, the meeting goes on . . . and on.

Chastened by this knowledge, I see no need for another review of the president’s State of the Union address or a Republican rebuttal so weirdly over the top it practically begged to be parodied.

I turn my attention instead to the trendiest of trends, something called “loud budgeting,” apparently quite a thing on TikTok. So far as I can tell, it’s part personal finance strategy, part lifestyle choice, part fashion statement. It’s said to be a reaction to the “quiet luxury” trend, itself a response to the conspicuous consumption of old.

To the uninitiated like me, loud budgeting comes across as frugality shouted from the rooftops. In his viral video, the TikToker who coined the term tells viewers how he’d turn down an invitation to go hang out with a friend with an explicit pronouncement that he’s on a tig…