Effects of Daily Expense Tracking on Impulse Purchasing Tendencies Among College Students

Abstract

Impulse purchasing among college students is increasingly relevant in consumer environments characterized by digital payments, promotional exposure, and reduced transactional friction. This study examined short-term change in impulse purchasing tendencies during a five-day daily expense-tracking study. A quantitative pretest-posttest experimental procedure involved 30 college students, with 15 assigned to an expense-tracking condition and 15 to a neutral mood-monitoring condition. Impulse purchasing tendencies were measured before and after the intervention using the Impulse Buying Tendency Scale, and participants also completed a simulated shopping activity involving a fixed budget and promotional purchase cues. Across the full sample, the mean impulse purchasing score declined from 3.29 (SD = 0.475) at pretest to 3.19 (SD = 0.421) at posttest. A conventional two-sided paired-samples t-test based on the retained test statistic indicated that the overall pretest-posttest difference was not statistically significant, t(29) = 0.966, p = .342, with a small effect size (Cohen's d = 0.176). Because the archived statistical output did not retain group-specific inferential results, the findings are interpreted as overall short-term change across the sample rather than as a definitive between-condition treatment effect. The study suggests that substantial short-term change in impulse purchasing was not evident during the five-day period and supports further investigation of longer-duration financial self-monitoring interventions.