Money Box Live: Impulse Spending and Debt
Money Box
BBC
4.2 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s December, a time of year when there’s pressure to say yes to every night out, buy the perfect presents and spend without really thinking. All that can lead to snap decisions we later regret, whilst for others, impulse spending can be a real issue all year round.
In this programme, Felicity Hannah discusses the psychology behind impulse buying, why do we do it, what are the triggers, and who is impacted most?
We hear from one mum whose impulse spending led to her falling deep in debt and turning to Buy Now Pay Later to pay for the basics, and give advice on where you can get help.
Joining Felicity is Dr Pragya Agarwal, who is a behaviour and data scientist and author, and Vikki Brownridge, chief executive of the debt support charity StepChange.
If you've been affected by the topics raised in this programme, details of organisations offering help and support with debt, hardship or homelessness are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline, or you can call for free at any time to hear recorded information on 08000 159 774.
Presenter: Felicity Hannah Producer: Sarah Rogers Editor: Jess Quayle Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson.
(This episode was first broadcast on Wednesday the 10th of December 2025)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds |
| 0:02.2 | Music Radio Podcasts |
| 0:04.6 | I like when a manager wears a suit and tides, you know what I mean? |
| 0:09.7 | In 2025, we were here for the football. |
| 0:13.0 | The Wayne Rooney Show |
| 0:14.0 | As a manager, you're making decisions on what you're seeing on the pitch. |
| 0:16.9 | Sometimes it doesn't always pay off. |
| 0:18.3 | Football daily. |
| 0:19.4 | Loyalty in football. Does it still |
| 0:21.4 | exist? There is no loyalty in football. Antuny and Russo. Do you feel like the pressure actually |
| 0:26.5 | helps you play the best football? We've prepared ourselves to step out onto the pitch at the end of the day. |
| 0:31.5 | Get the best of 2025 with podcasts on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.8 | Hello, in today's Moneybox Live podcast, we're looking at impulse spending. |
| 0:41.6 | We are in December, a time of year when there's pressure to say yes to every night out, |
| 0:45.7 | to buy the perfect presents, and to spend without really thinking. |
| 0:49.9 | It's almost as soon as they're born, you just want to buy them everything. |
| 0:53.1 | Christmas last year, I impulsively got a £1,000 loan out. |
| 1:00.2 | We got all the things that I couldn't actually afford. |
| 1:03.2 | In my head, I could afford the repayments. |
| 1:05.5 | I didn't calculate it at all. |
| 1:07.5 | And so eventually I was just getting letters demanding all this money back. It felt like |
| 1:11.9 | it wasn't going to end. We'll hear more from Paige later, but she's not alone. One in four |
... |
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