Fall is an incredibly overrated season. From back-to-school shopping to pumpkin spice lattes it is a costly season. Let’s be honest, pumpkin spice has gotten out of hand. Forbes said the pumpkin spice industry made over $600 million in 2018. That is one million dollars more than it made in 2015. Having a pumpkin spice latte is one thing, but pumpkin spice Oreos? I don’t think so. By putting pumpkin spice flavor and scent in everything, it gets old. Pumpkin spice has been around for nearly 3,500 years but became popular only four to five years ago. Over the next couple of years the trend of pumpkin spice will continue to grow.

According to the National Retail Federation(NRF), the average family spent $696.70 on back-to-school items this fall. This includes clothing and school supplies. That is almost $700 just at the beginning of fall. After school starts they still have Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas left to pay for before they even get a break from spending money. 

 Americans will spend $30 billion on the holidays this year, according to NRF. On average, that’s about $1,047.83 spent per person, just on the holidays. The root of all this spending could be inflation or online shopping. Online shopping is accessible almost everywhere, so most people choose to shop from their phone or computer rather than in-store shopping. 

To add to the holiday spending, there is still cold-weather clothes shopping to count up when the weather goes bad. Yes, sweaters keep you warm, but once you step into a building with heating, it starts to get warm in the sweater you thought would be cute, so most of the time you take it off. For how expensive most sweaters are, you might as well get a coat. Also, you have to wear multiple layers of clothing just to keep warm. You put on all these layers for the walk to your car, then have to take them all off once you make it to work. It doesn’t make sense to spend ten minutes putting on layers for a 30-second walk to your car or inside a building. The cold weather, excessive spending, and pumpkin spice lattes in the end are overwhelming.