'Funflation' Is Back: Americans Pay More Per Purchase for Their Hobbies
Bank of America Institute data show hobby spending up 7.9% year over year while transactions rose just 3.4%.
Even having fun costs more this fall.
According to the Daily Caller News Foundation, consumer spending on hobbies climbed 7.9% year over year in August, while the number of transactions grew just 3.4%. The figures come from a September report by the Bank of America Institute. The gap suggests what the report's coverage calls a resurgence of "funflation," the rising cost of recreation.
The math is simple. If spending is growing faster than the number of purchases, the average amount spent per purchase is going up. The Daily Caller calculates that increase at approximately 4.4% over the year, but it carefully notes that the figures do not necessarily mean hobby prices themselves rose by that amount. People could be buying more expensive gear, not just paying higher prices for the same items.
Bank of America's analysis covered arts and crafts stores, hobby shops, outdoor recreation retailers and businesses offering activities like skiing, camping and scuba diving. The trend marks a reversal from August 2025, when hobby purchases grew faster than the amount consumers spent. In 2023, hobby spending actually declined nearly 4% even as transactions rose almost 1%, according to the report.
Generational differences stand out. Older millennials spent more on hobbies than any other generation, even though they have the least daily leisure time of any age group examined, about four hours and 15 minutes. Researchers suggested that some of that spending could be on behalf of their children. Gen Z consumers, by contrast, appeared to pull back: growth in their hobby purchases slowed to nearly zero in August, compared with roughly 16% a year earlier.
The bigger picture is mixed. Bank of America's October Consumer Checkpoint found household credit and debit card spending rose 6.2% year over year in September, the third-strongest annual growth rate in four years. Americans are still opening their wallets. They are simply feeling the pinch of rising living costs while they do it.
The Daily Caller connects the story to a related report that wholesale inflation has spiked to its highest level in four years. For families watching their budgets, that is a reminder that inflation does not only show up at the grocery store.