‘Cheapflation’, ‘house flipping’, ‘kidult’, ‘typosquatting’, oniomania,… the most popular terms among consumers in 2025
During this year 2025, the Spaniards have had to deal with new terms related to consumption to stay up to date on the evolution of shopping basket prices, the rise of new forms of investment or avoid booming scams.
If in previous years the terms related to the inflation had become more fashionable than ever among Spanish consumers, this year the panorama has changed somewhat and new words have been added despite the fact that the increase in the cost of living continues to be very present in everyday life and eIn November the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 3%.
Reduction, white label, IRPH or Euribor They continue to be common expressions with which we are increasingly familiar. Other terms, however, we are assimilating a little more slowly. This is the case of Anglicisms such as house flipping, kidult o cashback. These words of the English language that we use as if they were already ours coexist with others such as dark patterns, orniomania or super deposits.
All these concepts related to the consumption of goods and services and savings are part of a broad list of words that have sounded strongly throughout this year and that we will probably continue listening to in the future. Next, 20 minutes has compiled the most popular terms, trying to explain and the reason why it belongs to this particular list.
‘Cheapflation’
We can define this term as the increase in the price of the cheapest products within the same category. Recently, the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) has denounced a clear case of ‘cheapflation’ in the price of eggs, whose cost has increased in the most economical categories by up to one euro in just six months, which represents a increase of 50% that “punishes the most vulnerable households.” The cheapest foods have increased their price in Spain by up to 37% between 2021 and 2024, while high-end foods increased by only 23%.
‘House flipping’
It is a new form of real estate investment focused on the purchase of old apartments to be comprehensively renovated, which is characterized by the speed of the operation and by offering returns that can reach 50%. “The objective is to add value to an already obsolete construction that needs major renovations and return it to the market with a high profitability,” they explain from the real estate portal. Idealisticwhich ensure that with this formula “all parties win”both “the buyer, who will more than recover the money invested, and the market itself as there is a new habitable property in circulation without the need to demolish and discard an old construction to design a new one.”
‘Kidult’
This term, the result of the fusion of the words kids (children) and adults (adults), refers to adults who maintain a interest in activities traditionally associated with childhoodsuch as toys, video games, animated series or comics. According to data from the market research consultancy Circana, specialized in the analysis of consumer behavior, 30% of the turnover of the toy sector in Spain already corresponds to kidults.
Oniomania
The constant overexposure to consumer stimuli It can cause behavioral alterations in certain people that lead them to constantly buy unnecessary objects, which causes deterioration and lack of control of personal finances. It is what is known as compulsive buying, also called oniomania. This disorder already affects 5% of the population, says the Spanish Society of Dual Pathology.
‘Cheapflation’
Although it may seem that ‘cheapflation’ (cheapflation in English) and what is known as ‘cheapflation’ allude to the same problem, basically they have nothing to do with each other. “The term cheapflation emerged at the end of the last 20th century to define a practice followed by manufacturers to survive a rampant crisis. Basically consists of replacing the materials or ingredients that make up the product with others of lower cost and, therefore, of inferior quality,” explains Eduardo Irastorza, professor at OBS Business School, in an article published in Emprendedores magazine.
‘Typosquatting’
“It is a technique used by cybercriminals that consists of taking advantage of typographical errors when typing the address of a web page in the browser,” he explains. Jordi Nebot, CEO and co-founder of PaynoPaina company specialized in the development of payment tools on-line. For example, if a user wants to access www.bankexample.com but by accident he writes www.bancoejemlpo.comyou could end up on a fake page designed to trick you. “The attackers They register these domains with names very similar to the originals with the intention of stealing personal information, distributing malware or defrauding users,” says Nebot. These pages may appear identical to the originalsallowing attackers to inadvertently collect credentials, banking details, and other sensitive information. The consequence of making a mistake when typing the URL can be fatal for your bank accounts.
‘Cashback’
“The cards with cashback They are a type of bank card, either credit or debit, with which the holder recover a percentage of the money of your purchases. The percentage, of course, varies depending on the entity and the type of card,” explains Openbank, the Santander Group’s digital bank, on its financial blog. For example, if you make a purchase of 100 euros, you can recover three if the cashback is 3%.
Super deposits
It is a financial product with a hidden face or small print that is different from those offered by current fixed-term deposits and can represent fraud for the banking customer. “They promise returns that have often exceeded 4% APR, figures that sound like ‘gold’ to the most conservative saver. But what they actually offer is something else: products with a very short deadline, with demanding conditions and in the endwhat the saver earns for his money borders on insulting, especially for those who seek to protect their money without taking risks,” they explained from the financial comparator. HelpMyCash.
Passive houses
Also known as Passivhaus, This home construction model maximizes efficiency and allows you to maintain a pleasant temperature throughout the year with minimal energy consumption, which translates into savings of up to 90% on your bills. “A passive house is a type of housing that It does not need to consume energy from outside to air condition or ventilate it. because it uses the natural resources of its environment in an energy-efficient way,” explains the OCU.
Dark patterns
It is the application by companies specialized in sales on-line of a series of techniques with which you try to manipulate consumers to buy more than you had planned. Among the methods that encourage consumers to make quick purchases are the confirm-shaming – make the client feel guilty with messages like ‘I don’t want to save money’ if they don’t accept an offer; he scroll infinite -infinite scrolling down the website or app that prevents access to relevant information, such as the return and exchange policy- and the nagging– persistent annoyance through messages to force the consumer to accept something, such as pop-ups or messages flash insistent
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