Who is the bigger consumer: men or women?

I think pop culture has burned the image of the shopaholic woman into our collective consciousness. Whether it's the bored housewife shopping with kids in tow at the mall or the teenage girl with her "daddy's" credit card running up the debt at the boutique, we all think women are the big spenders.

Men, on the other hand, don't seem to shop nearly as much or as often. I know I don't go to grocery or department stores nearly as often as Sarah. In fact, I probably go shopping no more than a handful of times per month. BUT when I do go shopping, I often spend much more than my better half. Today, for example, I spent over $120 at Walmart (yeah, I prefer high class shopping venues) on fishing gear and a 2008 fishing license (I'm going fishing off the coast this Saturday with some work buddies). If I think about 2008, most of what I purchased were high ticket items such as an iPod, TV, gaming accessories, etc. Also, I tend to do more shopping online for books, video cables, etc. which show up in the mail after the money has been spent and are quickly put to use quietly behind a cabinet tucked into a book shelf, thus covering up the evidence of my mini-shopping sprees.

Then there's the whole question of hobbies: Sarah scrapbooks and reads while I like fishing, skiing, computers, electronic gaming (we don't like to term video games anymore, thank you very much!) and so forth. I have WAY more hobbies and they cost WAY more and, when I buy things to go along with said hobbies, such as rental fees, fishing licenses, gear, etc. I look at them as necessary expenditures, thus avoiding my association with that ugly, feminine verb "shopping."

In the end, we probably spend roughly the same amount of money shopping, but I'll be the first to admit that my shopping generally revolves around my hobbies while Sarah's shopping is for true necessities such as food, clothing, etc. When she does by that occassional item for herself, usually a book or some new shoes, I praise her in an attempt to ease the guilt of having just spent $15 on my monthly GameFly subscription.

So, do women spend more than men? Probably. Do men have more expensive hobbies? I think so. Does every couple differ in regard to spending habits? Absolutely. My question, then, is whether or not your experience is similar or not.

Click here for a post I found in which the guy describes a very similar experience to ours (I found this after I typed up my blog post by the way).