Six data points on what happens when money shows up unexpectedly, from a ten-dollar coupon that barely got spent to a decades-old lottery myth that keeps getting repeated anyway
Money and Spending Habits: What People Really Spend Their Last $100 On
Three tiers, by the size of the windfall
The Reflex
Small windfalls, spent almost automatically and filed under whatever mental budget they arrived in.
The Triage
Medium windfalls, forced into a real, conscious decision the moment life feels uncertain.
The Myth
The windfalls everyone has an opinion about, checked against what the actual research shows.
Explore the data
Stimulus check, round 1: where the money actually went
Dataset schema
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
case_id | string | Short identifier for the windfall case, e.g. smallwindfall |
case_name | string | Full, human-readable case title |
tier | string | reflex, triage, or myth |
metric_label | string | What the figure measures |
metric_value | number | The reported numeric value |
unit | string | dollars, percent, or count |
source | string | Study, survey, or government agency |
source_year | number | Year of fieldwork or publication |
sample_size | string | Reported sample size, where available |
Sourcing & methodology
Every figure traces to a named peer-reviewed study, government survey, or agency report, never a repeated internet statistic. The two myth cases are included specifically because they are widely repeated despite weak or absent sourcing, and that gap is documented rather than smoothed over.
Licensing & compliance
This dataset is available for commercial and internal use under a DT Linux data license. Every figure remains attributed to its original source. No respondent-level or personally identifiable data is included anywhere; all figures are published aggregates.
API access
Need these figures inside your own dashboard or product? DT Linux can expose this and other data-briefing datasets over a lightweight API. Reach out at info@dtlinux.com to discuss access.