["Journal of Consumer Behaviour, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nScarcity often times acts as a coping mechanism for consumers in their day‐to‐day lives. While most prior studies have focused on how firms and businesses induce scarcity as a demand generation tactic, the current study examines how scarcity is experienced by consumers in their daily lives through natural constraints which then influence their behaviour. The current research uses a mixed‐method approach. In study 1 we identify five core resource dimensions, namely time, financial, cognitive, physical, and social. We then extend the findings of study 1 to understand these concepts qualitatively in study 2 by conducting 27 interviews, where we identify emotional scarcity as a depleting resource dimension, which is associated with consumers' exhaustion and stress. Across both studies, we identify that consumers cope with scarcity mainly by setting boundaries in order to regulate their cognitive, emotional, and behavioural resources. This study contributes to the literature by consolidating the fragmented literature and reconceptualising resource scarcity as a multidimensional consumer condition. This study also contributes to providing theory‐driven and ethically grounded managerial recommendations and suggests clear future directions.\n"]