Spend, spend, spend
I've been wrestling with this "if you're not in debt, you should be spending money" idea lately, particularly because I see so many local businesses in Cleveland struggling.
I have been spending a little more than I normally would on things that I would've bought anyway -- case in point, I went well out of my way to Lucy's Sweet Surrender to buy my dad a birthday cake because the place has become a real victim of both good old-fashioned neighborhood decay and the newer, deadlier, subprime mortgage variety. I feel like it's just part of my civic duty to help these folks out and if eating cake is involved...hey, all the better.
However, when I read this Economix post yesterday it dawned on me that there may be a fundamental misunderstanding about frugal people going around.
This author exhorts people who have been living within their means to go out and start spending money to help the economy, but here's the thing: I don't feel like I can just change what's essentially the most ingrained part of my personality. By being frugal, I'm not sacrificing anything, depriving myself of anything; I'm not holding back the floodgates of rampant consumerist desire. I'm not saving up so I can buy a new flat-screen TV in cash rather than on layaway -- I just don't want one. I don't want very much at all, and if you asked me to start spending I'd say, "on what?"
I have been spending a little more than I normally would on things that I would've bought anyway -- case in point, I went well out of my way to Lucy's Sweet Surrender to buy my dad a birthday cake because the place has become a real victim of both good old-fashioned neighborhood decay and the newer, deadlier, subprime mortgage variety. I feel like it's just part of my civic duty to help these folks out and if eating cake is involved...hey, all the better.
However, when I read this Economix post yesterday it dawned on me that there may be a fundamental misunderstanding about frugal people going around.
This author exhorts people who have been living within their means to go out and start spending money to help the economy, but here's the thing: I don't feel like I can just change what's essentially the most ingrained part of my personality. By being frugal, I'm not sacrificing anything, depriving myself of anything; I'm not holding back the floodgates of rampant consumerist desire. I'm not saving up so I can buy a new flat-screen TV in cash rather than on layaway -- I just don't want one. I don't want very much at all, and if you asked me to start spending I'd say, "on what?"
posted by Christine Borne at 8:57 AM
2 Comments:
I started bringing coffee with me in a thermos to work recently; partly because the coffee they sell in the caffeteria tastes terrible and partly because it seemed like a good way to be frugal. I have a psychologically difficult time buying coffee from a coffee shop without thinking of those annoying Suze Orman rants about how if you gave up that expensive cup of coffee every day you'd be several hundred dollars richer at the end of the year.
That said, I think I'm going to start buying my daily morning beverage from Phoenix again because I think they deserve the extra business and because it's going to be the best tasting cup of coffee I can probably get anywhere.
I hear it's a good time to buy a house. You can get more house-per-dollar-of-savings now than a year ago.
It's also a good time to hire your unemployed friends. Know someone who could decorate your apartment, cook the two of you a special meal, or teach you to understand a new language?
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