Tuesday, March 10, 2009

FEED A RECESSION? OR STARVE A RECESSION?


Amy VanDeventer. Smart, frugal shopper? Or a recession's worst nightmare?

There's an article about how people are going to extremes to save money during this economy. Amy VanDeventer is going to extremes.
Before the economy tanked, she was still wearing maternity clothes from her last pregnancy, clipping coupons and using hand-me-downs to dress her daughters, ages 2 and 3. Now, she's salvaging bagel scraps left on their plates for pizza toppings and cutting lotion bottles in half so she can scrape out the last drops.
She's really saving money but aren't you suppose to feed a recession? Or starve a recession?

If everyone in my neighborhood gives up going to Starbucks, the store will not make enough money to stay open. Starbucks will have to close the store because it's not making any money and the employees will most likely have to go on unemployment.

But no one knows where the end will be, or if they'll be the next person with a pink slip, or if they'll have enough money to pay for life's necessities.

It's a difficult path to tread. I wish I knew the answer.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm in the same boat as DeVenter.
I was frugal before the recession - by nature, and of necessity, and w/o being obsessive-depressive or soul-killing about it.
Other people's recessionary frugality looks like Lotto-winner luxury to me - and it's literally impossible for me to cut back further ... unless I skip food entirely, then walk from Bay Ridge to Manhattan every day (and vice versa), and cobble my own shoes out of compressed junkmail.
But then I'd be an insane spectacle - which is counterproductive.