21 Things We’re Learning to Live Without
Thanks to alisilver for sending this to me. It’s a good article about how to survive during a recession and how to set the priorities of life.
How are you cutting back in the recession? I know I buy much less and I’m getting ready to list a bunch of items on Ebay. I don’t need them, don’t really have a place for them and they are great buys for someone else. Some of the items have never been used and are in the original packaging, so they could easily be used as gifts.
What do you really need?
It’s become a national question. With jobs and money scarce, consumers are taking inventory and tossing lots of stuff once deemed important into a humongous discard pile. To safeguard the essentials–a safe home and supportive community, the kids’ education, Internet connectivity, sustenance for a pet–Americans are giving up lots of other things. Some sacrifices are painful; others bring surprise benefits.
To gauge America’s changing priorities, I synthesized market research, business trends, economic data, and reports from hundreds of consumers into a list of things that many people seem to be significantly cutting back on, or living without completely. Here are 21 of them:
Monthly payments. Old mentality: I don’t care about the price, as long as I can borrow to pay for it and I have enough income to cover the monthly payment. New mentality: I’ve already got too much debt, and the banks won’t lend me the money anyway. Result: More cash purchases and a lot less financing of cars, furniture and other costly items. “The era of unbridled, debt-financed consumer spending is over, and the monthly payer is out of action,” Eric Janszen, president of iTulip, a finance-advisory firm, wrote in Harvard Business Review last year.
Window shopping. Browsing used to be an acceptable pastime. But consumers have discovered that window shopping encourages them to buy tons of stuff they don’t need. So now, they’re shopping only when necessary, making a list and sticking to it, or skipping the mall in favor of online sites, where temptations are weaker. “I no longer spend a day at the mall when I’m bored,” says Debby Abrams of Rising Sun, Ind. “I don’t buy, rebuy, and rebuy again: Buy a lamp, buy one I like better and put the first one in the basement, then buy a third one and put the second one in the basement.”
January 23rd, 2010 at 5:17 pm
I also read a cool article today about how buying a home is really just furthering the inner consumer in us and we don’t really need one. That it’s a myth of setting down roots, etc. This economist says that buying a home was a ploy made up to have us pay more taxes and have more ROOM in our home to STORE things we don’t need to buy anyway. LOL
January 23rd, 2010 at 5:19 pm
One thing I’m trying to cut back is my stupid water bill. With 2 teenagers the shower times around here are IDIOTIC. I am trying to enforce 3 minute showers….they laugh at me
Also, you have to stand by the horse trough while it fills with water instead of turn it on and come right back because you know you’ll never come right back in time to stop it from flooding off extra gallons.
Sage Reply:
January 23rd, 2010 at 6:03 pm
I don’t have a water bill because I’m on a well, but I do have to pay electricity to pump the water.
January 23rd, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Good article. Thanks both to alisilver for sending it, and you for posting it sage. I have sent the link around … i hope those i have sent it too will take heed and pay attention. O~o)
January 23rd, 2010 at 6:36 pm
I am on a shared well. And Septic.
I find shopping the periemiter of the grocery store cheaper. Produce, meat,dairy and diving in the middle for paper products and coffee. There is a convienience store chain where I buy smaller loaves of bread and bannanas. Cheaper there.They are also the cheapest gas around. Eggs I usually get from my freind, right now, they are not laying. We also have a farmers market going every day of the week somewhere nearby in season.
Since my old VW is so picky, I buy the filter and have someone change the oil as well. I belong to a co op where I get a dividend every year. In my old house I had to buy propane for heat. I could prepay on as many gallons as I wanted in the summer with a summer fill saving myself about 40% of the cost. Before that, I heated totally with wood.
I have managed to cut back my mileage quite a bit by courting work closer in. My 1999 Jetta still gets 32 mpg and has 160,000 miles on it. I plan on at least another 40,000 before starting to think about a replacement.
I pay cash for everything. No credit. I do have an account at the co op with no balance. I keep that for car emergencies of which are very few over the years. I think the last 2 times was my daughters car and she made the payments. It’s like a contest with me to see how cheaply I can get by and finding ways to save. I don’t want to work past retirement if I cam help it. There are other things I want to do.
AliSilver Reply:
January 23rd, 2010 at 8:00 pm
@Wizcon, LOL WIZ ,,, YOU ARE SO AWESOME
January 23rd, 2010 at 8:34 pm
Do any of ya’ll live by a BRAUMS ice cream store? I’ve been doing a good deal of my grocery shopping in one the last few months. I always knew they sold ice cream and a few other goodies, but now I’m paying more attention. Tons of benefits to shopping there. Their cheeses, yogurts, eggs, milk have NO HORMONES and are fresher AND less expensive than even the HOUSE brand at a grocery store. Maybe a 30 -50 cent reduction in a block of cheese, for example. But I only just realized they have fresh fruits and veggies and meats too. Granted, not the selection at a bigger store, but if you are just shopping for one or 2 people or like me FOUR people, it works out. Plus without all the extra aisles to shop and stroll through you don’t pick up extra crap on SALE. Almost no junkfood there too. You can pick up an fresh hormoneless ice cream cone while you’re there
OMG, their bread is deluxe !
GO BRAUMS !
They may not be in every state. I have no idea.
Sage Reply:
January 23rd, 2010 at 11:59 pm
I’ve never heard of Braums. I make most of our bread and we buy eggs from a local for $1.00 a dozen. There is a little store where my husband buys his beans and other local produce.
AliSilver Reply:
January 24th, 2010 at 8:56 am
@Sage, I got this awesome UNBELIEVABLE recipe for cherry banana bread if you’re interested, I ‘ll stick it on the recipe page !
I cannot make regular bread
Yeast and I don’t understand each other .
timesr Reply:
January 24th, 2010 at 12:23 am
@AliSilver,
No Braums here, but we do have Grocery Outlet. Lately I’ve been getting large, organic, free range eggs there – 20 eggs for $3. A while back they had organic butter so I bought several pounds and put it in the freezer.
January 24th, 2010 at 7:47 am
I have been going to an employee owned grocer called Woodman’s
No water injection into the meat, like walmart tends to do. Huge produce dept with everything you could want.
January 24th, 2010 at 8:49 am
We are in the process of removing a horse to make way for a cow ! We have 10 acres and a horse that we’ve had for years. But he’s bored and expensive ! So I found him a dude ranch in CO he’ll be going to in May. I opted to pay their gas to pick him up, which is a LOT, but I’ll save that money in 6 months of NOT feeding him and not repairing what he damages around here. He’s a bit of a handful. So next we can get a little cow for meat. So while I will likely spend about the same on feed over a year, at the end of the year I will have meat + the processing fee. It may work out to save me no money on meat as compared to getting it at the grocery weekly. But the advantages are I know where the meat came from. I know what goes into the cow AND I get to keep my agricultural land exemption which saves me about 900 a year on property tax ! If I end up no money ahead and no money behind , it’s worth it .
January 24th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Also last year I got new quotes on my car insurance. First time I had done that in five years. I saved over 50% by making a phone call ! So now instead of 110 a month, I’m paying about 57 a month.
Also I got the bundle from the phone company. That only saves me about 30 a month, but that’s 360 a year,,,, I think
I ditched dish network and get more channels and high speed internet all in one bill and my house p hone,, so that also saves me a STAMP each month,since it’s all in one bill. LOL. 
January 24th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Tough times takes tough choices to get by.. For me I stopped buying coffe 3 times a day now I make coffee at home, my small step saves me60 – 75$ a week.
January 25th, 2010 at 7:58 am
Right John Paul. I was thinking about how months ago I pretty much gave up the starbucks
and it does suck. But let me ask you this ? When you were buying 3 coffees out a day….didn’t you know that was a super luxury ? See my husband started on starbucks several years ago and I was opposed to 3 or 4 dollar coffee. I thought it INSANE ! Then,,,,,,,, I got hooked 
But every time I bought one , I felt this kind of guilt. Even when times are good a 4 dollar coffee is just unnecessary, almost FLAUNTING you can afford a high $$ coffee. LOL I never got 3 in a day though,, more like 3 in a week. Starbucks is a corp. that can only thrive when an economy is booming.
Everyone needs gasoline and milk and electricity and toilet paper…… but no one “NEEDS” 4 dollar coffees . But they are good
Wizcon Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 9:58 am
@AliSilver, As much as I love coffee, I have never been able to handle the aroma’s of a “Latte” shop. That started yrs ago before starbucks discovered our area. Guess I lucked out!
Sage Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
I buy Starbuck’s coffee at the grocery store and brew my own.
AliSilver Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
@Sage, But I like the fluffy creamy HIGH CALORIE fraps