Granted, they're finding it out of necessity more than anything else, but it's interesting all the same. A New York Times article is predicting that this holiday season will see fewer Americans buying big-ticket items for their families. This, of course, is seen as hurting the economy. I lean toward the opinion that our economy needs to rely less on Americans' use of credit to purchase more and more stuff, but on manufacturing, technology, and exports of our goods and services to other countries.
I'm thinking about asking my family if we can have a gift-giving 'moratorium' this holiday season. Or at the very least, a limit on how much we spend on each other. I know that over the years, my parents have sought to give bigger and better gifts, always trying to outdo the giving of the year before, and I would estimate that at least 90% of that giving was driven by credit cards, not by cash.
How about all of you? Do you intend to spend less this season than you did last year? Why or why not? Do you have any creative ways of giving gifts that don't require huge outlays of money?
Monday, October 6, 2008
Americans are finding frugality. . . . .
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2 comments:
I intend to do the same as I always do - I have a set amount per relative, child, grandchild, etc, and the recipients all know my limits. However, I do a lot of garage sales and that does stretch my $$ plus I 'shop' all year long for Christmas and birthdays.
In addition, there will be Mom's homemade foods - family traditions like Christmas morning quiche and certain cookes or date nut bars. Makes the lack of money spent not as noticeable with the goodies :)
For the local grandkids, they get $5 to spend at the local dollar store - but what makes it more special is that they get taken there by Grammi and we do some fun stuff along with it. So it's not just the money but the time spent together.
I will be spending about the same--neither mine nor DH's family tend to go too crazy at Christmas. Whew.
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