Jersey Tightwads? Not by choice, of course

Interesting article from todays Star Ledger with the long title of As indicators point to recession jittery Jerseyans look for ways to curtail their spending. For many, it means tough choices. This article is chock full of examples of middle class people living like they are rich. Eating out $4 coffees, two-three times per week, cleaning services, yard service, $7000 vacations, and high end hair salons. This is the outward lifestyle parallel to pergraniteel inside the homes. More cases of people using their equity to provide a second income in order to live a lifestyle they really can not afford. The tough choices in the following stories come from people who appear to not know how to live within their means.

The grande mocha, as it turns out, says a lot about the economy.

A few months ago, even before consumer confidence officially began slipping, Lori Mozenter put an end to her regular visits to the local Starbucks, where she would plunk down nearly $4 for a cup of the rich, chocolatey coffee drink.

"I would drag my kids to Barnes & Noble just so I could go to Starbucks," said Mozenter, a nurse who lives in West Windsor with her husband and kids.

It is amazing how much people throw their money away without even thinking. The $4 is jut for her drink - how much does she spend buying her kids a treat or the $1 cookies they sell. Starbucks is a great place to burn through your money. I stopped frequenting Starbucks years ago - when I realized that for the same price of a day's coffee I could buy a weeks worth and high quality coffee too. Now the local supermarkets sell starbucks coffee beans at the supermarket why bother shelling out that much more. Once in a great while it be nice as a treat just like eating out - for a financial prudent person it is considered a splurge not a routine.

... These are signs, too: A retired Monroe Township couple canceled their annual summer vacation, which has amounted to as much as $7,000 in past years. Middle-class families are reconsidering whether they can afford a $650 swim club membership for the kids this summer.

A retired couple throwing away $7000 on a vacation. That is fine if you are rich, but how many people are using their equity when you are using your equity it does not make any sense. As for the swim club, people really need to figure out how much one uses the facilities. It is probably a good deal for some and others are just throwing their money away. Compared to upkeeping your own pool, $650 is very reasonable. However, if you only go once in a while on weekends it is not worth the cost.

...Lisa Evans, a single mom from East Windsor who works as an engineer, said last year she ate out two, and often three, nights a week. Now, she limits herself to one night.

And when she does go to a restaurant, it's usually for takeout so she doesn't have to leave a tip.

"You've got to do what you've got to do," Evans said.

A few months ago, Vickie Ciotta of Bridgewater and her husband decided they had to budget a specific amount to keep their dining expenses limited. "We still do it. We do it less fancy and with more thought," Ciotta said. "You see your money going on gas and you think, we have to economize."

Between tips and the huge mark-up on drinks going out to eat is expensive. As I said before when growing eating out was considered a special treat, now it is a weekly event. If people compared their weekly grocery store expenses against what they spend to eat out they will realize they are throwing away a lot of money. When I first started working it seemed nice in the 'I deserve it' mentality. People also do not always realize the efforts in going out - once kids come in the picture it is very evident. The whole relaxing issue is out the window.

Just wait until articles start mentioning Whole Foods - especially the prepared foods. When I added up what my family spent of prepared food I found we could have gone to a restaurant instead. Naturally when we have to pick up one of their specialty items we only get one or two things from the prepared foods. Due to Whole Foods high costs and strong temptations I try to reduce my trips and buy only what I came for.

...The mantra among many consumers with trepidations about their jobs, their investments and what troubles may still be coming, seems to be that even making little cuts will help.

Bridgewater resident Regina Tegeler is shopping around for a new internet provider in an effort to reduce her monthly expenses, and she has decided that she spends too much at the hair salon.

"I'm not getting my hair styled and colored as much," said Tegeler, a strawberry blonde sporting a short cut. "I'm doing a little bit more myself."

At the John Roberts salon in Metuchen, stylist Richard Sauer said his business is down 20 percent compared with last year. After the winter holidays, business normally falls off, he said, and then it starts coming back in February. Only this year, it never rebounded.

"I just feel that people are stretching it out. If they normally come for a coloring every four to six weeks, they're waiting eight to 10 weeks to come in," he said. "The cheaper salons are probably doing better."

Frequent trips to the salon is quite expensive - and Northern NJ has few afford ones - their seems to either be the cheap SuperCuts or at minimum $50 a cut salons. At least she realizes she could buy a box and color her hair for under $10 herself versus the $100 a salon charges. I think we will begin to see nail salons close soon. This is another thing that also grew during the boom. Growing up people only had manicures and pedicures for very special occasions and many just did it themselves, now going to the nail salon has become a bi-weekly event with the occasional "nail" emergencies.

..."When we decided to do the renovation, we started tightening our belts more," Murdock said. The lawn service went. So did the cleaning woman, easily trimming their monthly spending by $1,000.

"Now," she said, "it's purely a matter of watching our expenses."

Here are two more things that were only used by the wealthy that are now common place. Average people having landscaping service and maid service. As for yard service what happen to neighborhood kids coming by to cut the grass. Now we have expensive professionals come by small yards with their riding mowers and people paying $200 per month to cut a 50X100 lot. I understand the need by the elderly or those with physical limitations, but when the same healthy person is paying $100 and month to go to a gym and paying someone a $200 to do a little yard work they are just throwing their money away. Throwing away money on house cleaning is also incredibly excessive. I can understand using a service prior to a fancy dinner party or very special occasions, but many people have someone come by just to clean their toilet and vacuum their carpets every week.

Another area where I expect to see a drastic change is the shopping habits of us middle class New Jerseyans such as the suddenly ubiquitous Coach bags and regular trips to Nordstram and Neiman Marcus.

We will look back on all of the excess one day and wonder what we were thinking.