Tightwads Everywhere

This nation is going to change from spendthrifts to tightwads as people lose those second incomes (HELOCs). We are seeing article after article of people having to change their ways. Today The Guardian has an article about the changes that people are having to make in order to save their homes - but is going out to eat and reducing your shopping really that much of a sacrifice?

After years of living large, U.S. households are finally learning what financial experts thought they never would: to live within their means.

Economists have long warned that the U.S. consumer was on an unsustainable spending frenzy and that savings rates were dangerously low. Now, families are being forced into financial responsibility by the housing downturn and a weakening economy.

... "Frugality is in, extravagance is out," he added.

... "We had to cut eating out at restaurants and we had to stop shopping," Parks said. "That was the hardest part for my teenage daughters because they love to shop. But I sat them down and we agreed we'd do anything to keep our home."

... "We get home owners coming to us in trouble, but then we look and see they have only make $50,000 a year and yet they own an Escalade," he said, referring to a Cadillac sport utility vehicle that sells for about $55,000. "And you have to ask them 'What on earth were you thinking?'"

Giving up shopping for non-essentials, eating out, high end cars and expensive vacations are not really hardships for anyone. Has life has in America become so cushy that cooking for yourself is something to be sad about? Sadly I think it has. Remember the best thing we could do after 9/11 was to shop. So I guess eating out was not about luxury it was about saving the country and being patriotic.

When the Tightwad Gazette is on the best sellers list we will know the nation has turned a corner. Personally, if I worked at one of these debt agencies the first thing I would tell people was to read the book. Take it out of the library if you can not afford to buy it. You will learn so much about how you are throwing away your money even on the little things that require no real changes. Even little things can add up. And until you start recycling your plastic bags, canceling cable and the internet, and consider your big no-cooking treat left-over night you are not really being frugal. There is a giant difference between living in your means and becoming frugal. None of the people in the article are even close. If giving up eating out is now considered frugal we have a long, long, LONG way to go...