Blog #6

This week I decided to read an article about the only thing that I hear about anymore. The economy. My mom sent websites to the rest of the family saying ways we can all save money during hard times. I skimmed the list quickly before getting into an argument with her over the differences between her saving money and my saving money. Somehow, in her eyes, her manicure every two weeks was more important than my buying of my favorite brand of rice that was a few cents more expensive. I countered that I don't mind cutting back, as long as I'm not the only one. It seems to me that people are willing to cut out the little details of things that are actually necessary, like food brands and sneakers, but not cut out things that improve their own self image.

We had a guest over to dinner last night and the four of us talked about the issue. She speculated that people wanted to feel good about one aspect of their lives during the economic crisis that has consumed their minds. I understand the importance of turning off the lights more often and using cold water to wash clothes, but it seems like along with those, people could double the money if they got down to the real luxuries and cut those out too. My dad is very specific about his nuts, as he always has to have to most expensive and natural brand. At a glance, this wouldn't seem much different than my rice dilemma other than he get's a bag of nuts everyday whereas I get a bag of rice once every month or so.

My mom is big into her own self-image, mostly because she has one of those jobs where she works with people she's never met before on a day-to-day basis where first impressions mean everything. This means the best clothes and hair and everything else that comes with looking professional and modern. Yet somehow, I seem to be more to blame when I go get my gum or a pair of discount gloves than when she purchases the latest outfit or goes to the best-of-the-best in hair cutters.

My thoughts on all the economy chatter is that if people, myself included, focused on buying the $12 discount jeans instead of the $112 dollar designer jeans, along with focusing on the smaller details like gum and electricity, we could double or triple our saving efforts and rescue families from the common conservation-of-money disputes.


Dyre, Civita. "How To Save Money in Today's Economy." EHow. 20 Oct.. eHow. 21 Oct. 2008 .