Economic gut check

Last year was different.  I had not rushed out for my usual after-Christmas bargain hunting foray, so when I did make it back to my local discount and department stores almost a week after Christmas I was shocked at how much Christmas paraphernalia remained on the shelves—wrapping paper, ornaments galore, artificial trees and just about anything else red, green, or sparkly.    Seems either that 50-60% discounts had not enticed shoppers or that retailers had ordered all that “stuff” before they realized that this Christmas shopping season would be slapped in the face with jobless or worried customers whose discretionary income had just plummeted. 

Whatever the reason, the sight of those shelves still loaded down made me take stock of my own shopping motives—past and present.  I might have grabbed stuff to add to the stuff I had left over or “just in case” or merely because “heck, it’s 50% off.”  However, my gut-check began to kick in.  That same gut check kicked in over 30 years ago when I was a newlywed and we had just been through the energy crisis of the ‘70s with long lines at gas stations and high priced ground beef.  Living in Minneapolis didn’t help of course—especially coming right out of rural Oklahoma.  That gut check kicked in when my girlfried—whose husband and taken a job with the same large company as did my husband—and I went to a make up party where the associate made us look beautiful and then expected us to be able to do the same thing with a slight catch:  we would need to buy the $20 make up kit.  “Twenty dollars!” I’m saying to myself. " I can’t spend twenty dollars in one throw on make-up."  Now, if you were born in the 70s, you won’t get that, but if you were 20-something in the 70s, you might.  My girlfriend didn’t hesitate.  I, just a few months removed from eating Franco American Spaghetti several times a night because we couldn’t afford any thing more as college students, took a very deep breath, closed my eyes and squeezed out an “okay.”   I had been raised to not live beyond my means—if you don’t have the money, don’t buy it.  My parents came through the depression successfully, but that experience wasn’t all that far removed from their memory.  I was their progeny.   My girlfriend didn’t have that same gut check.  In fact, she had brand new furniture, bought on credit, while I furnished our first home with hand-me-down furniture or furniture from my favorite period known as “early garage sale.”    One evening when our husbands were out-of –town with the corporate training program, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner out at the Sofitel—even sounded chi chi to us.  Perusing the menu.  Gut check.  Friend?  No gut check.  She splurged with the lobster.  I ordered something less pricey. 

It’s time we all got back to the gut check philosophy of buying and spending and spending and buying.  It’s time to be good stewards of our resources—save the planet, don’t waste fuel, buy what you need but not necessarily what you want.  Do sixteen year-olds really need an SUV and an iphone?  The gut check is gone.  Bring it back.