<p>Include me in - spending much less this year.</p>
<p>Spending less - and enjoying the holiday more, that’s my plan!</p>
<p>I think people will spend less, but a lot of the money that is spent will be for necessary items like clothing, outerwear, household goods etc. I think there will be more useful presents and fewer discretionary goods given like electronics, toys etc.</p>
<p>We’ve never gone overboard, and won’t this year. But I don’t anticipate spending much less either. Our younger son has requested an ipod/nano or something similar and I see no reason why he shouldn’t have one. DH’s salary should be safe and I made more this year than I have in years, though it’s likely next year will be less fruitful. I don’t see a reason to cut back substantially yet.</p>
<p>I took another look at the numbers in the link. Wow, weren’t we in a recession in 2002? The spending only dipped one percent, and on average was close to $1K.
We went to our local Costco and chatted with one of the employees. iPod and other electronics sales are down 40%, and everything else is selling much slower. People were rolling out full carts, but they were mostly filled with food and stuff like toilet paper. Not a single person was looking at the stuff in the jewelery case! However, the huge pile of Wiis they had in there last week was gone.</p>
<p>I am beginning to think that the media is fueling this fear and keeping people from spending. I cannot turn on the news without hearing about how must doom we are all in. The message they are sending is that the sky is falling.
I am not denying that our economy is a mess and things are uncertain, but this is bordering on creating hysteria</p>
<p>^Virtually everyone I know (here in So Cal) is spending less money because they have less money.</p>
<p>CCr’s are a frugal bunch. Most people I know spend money whether they have it or not.</p>
<p>We too will be spending less money this holiday season… musicamusica, our situations are similar. Our business has declined dramatically in the last 6 weeks. We have had to lay off our employees and drastically cut the hours of the one we need the most. We still owe money to suppliers and it is hard to keep up with it when little business is coming our way… But on the other hand, we have a store and hope that we still will have a decent holiday season and that not everyone is living under a cloud of fear.</p>
<p>“I took another look at the numbers in the link. Wow, weren’t we in a recession in 2002? The spending only dipped one percent, and on average was close to $1K.”</p>
<p>The recession in 2002 was caused by a popping of the tech bubble and 9/11. But the mortgage bubble was inflating at the same time so we came out of the recession on the back of MEW (Mortgage Equity Withdrawal). I was pretty amazed at how fast we came out of that downturn.</p>
<p>We currently don’t have another bubble to reflate handy.</p>
<p>We will spend the same, because we cut back years ago, other than parent to child (including grandparents) no one exchanges gifts. When all the grandkids were little it got silly sending gifts to kids you did not often see, etc. So we decided no cousin type gifts. We set a budget years ago for our kids and it has not lifted- inflation or not. Although this year our oldest will probably get a gift certificate for her next auto maintenance as that is what she needs, instead of something fun or frivolous!</p>
<p>DH & I don’t usually give something to each other, unless it is something that is exactly what we want- something for the house, something some one needed/wanted. We might buy each other a rug this year, but are wondering if after Christmas sales would be a better deal, but we would have done that anyway.</p>
<p>“I am beginning to think that the media is fueling this fear and keeping people from spending. I cannot turn on the news without hearing about how must doom we are all in. The message they are sending is that the sky is falling.
I am not denying that our economy is a mess and things are uncertain, but this is bordering on creating hysteria.”</p>
<p>My husband is firmly with you on this one. He is not in denial that things are bad, but he feels like the media makes everyone freak out. The Chicago Tribune today ran a story about several people who lived in the Great Depression, and they were talking about the horrible time they had just finding something to eat (making dandelion soup was mentioned), and how worried they were that younger people today wouldn’t have the stamina to go through another Great Depression. </p>
<p>Reading stuff like that will make you never want to set foot in another store!</p>
<p>We are definitely spending less this year; I would guess about 50%ish.</p>
<p>I think media is fueling the fear about economy. But my guesss it is only will last till January 19th, 2009. I am hoping that once we have a new president in power, media will be extemely bullish that US and world economy will be increaisng overnight. This positive covergare should help the new president. If media does not do it, we will be in for more trouble for future economic mess down.</p>
<p>I hope you are right aapride, but I would’ve thought that might have happened once the election was over…</p>
<p>I agree about the media. I was just in a Gap and Banana Republic in NYC a few hrs ago and the cash register lines were practically out the door. Granted the situation isn’t good and retailers are already having significant sales so people are buying due to good deals. However, if things were so truly awful, people would be living with the jeans and sweaters they had and not buying new ones. And this is in NYC where a good percentage of people have been directly affected by the economy because of layoffs at banks.</p>
<p>aj725- Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy had a coupon special that ended today of 30% off entire purchase. That might have been the reason for the lines.</p>
<p>Haven’t spent much money on presents in years. Once the kids got into High School we did ski trips for xmas and never went to the mall much. Now the kids are in college and xmas presents are the plane tickets home and home cooking. Perhaps a small present or two is in order but not much</p>
<p>US is too dependent on consumer spending anyway.</p>
<p>Went to the New Balance Factory Outlet this afternoon and picked up 7 pairs of shoes. 4 Tennis and 3 running. This should keep us in shoes for quite some time. They had a couple of different sales running at the same time the parking lot was near full while we were there. They had some shoes as low as $9.99.</p>