NY TIMES– She had so much. A two-bedroom apartment. Two cars. Enough wedding china to serve two dozen people.
Yet Tammy Strobel wasn’t happy. Working as a project manager with an
investment management firm in Davis, Calif., and making about $40,000 a
year, she was, as she put it, caught in the “work-spend treadmill.”
So one day she stepped off.
Inspired by books and blog entries about living simply, Ms. Strobel and
her husband, Logan Smith, both 31, began donating some of their
belongings to charity. As the months passed, out went stacks of
sweaters, shoes, books, pots and pans, even the television after a trial
separation during which it was relegated to a closet. Eventually, they
got rid of their cars, too. Emboldened by a Web site that challenges
consumers to live with just 100 personal items, Ms. Strobel winnowed
down her wardrobe and toiletries to precisely that number.
Her mother called her crazy.
Today, three years after Ms. Strobel and Mr. Smith began downsizing,
they live in Portland, Ore., in a spare, 400-square-foot studio with a
nice-sized kitchen. Mr. Smith is completing a doctorate in physiology;
Ms. Strobel happily works from home as a Web designer and freelance
writer. She owns four plates, three pairs of shoes and two pots. With
Mr. Smith in his final weeks of school, Ms. Strobel’s income of about
$24,000 a year covers their bills. They are still car-free but have
bikes. One other thing they no longer have: $30,000 of debt.
Ms. Strobel’s mother is impressed. Now the couple have money to travel
and to contribute to the education funds of nieces and nephews. And
because their debt is paid off, Ms. Strobel works fewer hours, giving
her time to be outdoors, and to volunteer, which she does about four
hours a week for a nonprofit outreach program called Living Yoga.
“The idea that you need to go bigger to be happy is false,” she says. “I
really believe that the acquisition of material goods doesn’t bring
about happiness.”
While Ms. Strobel and her husband overhauled their spending habits
before the recession, legions of other consumers have since had to
reconsider their own lifestyles, bringing a major shift in the nation’s
consumption patterns.
“We’re moving from a conspicuous consumption — which is ‘buy without
regard’ — to a calculated consumption,” says Marshal Cohen, an analyst
at the NPD Group, the retailing research and consulting firm.
Amid weak job and housing markets, consumers are saving more and
spending less than they have in decades, and industry professionals
expect that trend to continue. Consumers saved 6.4 percent
of their after-tax income in June, according to a new government
report. Before the recession, the rate was 1 to 2 percent for many
years. In June, consumer spending and personal incomes
were essentially flat compared with May, suggesting that the American
economy, as dependent as it is on shoppers opening their wallets and
purses, isn’t likely to rebound anytime soon.
On the bright side, the practices that consumers have adopted in
response to the economic crisis ultimately could — as a raft of new
research suggests — make them happier. New studies of consumption and
happiness show, for instance, that people are happier when they spend
money on experiences instead of material objects, when they relish what
they plan to buy long before they buy it, and when they stop trying to
outdo the Joneses.
If consumers end up sticking with their newfound spending habits, some
tactics that retailers and marketers began deploying during the
recession could become lasting business strategies. Among those
strategies are proffering merchandise that makes being at home more
entertaining and trying to make consumers feel special by giving them
access to exclusive events and more personal customer service.
While the current round of stinginess may simply be a response to the
economic downturn, some analysts say consumers may also be permanently
adjusting their spending based on what they’ve discovered about what
truly makes them happy or fulfilled.
Read full article about Consumers Finding Ways to Spend Less and Find Happiness.
© COPYRIGHT NY TIMES, 2010
Photo by flickr user epSos.de
NATURAL NEWS– During the week of December 17 – 19, 2007, Lakota Indian leaders
traveled to Washington DC and withdrew from the constitutionally
mandated treaties to become a free and independent country. They did so
in a fully honest, legal, and ethical manner.
YES!
NY TIMES
