What Would You Give Up

It’s a bit late, but my eleven year old has just heard of the credit crunch. I don’t think she clearly understands what it means but she knows enough to realise that consumers have to give up things we would’ve otherwise had.


She came into the kitchen while I was cooking and asked me a simple question. ‘What would you give up?’ I have to admit I was stumped. Not only did I not have an answer, the question had not even occurred to me before she asked it.


What would I give up.

I thought about my shopping and realised that I haven’t been putting anything in my shopping trolley that I could actually leave out. I considered the clothes I’d gotten for the kids and there was nothing I would return to the rack, was I given the choice.

I already save on electricity and gas. Entertaining the kids is always done sensibly. In my mind I wildly tried to find something I could easily do without. I don’t like wear make-up unless it’s put on me for work, my hair is a wash-and-go mode that needs no styling, and our social circles are made up of people who specialise in ‘everyone-bring-a-pot’ parties.

I still can’t answer the question, but it made me realise one thing. Living well and comfortably takes a lot less than most people think. We have a good life. Like most people we have a mortgage and bills, and live within our means. Our lives, comfortable though it is, hasn’t come from buying more than we need. Comfort for us has been getting exactly what we need and just the right amount of what we want.

Overspending has been a curse for so long, that it took this current economic downturn to make us realise that a good living can be had for much less than we previously thought. It’s widely believed that we’re on our way out of the recession, but if it were to get worse and you had to tighten your belt further to keep spending at a minimum, what would you give up?

Read more in my book, ‘How to Spend Less.’ Details on this page.

Why The Credit Crunch is Not All Bad

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I made the following post on a group blog, and thought I'd put it here as well to get your feedback:

Say what we want about the credit crunch, it’s been good for us and the way our spending was reeling past the red zone of the crazy meter. I know this sounds bizarre. How can tightening our belts and having to spend less be good for us? How can cutting back on luxury items or entertaining our kids be good for the way they live, and in their best interests? Having to reduce the amount of energy we use in order to cut our bills and spending, surely is a burden and not a blessing.

On the other hand, we can choose to see it this way: Having to tighten our belts makes us more careful about what we buy when we go shopping, not only that, it encourages us to think twice about wasting food. When we experience this kind of lifestyle it makes us pay more attention to the poorer people in the world who exist on much less than we do, even now. This outlook is positive because the wasteful, thoughtless person we’d become in our abundant, gluttonous lifestyle is finally being held in check.

Having to teach our kids that expensive toys are to be cherished, and they have to wait and save up for what they want is positive parenting. It’s instilling into their characters, value and appreciation for the things they have (and will have). Think of the values we had when we were children, when many people were given just one Christmas present. Some of us unlucky ones never even had that many.

The credit crunch will reduce a lot of Christmas sacks this holiday. Alas, happiness will have to come from the time we spend with each other and the board games we play for hours on end. This can only be a good thing. How much longer could we’ve gone on increasing the numbers of presents we gave out? Every year Christmas had to be bigger and better. Where would it have ended? How much would we have spent, and to what limit would we have gone, had the credit crunch not thankfully burst the financially captive bubble in which we lived.

Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas lights will be turned down this year. Bills will be checked and turkeys will be smaller with little or no wastage the following day. Yes! The credit crunch has been good not only for our environment but for our own sanity.


And how’s the credit crunch treating you this week?


My book ‘How To Spend Less’ is now available to buy.