Thanks to the Great Recession, as everyone seems to be calling it now, most of us cut back on our spending during 2009.
Business was down for many (my own business was down over 30% from last year…ouch!), unemployment rampant, and those who did manage to keep their jobs were often gripped by fear that they might lose theirs. And, we’re not out of the woods yet.
Yes, it was a bummer.
The bright side to this is: we cut back on our spending. Which means we didn’t “consume” as many resources as we did in 2008. From a green standpoint, this is a very, very good thing.
But I got curious today. Did we really buy less “stuff” in 2009?
Here’s what I found out…
Our 2009 Consumerism
- According to a poll done by the New York Times and CBS News, nearly half of Americans who were asked admitted that they’re spending less time shopping, and more than half admitted that they’re spending less money in stores overall.
- Book Business Magazine reports that 34% of the Americans they polled are buying fewer books.
- The Washington Post reported way back in March that some landfills had reported a drop in trash by over 30%. Almost 1/3 of our trash is from packaging, so this is a good sign that we’re buying less!
- Supermarket News did a survey and found that 1/3 of respondents were buying fewer cleaning products this year compared to last year.
- On the other hand, SpendingPulse reported that our holiday shopping was up this year, by 3.6%.
So what’s the final word? Well, I couldn’t find anything that said for sure that we’d bought less and reduced our waste over all of 2009. But it seems as if the trend overall was less, less, less.
Thanks to the hit my own business took, I know I definitely curtailed my spending in ’09. And, I’m planning on continuing that this year, even though things have been picking up.
How about you? Did you spend less last year? Are you planning on keeping it up this year, even if things get better?
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For the first time since the lean college years I had a grocery budget (besides my mortgage, the second biggest expense I have is food) AND I made a monthly shopping list. Nothing devastating in terms of household income occurred (we both still have jobs) but more $$ was put into savings. I plan on continuing this into 2010 because I found out we can eat well for less, it just takes a bit more planning.
I didn’t spend any less, but I am not a shopper, am very frugal and tend not to accumulate “things”. But I have been watching this trend closely and will continue to do so because it will be interesting to see how much everyone actually learned or if they will resort back to their old habits. Our society is so consumer driven and has too much of a disposable, throw away mind set and I think that will be very hard to change.
My wife has been laid off since December ’08, so we’re already in the not-buying-anything-unless-we-really-need-it mode. We buy food and that’s about it.
My wife has been laid off since December ’08, so we’re already in the not-buying-anything-unless-we-really-need-it mode. We buy food and that’s about it.
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