GLOBAL RECESSION and BUYING PATTERN

Well fortunately all this hue and cry over gobal recession and falling economy has not had a direct impact on my every day life........Its mostly because I am not a working woman ,and also because my husband is not working in the private sector which is bearing the brunt of the crisis.....In fact I am relieved that things have slowed down a bit and people ,especially youngsters will learn a lesson from this recession and learn to save money for a rainy day instead of splurging all their savings and also relying on loans to keep up their high profile life style......

hi cupid....... even if I want to spend on comforts and luxuries, I will not be able to do so in this costly country where salary is in shekels while costs are in dollars.... the taxes and bills leave me with budget that enables me to concentrate only on basic necessities of life and that is what we do....buy only what we can effort and forget about the rest.. Now to add to that we have this economy crisis, which is threat to jobs.........nothing is certain, no planning, no future.....just live for the sake of living!!!!!!

This is good question and thanks for raising this for I haven't really thought like that as of now. all my finance is handled by my father, who is an excellent fund manager. May be he has had re oriented his plans and schemes, I am not sure. But as for myself, I hardly find myself changing my life style and prioritising on the buying list. I am still the same old person, with rational needs and buys. I a not extravagant except for items but that extravagant spree comes very rarely and when I can afford to. But, I think, I must cut down on my expenses a bit and be judicious and wise with money. Thanks for the reminder.

Hi Cupid, It is shocking news to know many will lose their job in future especially those who are working on daily wages. Exporting industry is also affected and many firms already running out of business. Personally it is not affected us upto this time. I don’t know what will happen in future because my hubby is working on the same sector. Let us hope for the best.

I have yet to be effected but I become more cautious everyday. I am now gathering enough money to live without work for 6 months. I don't think I will get layed off but if I do I want to be prepared. No one is immune to this recession. I have been at my job for some time now and I figure I will be one of the last to go and the first to come back. These thoughts have taken a toll on my spending. I will not be going on vacation this year if things are not better and I am cutting out some of the extras like eating out. I hate it because I do love shopping and eating out on occasion. I am hoping things start to look up soon because there are a lot of people in worse shape than I ever thought about being in. Take care.

I have cut down on my spendings, that's for sure. Like for instance, I usually go out for lunch everyday when I'm working, nowadays I got used to packing my lunch, and snack to save a bit of money. My mobile contract is also up for a new one, and with a new contract comes a new handphone. I guess I won't be upgrading my handphone real soon, in fact I'm thinking of cutting my plan and just use prepaid, so I won't have any monthly bills.

Hey Cupid! I am almost embarrassed to say that my spending habits have not changed all that much. I still have two jobs, so I am able to keep up with all of my bills as well as go out for dinner once or twice a week. I actually just took a week long cruise with my boyfriend. It might have been smart to save that money, but we felt like we deserved a vacation. I think the benefit of having two secure jobs is that I can still spend money as I am accustomed. Also, I have never been a frivolous buyer, so I am not missing out on much anyways.

I am kind of caught between the rock & the hard place. My home is the USA - my husbands is in the UK where I am at present. We are working on getting him a residents visa so we can both stay permanently in th USA. Each day here in the UK it seems like prices in the grocery store go up and I am of the opinion that the quality of the food here is poor compared to ours in the USA where the prices have gone up too. We are both retired so there is no making extra money for us other than the little I make on here. We are at present fighting the worst winter in 18 or more years and from the forecasts it is not over yet. Older people here are having to make the choice between eating and staying warm because what they get is not adequate to give them what they need of both. I have been reading details of the stimulus package being tossed around the House and Senate in the USA and from the things I have read it appears to be a pork barrell of waste. Why do Movir Producers need a tax break. We can't afford to go to the movies anyway. Our congress and Senate need to get their heads out of the sand. Reduce the amount they spend and give more of it to those that need it - the lower ncome tax paying public.

Hi cupid. Yeah, I am saving money now and I just try my best to spend less. But it's not really becasue of the economy crisis. I guess I've spent too much @2008 and now my parents' need to decorate their house and that's the reason. I want to show a little support, heehee. Right, I am postponing to buy one item and that's a lot to do with the recession. Actually together with bf, we have planed to buy our own house at the begining of this year but now as we can all see that the house price is falling and we'll have to wait, just in case we buy it at a price much too high. Bf's year-end bonus was cancelled by his boss!! He is pretty upset as he worked so hard and he complained that the corps are just using the recession as an excuse since they achieved the target. Anyway, business of our company is fine, actually busier than before but under this big circumstance, it's also trying to cost down. Chances of getting salary rise seem slim. Save save and save!

Since i've moved out from my parents house and had my own place, i have learned how to be a smart shopper.. i just buy things that are important such as food, medicines, groceries and other things that i really need.. you know what, i used to be an impulsive buyer and i tend to buy unneccessary things(designer clothes, shoes, bags).. yay!

I haven't been directly affected by the recession but I know it will impact certain aspects of my life indirectly. My buying pattern hasn't changed a lot since the recession. My Christmas expenditures were the same or even more than previous years because of the big sales. As a business student, I understand the implications of the recession and where we are heading. I am starting to save a little more than usual but nothing drastic.

Its terrible whats happening in the world ecomomy. Hopefully this ends soon, and we can go back to being prosperous. Anyway, to answer your question, we started proitizing things about 8 months ago. And we changed our buiying patterns drastically. Its a shame, we used to spend so much money on nonimportant things. we stopped that and were able to save a lot of money. its amazing how cutting out things like expnsive clothes and makeup and jewelry and even simple things like expensive shampoo and soap can effect ones budget. We changed all our shopping habits and our now buying sensible so it has saved us a lot of money.

my buying pattern is the same, there is no changes at all.i think financial crisis will be the game of the game of the business man. they are the one who make the world change, and i think they are the one make it worse. if they are not greedy enough, there is no global financial crisis. they buy everything because of their luxury. if they fell that, they cannot make money enough crisis will ended because they make changes again. i hope crisis will soon be recover...take care

of course i dont spend as much as i use to 2 years ago i used to buy whatever w/ out worries of not having enough but now i make sure everything i buy is a necessity

H[i]i cupid, In our case, I am telling my hubby that we have to lessen our outdoor activities like eating out etc! I started also to make some list before we will go to the store for food shopping and it helps us a lot. Unlike before, we tend to grab stuff which we really don't need for the moment! We are planning what to get for this pay day and so on and so forth, we don't get them all at once at least, we can also make some savings! I am even looking for job at least to help with our expenses and bills![/i]

The global recession has indeed made a very great impact on all of us. Here in our city too many are loosing their jobs. There is a lot of cost cutting both in offices as well as in our homes. Priorities have indeed changed now because we do not know how long our jobs will last. We have to now first think of our savings and then of our expenses.

Hi Cupid, I personally have only been buying necessities and am putting slightly more into my savings account in case of emergency. Here in the UK there have also been many reduncies etc but here in the West Country where I live it is a lot slower to take effect but it will also take the West Country longer to get out of once it does hit going from previous patterns. No job is secure however much we all like to think ours is and I really feel for all the people that are struggling right now having lost their jobs. I haven't a mortgage so that side of things doesn't affect me either but so many people are losing their homes which is very sad. Roof, food, heat are my essentials anything else can wait. Huggles. Ellie :D