That's the thing about the times today - I don't think I'm the only person that only dives into his wallet when completely necessary, whereas at one time I went shopping like it were some sort of retail therapy.
Besides paying utility bills I can't even remember my last significant impulse purchase - I believe it might have been a cheap LED TV that I got for $149 which is about 21 inches and has X2 HDMI inputs, VGA, and a Digital TV tuner.
Anyhow that's nothing compared to past splurges. I don't even buy magazines or DVD's anymore. I am saving to pay off my apartment in full and hopefully get some solar panels on the place after-all but I used to buy that sort of thing all the time.
Perhaps I've matured and come to value money more, perhaps I have everything I need and so naturally I don't need to buy anything more, or perhaps it's the new in thing to live off bare essentials.
These days there are free or very cheap (and legal to boot) solutions for almost everything. I mean this blog is hosted for nothing, there is YouTube for video content, I can read news relevant to my interests online without buying a newspaper, there's plenty of free 'apps' to waste time with, Games on Facebook (not that I play them...but they are available), even free to air digital television can be received with a USB device that can cost less than $50 offering 15 channels of assorted content, and most would have built in PVR capabilities.
Books can be bought online for cheap without having to venture outside, as well as stores that offer legit downloads for music, on demand television and movies as well as software and e-books.
Things are really changing - I honestly believe the retail sector have cause for concern. As backyard, or community gardens become more and more popular and everyday gardeners become more efficient and successful at growing their own food and food to share with friends, family, neighbors and fellow gardeners the next sector I see getting damaged is the food industry. With cooking shows being all the rage it's only a matter of time as far as I'm concerned.
Personally I welcome all this as it steps away from reliance on big business, but I can see how this is really going to impact on everyday, honest people that make their living from jobs that they create.
I cannot agree more! I was allways into the home gardening thing, but with the economy the way it is growing some of my own food, even just a meal or two a week saves me lots of cash! The only thing I fear with the whole world going digital and "into the cloud" is that we will not have human contact anymore... except though machines. weird!
ReplyDeleteThese are bad and good times for the retail world, but people are always going to focus on the bad.
ReplyDeleteI agree a lot. The problem about materialistic hording is that these things lose value, a lot of value while they sit around being used by us. Something like an iPhone3GS that would have cost a lot of money a while back will be inexpensive when the iPhone5 comes out. This is just an example I'm using by the way.
ReplyDeleteI've never been much on owning "stuff", but as I get older things mean less and less to me.
ReplyDeleteIt just leaves all the more money for things like vacations with friends and family. You know, for memories.
There is a shift in consciousness for some people, the debt wheel is retarded and people are trying to get off of it. The trouble with easy credit is people forgot how hard it is to save up for something, payments are just too easy.
ReplyDeleteAs long as you have enough to buy yourself food and pay for place to live - its all good :)
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