My mother was born in the “Great Depression”. It wasn’t so great. But people learned how to survive. It has seemed to me that there’s a real difference in attitudes and behaviors between those who lived through the Depression Era, and those who didn’t.
We weren’t well-off when I grew up, and my mother knew how to be frugal. But those were the days when people were teased and disrespected for being “cheap”. In those days it was embarrassing to only get water with your meal–My, how things have changed!
Along came the days of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Suddenly all my mother stood for was in vogue! Only it was not to conserve your own resources, but the resources of the planet. It was still better to spend more on products, under the guise of saving our planet.
Now there is real concern about the financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Can we save the economy of the country? of the people? of the earth’s resources? All at the same time? These are real questions, and I’m not an expert on a global or national scale. But I think I have learned something about personal and family economics. These may be the stormy seas we find ourselves struggling to navigate, even to survive, at the oars.
- Take care of what you have so you don’t have to replace it. Teach kids to use their toys and the family’s assets in respectful, responsible ways. That should carry over into schools, public places, and with things that belong to others. When governments don’t have to spend their resources on fixing what careless and thoughtless (even destructive) people do in parks and public places, that will also help our wider economy, and that money could be spent for adding value instead of replacements and clean-up.
- Learn some skills for repairing things around the house. You can find how to fix a multitude of things on the internet nowadays. Family budgets could be less stretched and stressed. Maybe there could be a little less reliance on society’s resources. Landfills could be less full if people really did Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. That might curtail government spending on garbage a little.
- Learn to say “No” to yourself and kids. Gradually cut back on your lifestyle before it has to be amputated or guillotined. How much house, vehicle, entertainment, and recreation is really reasonable? At what price? How many electronic gadgets and games, toys and trinkets? These also tend to end up in landfills. As a society we have built our economy into a house of (credit) cards . . . the least little wind tends to topple it. Debt is the monster of so frightful mien–that we now embrace, to our detriment. Live within your means, stick to a budget. That means you spend less than your income. When you think about what share of our national budget (that means taxes) goes merely to interest payments, not to actually help people (and that’s where the richest get richer: off our national debt), it makes you feel sick in the stomach.
- Learn some skills to produce and provide for your basic needs. Take it as a challenge to learn to prepare and preserve your own frozen meals, fast foods, prepared food, seasoning and baking mixes. Eat more natural, of your own creation. Learn a little gardening (remember the Victory Gardens of WWII, but don’t expect to become an expert overnight), how to fish, pick berries, learn a little sewing or construction . . . it will make you a better consumer as well. If you don’t like buying things from cheap foreign markets/manufacturers, see what you can do to make your own. If you want to curb obesity and the high cost of health care and health insurance, eat and live a more healthy life. Encourage all you know to make healthy choices in all aspects of their lives. If we suddenly had no unhealthy habits as a society, think how many resources could go to more productive uses: healthcare, law enforcement, land use . . . money and land use that could improve our lives instead of giving us fixes!
- Save a little every month, even if it’s just in a change jar. It adds up, and every little helps. Teach your kids to do so, as well as to live on a budget. You’ll be doing them a much greater favor than to fulfill their every whim. Save for the proverbial rainy day, save for fun things you want to do or get, save for future needs.
- Learn how to shop. When you save up, you can take advantage of sales, and needs that you know are going to come up. You know the car is going to need an oil change. When chicken is on sale, buy extra, repackage and freeze. Cook it in several different ways, such as Tex/Mex, Italian, Greek, Asian, Mediterranean, African, Southern . . . grilled, baked, in soup, on pizza, in casseroles . . . so it doesn’t seem like you are eating the same thing all the time. When clothes are on seasonal sales, consider buying some in sizes the kids can wear several months from now (consider their tastes, and what basics don’t change much in style, like summer shorts and T-shirts). Do the same for yourself. Buy easy care items. Buy items that will last. Spend a little more for a product that will do a better job, last longer, has a better warranty. When consumers won’t buy junk, it won’t be sold.
- Be a hard worker, give your kids chores, expect them to give effort to their jobs (including school). Help them develop their talents and hobbies. Those can be another source of income, or may be the next career they pursue. Be creative in recreation, rather than just throwing money at it. Leisure is not supposed to be the main ingredient of life. It’s the salt. Recreation is valuable, as well as work, but it shouldn’t replace it. Kids need to learn that before they get out on their own.
- Give a little every month to those less fortunate. Better still, apply the old adage, “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he can feed himself the rest of his life.” That’s maybe a bit of an oversimplification, but the principle is to help people learn how to provide for themselves. There will always be those whose health or other situations prevent them from doing so, but as much as possible, people feel much more empowered, more self-esteem and confidence, more independent, when they are able to make their own living. Remember that for yourself, help your kids learn it. Give opportunity to others to live it.
Following are a few links I found. You might not want to try every idea, but you might find some useful.
1 min video by Northwestern Mutual “Setting Financial Goals” https://www.facebook.com/cheddar/videos/288352899025070
1.5 min video by Wells Fargo bank, “What is Emergency Savings” (How can I save for the unexplected?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_WdEDO3-r4
Here’s an article from the New York Times, “Living With Less. A Lot Less.” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/opinion/sunday/living-with-less-a-lot-less.html
Here are 7 ways to sample living with less–just to give it a try: https://www.becomingminimalist.com/minimalist-living/
“Living on Less: 75 Money-Saving Tips” https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/75-money-saving-tips-zmaz07onzgoe
“21 Benefits of Living With Less” https://www.minimalismmadesimple.com/home/living-with-less
“50 Awesome Ways to Live Better on Less Money” https://smartmoneysimplelife.com/live-better-less-money/
Emergency Prep--some ideas and options 