I’ve never been a huge consumer of financial news, but lately? Even what I do catch makes me want to hide under the bed and come out sometime in 2010. Even though we both have (knock wood) jobs and health insurance and aren’t drowning in debt, I am scrutinizing every purchase even more than usual these days and being even more like the spending police.
And I am not alone. Women, especially mothers, are policing the family budget with much greater scrutiny, cutting where they can and doing much more research about the purchases they do make, according to this study from retail consultant Miller Zell.
Among the findings were that women are two times more likely to make joint shopping decisions with their mate, even in such traditionally “guy” categories as electronics, almost half report being more likely to do online research before making a purchase.
Women are also showing more restraint, the survey said – instead of applying a gift card to a larger purchase, they spend the value of the gift card and are out of there.
Where else are we cutting? 68 percent are saying they spend less at restaurants; 50 percent are moving from premium grocery stores to discounters, and 87 percent are switching brands at the grocery store and a third are buying private-label clothing.
I’m noticing this too – every retailer’s ad on television seems to be emphasizing value, and the tiny amount of mall Christmas shopping I did featured unadvertised 25-30 percent off sales. If you’re affluent, learning these survival skills will help you to stay that way, and if you aren’t, it’s nice to reap the benefits from the rest of the world learning to live like you always have had to.
