Home Beyond Spending habits: More generics, brown bagging; less dry cleaning, haircuts

Spending habits: More generics, brown bagging; less dry cleaning, haircuts

Half of all adults are saving money by purchasing more generic brands, while more than 40% are brown-bagging lunch more often and cutting back on visits to hairdressers and barbers.

Over 30% have switched to tap water and cancelled one or more magazine subscriptions, according to a new Harris Poll. Others have cut down on dry cleaning, reduced or cancelled cable, bagged a newspaper subscription, and either changed or cancelled cell phone service, the poll says.


And although the results say 20 percent of those polled stopped buying their morning coffee, it didn't say whether they're simply making it themselves now. Can't imagine skipping it altogether -- ESPECIALLY amid today's economic pressures.


emptypockets
The irony, of course: What's being saved reduces the among of money going to the people who produce and sell these products and services, which reduces jobs and slows an economy that desperately needs the boost.

Harris Interactive surveyed nearly 2,300 adults online in early October. It found that the changes vary by generations.

For instance, "echo boomers" (ages 18 to 32), are more likely than "matures" (64 and older) to brown bag, to have cancelled or cut back cable, and to carpool or use mass transit, according to the poll.

At the same time, the echoes are much less likely than matures to cancel magazine subscriptions.

The group in between, the baby boomers, are more likely than both groups to buy generic, to brown bag, and to wait longer for that haircut.

The biggest lifestyle changes:

* 64%: purchasing more generic brands;
* 47%: brown-bagging lunch;
* 43%  going to hairdressers or barbers less often;
* 36%  switched to tap water and refillable bottles instead of bottled water
* 34%  cancelled one or more magazine subscriptions
Comments (3)add comment

Catalina Perez said:

Catalina Perez
...
I'm a big spender, shoes, handbags, fancy dinners. I do my part wherever I can to boost the economy. I'm fortunate enough to be able to do that. Sadly those who have either lost their jobs or had their hours cut at work are not so fortunate. I donate where I can...lightly used clothing I pass on to those who I know need it. Just this morning I wrote a check to a homeless shelter. Btw, I did stop buying bottled water only in efforts to help the environment.
 
November 05, 2009
Votes: +0

Anna Aranda said:

Anna Aranda
...
Wow...so if everything that's stated is true.....we're gonna basically be a wrinkled, hairy mess. Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts will resemble ghost towns in the mornings. The Thermos people will have a comeback. And Tupperware will be besides themselves. You'll compete with co-workers to see who can
bring in the more exotic "left-over" and eventually, we'll just let the chicken run through the water, as my Mom used to say, to make soup! Ahh.....we've had rougher times. We'll be alright. :]l
 
November 05, 2009
Votes: +1

Gina Gaffney said:

Gina Gaffney
...
We still spend about as much as we always did for most things. Since we need to cut back somewhere, we reduced our cell phone plan and lowered our coverage on health insurance (stuff we really didn't need). Although we may buy more generics, I absolutely will NOT give up my daily DD coffee habit!
 
November 06, 2009
Votes: +0

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