I would like to think that this downturn will wake up my generation (1975) and teach us to be more frugal. My grandparents generation, who grew up during the Depression, should be our example. Work hard, save, appreciate what you have, PAY CASH, and live modestly. Very simple steps to avoid financial stress and bankruptcy.
Last week I saw a segment on Good Morning America about “back to school cell phones (with texting keypads), for the kids” I guess we’ll wait and see if we learned anything.

I would like to think my generation (1975) would have already woken up by now. Most of us are headed into our mid-30s and on our own, some with families of their own. I would like to think the ones with families are the ones being frugal, but maybe I am wrong. I am living on my own, but I do not have a family of my own, and I understand the frugal life…the reality of keeping necessities on the forefront and wants on the back burner. My grandparents, who grew up during the Depression, were telling me that all along, but it took me watching my own parents struggle to realize how serious this really is.

Wow…Good Morning America airing a segment on “Back to School” cell phones! Way to go! Another reason we are in the financial predicament we are in. Having a cell phone in school would never have flown with my parents! Maybe parents have become softer. If that is the case, what are they teaching their children?

Amen!!! And it’s not just your generation, but it’s your parents’ and my generation also!

We are Baby Boomers, also called The Me Generation, which is an ‘extremely’ materialistic group of people!!! So, I certainly hope that my generation has learned an ‘everlasting’ good lesson in ‘financial frugality’ from this current recession too!

More so as Americans, I hope that my generation finally makes its ’signature contribution’ to its country, the United States! One possible contribution is, it could build a major third political party and thereby greatly expand political freedom!!!

I don’t know. I had to start changing my spending habits when gas went to $1.65 a gallon. Many people in my quintile did, only the rest of you didn’t know it. So for us, this current period of fiscal prudence started sooner than for the rest of you. By the time the rest of you caught on, many of us were on our third round of cost cutting.

I have always been a frugal person, but whether one can say that “back to basics” was largely a philosophical decision, rather than a reaction to rising costs beginning years ago, is debatable.

I cannot honestly say tht my lifestyle has changed since the depression began. I live a pretty simple life and we don’t got to movies because we don’t like what is offered. We don’t eat out as much because we are so dissapointed in the quality of food in restraunts. We have found that we fix much better food at our own house than we can buy. We don’t have kids so we don’t got to amusement parks etc.

My involvement at my church takes up so much of my time. I guess because of my values and tastes I already live a simple life and as long as I am gainfuly employed and can pay my bills I am happy.

I think that if people discover that they don’t need to go out to eat to eat well if they learn to cook their own food. And if people find much more meaningful entertainment by spending time with family and friends This depression will become less important and start to go unnoticed.

Very glad I learned how to live on cash and tight budgets. Learned a lot from my parents and grandparents. Also growing up in the 50’s, it was a time we learned how to sew, cook, keep budgets, and have entertainment without going out and spending money. I love being frual and love looking for bargins, especially in used items shops. And we’ve gone back to cooking many things from scratch, instead of buying ready made, processed or ordering out. I only hope I passed along the lessons well to my children. We’ve been in and out of recessions before,over the years we’ve been layed off and/or have had hours cut-so that’s lots of practice in getting by without spending money.Or very little money at all.

BTW-Baby Boomers years were 1944-1964 We were not the ME generation;)The ME generation was in the 70’s 80’s and 90’s. However that is even broken down to Generations X, Y and the current Z, I think. One year my kids had to do a report on generations. But, I think, all in all, a lot of those who are in the later generations are or have learned how to be frugal and are doing quite well managing their budgets. I watch my adult kids and their friends all managing with out excess. I think there are more who lean that way than the “want it now” way. I think and hope.

@Linda
How can the 70s be the ME generation? As a member of “Generation X”, I am labeled a slacker, don’t care about anything and all that stuff. Got to love generation labels…sometimes they fit and sometimes they don’t. My generation was labeled that when I was in my teens. Now I am headed towards my mid-30s, and I do nothing but care about others.

Anyway, being on my own has taught me how to budget. There were times when I struggled to make one end meet the other, but I survived. In an economy like this, I can’t understand why more people do not have two jobs. I do, and I think it is a blessing, as much as I complain about it.

Yes, Ann I have held more than one job myself, but there comes a time when we are too old and our bodies just don’t stand the physical abuse. One by one, I had to let go of the other part time work I did in addition to the full time job. So I decided I enjoyed having the computer more than the television, eat animal protein about two times a week and haven’t bought any new clothes in 4 years. The lavish lifestyle I had previously was austere by most standards in the first place.

I do get a certain amount of satisfaction in squeezing a quality of life from my resources. I think it is important for John Zogby to understand that people in the lower quintile were effected by the gas prices much earlier and had to adopt a “simpler life” out of necessity before the general population, rather than it having been a philosophical shift.

@Jaime
I hear you, Jaime, and I had to change my lifestyle well before the gas prices as well. It is very hard to get by when some employers’ “cost of living” raise does not even begin to reflect the actual cost of living…so you begin to eliminate the unnecessary things in your life. However, there comes a time that you run out of things to eliminate, and then you realize it is time to find other ways to make your life better. In my case it was to go out and find a better job, which I did, but I took a look at the big picture. I decided I was so far backed into a corner that I needed to hang on to the job I was leaving also.

For almost two years I have been working two jobs, and I have gotten to the point where I realize I may be stuck this way for awhile, as once you get ahead in one area…something else happens. And the more I think about the economy and such…all I want to know is exactly where did this start? When did things in this country get so bad so fast? It’s been building, I have a feeling…but when exactly did it start?