Where the Axe Is Falling

Reuters' MacroScope blog -- they've got a good number of them, including Commodity Corner, DealZone, Global Investing, Global News Blog, Hedge Hub, and others which I've just added to my blogrolls and feed reader -- highlights a recent global survey that details just where the axe is falling as far as consumer spending is concerned:

An Ipsos/Reuters poll of 23 countries found that cuts in household spending have remained constant during the past six months with entertainment, vacations and luxury items the first to go for nearly three quarters of families, followed by clothing, energy consumption and gasoline/driving.

The 23 countries polled,  including the United States, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Britain, Sweden, China and Japan, make up 75 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.

Where are you cutting back on spending?

Comments

[Abraham]

I'm not really cutting back on spending. I'm redistributing my spending habits. The returns that I can get anywhere suck so much that I figure I'm better off even buying a pair of jeans than bonds, equities, CDs or mutual funds.

[Steve]

Actually, as long as your job is not in jeopardy and you listened to people like Mike Panzer and saved money, now is a great time to purchase things. I got a great deal on a (used) Prius, which I paid CASH for. I am taking a trip to Asia this summer, and the tickets (also paid cash for) were lower than they were the past couple of summers.

It helps that I have been lucky enough to actually make money in my retirement fund every year and my house has only seen a modest decline in value; this keeps the "psychological wolves" from hounding me.

I said it before and I will say it again; thanks to Mike Panzer's book I saved 10's of thousands of $$$. I don't panic about current events because I am able to anticipate what is going to happen, instead of reacting to what has happened.

[Chris Roland]

Well, it's nice to see people are cutting back their spending on education... who needs school anyway? Seriously now, why is cable TV so far down the list? That was the first thing to go when we decided to spend more carefully!

[Mark]

We've stopped spending on just about everything, in an effort to pay down our credit cards. We spend a little under 3K a month on essentials - rent, food, utils, and retirement. Everything else goes to Visa and AmEx. Our entertainment budget is $40 a month for netflix.

[Alexandra]

Does that tell us much? No. We don't know what kind of people were asked in those countries. Where people from the same income bracket, or is this a diverse sample of Wall St. banker to Chinese rural farmers? How many of those asked still had a job when asked, etc.
The list thus looks more suited to western city life-style. Then the savings in groceries are probably due from switching from brands to no-names.
I Chinese farmer probably doesn't spend much on vacations, cable tv, etc anyway and he may be able to live partly off his land for groceries.
Personally, cutting down on luxury items, cable tv, phone-bills and transportations costs, travels abroad would top the list.
Entertainment, going to the cinema, etc I would put last - a few fun things in live you need to have, especially in hard times.

[linda]

Books. My one addiction. I've become an expert internet used-book hunter/swapper/moocher.

No real vacation for 3 years.

And I stopped giving money to my deadbeat relatives. Does that count?

[retired at 29]

Im glad i lived within my means im gonna travel all over the world and buy stuff from people that could never afford what they had to begin with

[wawawa]

My Dish Network satelite will be cancelled next month, as I get my news from internet and unlimited movie rentals from Blockbuster mail for just $21. I can not justify to pay $75 for TV service that I hardly watch.

[Jennifer]

We have cut back in all those areas. No vacations here, going out or luxury items. I shop Goodwill for most of our clothing and buy off season on sale clothes for the rest. I've turned into the dictator of lights and make everyone turn everything off and I now line dry all of our clothing. We run our errands all in one weekly/monthly trip and car pool to work. I make all our food from scratch including bread, bagels and pizza and I can my own jams, soups and veggies as well as have a pretty decent garden going for living on a small city plot. No cell phone, cut the cable to the cheapest plan possible and keep threatening to leave the company all together to get free add ons.

We have more money saved now then ever before, more bills paid off, a pantry to last several months and we are happier than we were with more conviences.