Hair shirts and bursting dikes

In the past couple days, I read a quote from some financial expert in some financial media that said (I'm paraphrasing) "Americans like to spend money and any drop in consumer spending and increase in savings rate is likely to be short lived".

Well, that may be news to J Crew and Estee Lauder, who just announced layoffs, apparently, but it makes sense to me! Hair shirts just aren't much fun to wear, unless it's the hair of a sable. (Oh no, PETA - it was just a joke!).

As I've mentioned before, I've been holding the purse strings tight, but I am just aching to go to Paris - and with the Euro where it is now vs the dollar, it's killing me. It will take one friend - one - to say they'll meet me there, and over I go. And out the window goes my budget. That's the problem with building up a dike to hold back spending (or any fun behavior, really) - the pressure builds and if you don't release it and Hans Brinker isn't around with his helpful finger (that sounds bad, I know, but it's not a dirty story and if you took it that way, it's not my problem), it will come bursting out. As you can see in the picture, even he doesn't seem able to hold it back...

Americans may not be shopping, but as I'm not the only one to say, they don't seem to be holding back on spending on other things that are fun. Not in New York, at least. Every bar, restaurant, and party I've been to all year has been packed. The non-shopping fun stuff has definitely kept up my spirits. The question is: for those of us who are a bit materialistic (and I fully admit that I am, as flawed as that makes me)..how long do you/can you hold back from loosening the reins a bit?

Well, I think the answer for me is about another 3-4 weeks. That's not an arbitrary date; that's when the pressure will be the greatest for me as my friends will be having their sample sales. I see no point in resisting, it will only hurt more later. I don't even know what I want, aside from aggressive shoes (which are always what I want) and then there's that unexplained annual urge to buy a striped sailor shirt in the spring. (What is that urge? Freudian? Jungian? Gap ads?) Anyway, I always do, then never wear them. So maybe I won't this year.

But I know I'll hit the sample sales where I'll see friends and have fun and leave with great stuff. And I'll probably leave, as I always do, feeling excited by the fabulous new clothes I'm taking home, and maybe a little guilty for spending more than I should have. I'll try to leave out the guilt this year, though. It's a wasteful emotion and really.. what for? In the March Vogue, Anna Wintour implores us to spend, writing that slashing our shopping budgets isn't necessarily virtuous, since it decimates the fashion industry. Instead, people should spend wisely, considering where their money is going. I think that's quite fair. And I'd like to mention to any employees of hedge funds or mutual funds who are reading this: trading in Scandinavian equities with a nice little Swedish bank is VERY virtuous... and wise!










Hair shirt? Not for spring!




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