Making every penny count

Jamie Parsell
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

May 01, 2009 10:35 am

— The fashionista is turning into a recessionista, thanks to an uncertain economy. Need a dictionary to keep up with recession lingo? A fashionista is a woman who creates or promotes high fashion. She can be a mother, teacher or teenager, not necessarily a model or fashion designer. Usually this person dresses according to the current trends set forth by the clothing industry. She buys brand names, flips through fashion magazines routinely and knows exactly what color is popular for the summer.
However because of the turning economy, fashionistas are cutting up credit cards, ignoring the stores and concentrating on a budget. Gone are fancy dinners, luxury vacations and $5 lattes. Instead, Americans (at least a majority of them) are redeveloping a conscious when it comes to their spending habits.
But women — even those not into fashion — have a way of finding glimmers of sparkle in a not-so-glamorous time. Enter the recessionista: A former fashionista, who knows how to find good deals, budget wisely and still look stylish. And don’t think men are excluded from the definitions of a savvy shopper. Men like to shop for lawn mowers, tools, toys and electronics. Both genders are big-time players in the battle for the American dollar. Everyone likes a good deal, but it does take willpower and practice to nip the lure of shopping.
While recessionista sounds hip and modern, I would rather be called frugal. That’s right. I want the original old-fashioned title, which belonged to my great-grandmothers. Both lived through the Great Depression, which created a lifestyle of frugality. It lasted all of their lives. One of great-grandmothers kept a small notebook and wrote down every single expense. If she spent $50 dollars or just $3, she wrote it in her book. Every single penny was accounted for daily. She thought going to restaurants was silly and a waste of money. I remember always eating at her house. In her eyes, it wasn’t a visit if someone didn’t eat a piece of cake or pie. On shopping days, she visited every local grocery store for particular sales, which drove my great-grandfather crazy. She insisted on finding the best deals in town. And then, she canned fruits and vegetables, tended a garden and made her own curtains and dresses.
She instructed my mother — her granddaughter — to always work and save money. My great-grandmother’s words hit home and my mom is a good example of frugality for her own generation. While she never made curtains or dresses, she canned fruits and vegetables, cooked most of our family’s meals and kept a family budget. My favorite memory — the one that sticks out the most — was my mom’s coupon box. A square-shaped beige plastic box, the individual dividers held treasures such as 50-cent deals, buy one get one frees and 10 percent off coupons. I would help carry the box; in my child-size hands, it seemed to weigh five pounds. Once in the store, my mom would stand back and look at the aisle, sales paper in hand, and select the items. I would dig through the box, looking for a coupon.
With two grown children, my mom’s coupon box has shrunk to a plastic binder the size of her wallet. While she doesn’t buy pop tarts, popsicles and masses of Fruit Loops cereal, she keeps an eye on the bill and hands out coupons to cashiers. Just another example of frugality, my mom’s coupon box is the reason I cut my own coupons out of the paper on Sunday morning. I don’t have a garden, nor do I know how to make curtains, but I do want to learn the art of frugality.
Recessionista sounds nice, but I would rather be frugal, just like the women in my family. Sadly, this economic battle is nothing new but thankfully, I have good examples to make every penny count.
Jamie Parsell is the Lifestyle editor of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. Contact her at jparsell@bdtonline.com.