Hubby and I have been thinking about what will thrive and/or make a comeback during these difficult economic times. Here's our list, such as it is:
1. Walking/cycling. With the cost of petrol going up and up, more and more people will dig out their walking shoes or dusty bikes.
2. Public transport. See above (though, of course, this is subject to trains actually working).
3. Libraries. Why buy a book or newspaper when you can get one free at the library?
4. Vegetable gardens. Everyone's going to be digging for Britain again.
5. Local shops (if they still exist). You can get your walking in and support your local shops.
6. Charity shops: Why buy new when you can get secondhand? (And walk there too).
7. Dinner parties: Wine is terribly priced in restaurants. You can feed six of your friends for the price of two bottles of wine probably (and have more wine as well). (Don't forget to walk to your local shops for the ingredients, apart from those you've grown yourself).
8. Seeds: Why spend £8 on one plant when for £2 you can get a load of seeds? And you can sell or give away your spare plants.
9. Evenings in watching DVDs (and you can walk to the DVD shop).
10. Appreciation for the truly good things in life. With more and more people losing their jobs every day, this will force the workaholics to sit back and take a good, long look at what they value. Consumerism will, if not completely die, be cut back quite a bit. Couples will have more time for each other. Families will have more time for each other. Being unemployed is no fun, but there can be benefits.
What trends are you noticing?
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9 comments:
We play a lot more board games for entertainment when we're trying to conserve money.
Of course, one would never choose to be unemployed or in a struggle to make ends meet; but it does force one to live simply and intentionally. Going to the library for wagon-full of books has become the highlight of our week! MIME
well, you know why to buy a newspaper. but i agree with all the other suggestions...
We live at the top of a "T" intersection and we usually see a lot of traffic going up and down, heading home or going to work. It's a country road, so only people that are local use this road. We've noticed a lot less traffic on Friday nights and weekends.
We're too far from anything to walk or ride a bike, but I can vouch for us that we are consolidating our errands and waiting until it is absolutely necessary to go somewhere and then making several other stops while we're out.
You make some very good points here. Not sure I would use public transport however. Cycling sounds a bit too energetic for me. Sitting in watching DVD's and drinking wine sounds fab.
CJ xx
the trouble is, here in Cornwall the governmetn are shutting all the local shops because they're post offices.
We already do a lot of these...but are also a bit too far from things to use bikes or public transport (not that there is much to speak of in the countryside)....something the government conveniently forgets. My veg patch is a disgrace though - need to try harder!
All rather romantic.
But wait till you get blistered hands from digging and an aching back.
1945 was not all that fun.
Next you will talk of giving up TV.
All sounds very nice actually. Hope you're right :-)
We have a mobile library that parks in front of our house every three weeks. It is great. And we are planning a vegetable patch in our new garden. And we don't make unecessary car journeys. No more, let's get out of the house and go for a drive. Now we pull on the wellies and waterproofs and say to the kids, "Let's go for a wet weather walk and splash in puddles." We have cut back on everything else as much as we can without resorting to an unhealthy processed food diet. There is one thing I want to cut and that is Sky TV and Setanta Sports. Meeting with resistance there!
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