Change -- however you keep it, use it or save it you have to accept it.
12-07-08

We're well into another ho ho holiday season. I've noticed as recently as the weekend prior to Thanksgiving the retailers are backing off with how, when and even if we spend this year. It's being reported the average family will spend about two to three hundred dollars less this holiday than in previous years. No surprise at all upon hearing this report. Everywhere you go the news hits you like a bat, our worsening economy, a growing unemployment rate added with the rising costs of goods and services. Think differently about how you budget. If you don't have a budget for yourself, your family or your home you'd be well advised to make this priority number one as you head into 2009. Be grateful if you have a job, even more grateful if you're meeting most of your financial obligations. President Elect Barack Obama clearly has his work cut out.

We seem to get good news followed by bad news. Things are so volatile. Gas has come down, but the stock market has also dipped to near record low levels. My advice is don't open the 401K envelope anytime soon unless you want to go into a deep depression. Instead of eating out, which I always did sparingly as a sole matter of cost, I'm virtually not doing at all today. I'm ironing shirts instead of using the dry cleaner. Watching grocery spending like a hawk and making sure I keep a close monitor on my spending and bill paying in every way. I'm far from alone in eating out less we're all choosing to eat more at home than ever before. In an odd way the worsening economy is bringing us together at the kitchen table. This enviornment of watching spending has meant we'll cook more than be prepared for. That's a change we have to accept. We're spending more time in our parks, riding bikes, reading all the while thrift and consignment shopping is way up. We're a resilient group of people, we Americans and we embrace change in the little things in our daily living.

Church attendance is up while contributions are down. Charitable contributions are up in the numbers of people giving however the amounts are down. More offices are having Christmas and holiday parties in the office with a 'pot luck' format of everyone bringing in a dish rather than rent the catering hall or restaurant for the more lavish affair as was the case in previous years. Here's another fast fact. Some of the clients that advertise with our station include larger bakeries in South Philly. People are still placing orders in what should be the must lucrative time of year for bakeries, however the orders are smaller with more people choosing to bake cakes and pies and buy the more labor intensive cookies. In past years people would order most or all of their baked goods. Restaurants normally busy during lunch hour are less so, more of us are brown bagging it.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Evidence of this can be found in many of the city's jewelery stores. This is their banner time of year. Did you know that 25% ( if not more ) of jewelers do their business at this time of year? Some Jewelers are doing more business buying than selling. Many jewelers in the city are encouraging us to bring in our unwanted gold for cash. Lay away is coming back. The idea started long ago has resurfaced at some retailers allowing us to buy things a little at a time. The workplace attire is changing. While in the past a gentleman could only wear a suit and tie in an office enviornment, rising apparell costs have caused employers to relax clothing guidelines allowing for business casual attire. The change is all around us. You can't ignore and it's impossible not to accept the fact we're in a recession period of American life. There's some good from all of this. We're banding together, helping each other and spending more time with our friends, family and loved ones. Apparently we're a bit more selfish when times are good. The holidays are here, same as always. The change is how we react to spending our most precious resource, our time. Find a way to spend wisely this holiday season and give abundantly of yourself to those you care for. See ya around town.