Tag Archive: "consumerism"
Happiness gets a lot of attention. In fact, Americans seem obsessed with it (or the pursuit of it). This closet curmudgeon sometimes gets crabby about this simplistic word—and wonders if we ought not to increase…
You don’t want to think too much about $ when planning a BreakAway for four people. But you can’t ignore it either. And you’re guaranteed to have some snags get into your face. Today’s short…
Everybody’s looking for a way to save money these days. And nobody’s got more brilliant ideas than Corporate America. You can’t buy a cup o’ jo or a paperclip without some store-clerk puppet mouthing that smarmy question:…
Christmas has come and gone. Again.
Beautiful; we still take a few days to BreakAway from our jobs, routines, and rat race. With any luck, we even reflect, rest, and renew old ties.
But the party is…
We Merr’kuns may still be learning our money math. But if a downturn is good for anything, it’s for ruthless fiscal forehead-gripping—for economists and Joe 6-Packs alike.
The good news: Americans are reducing their credit card…
When schlepping more stuff into the house the other day, a brilliant idea hit me:
How about a family project in which we try to acquire nothing new for one month. (Okay, except for food and…
What do your Christmas memories look like? With any luck, you see some heartfelt, colorful scenes of gathering, feasting, singing, baking, decorating, giving, gratitude and more. Let’s hope those traditions live on—whatever your beliefs. And…
The suffering economy may be leading people to couponing and cocooning, but we’re still suffocating in stuff. Gosh, when I recently took some high-quality clothes to a local consignment store, they rejected almost all of it. “We…
We blame the banks. Blame the Wall Streeters. Blame the Joneses. But once again, we did it ourselves. This fine article reminds us that the average credit card debt has hovered around $8,400. And more…
I may be topping off a glass that’s not even half-full. But buried in this dreary personal wealth story are some—okay, a few—signs that Americans are learning fast during this disastrous downturn. Can compulsive spenders…
