Are you going into debt buying presents?

Around this time every year, I start to get a little stressed out about money.  It’s not that I am unconcerned about my family’s finances throughout the year, but I know that come December, my budget is going to take a hit.  I’ve got a long list of family members and a shorter list of friends who I buy gifts for every year.  It gets expensive, but that’s just the price we pay for a merry Christmas, right?

Not necessarily. In response to the increasing commercialization of Christmas and the ever-shrinking paychecks of the average American, groups have sprung up offering encouragement and support for those who wish to excuse themselves from the holiday buying frenzy. Continue reading »

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I became quite aware of my limits in the Halloween costume department when, one October evening several years ago, I desperately tried to create a bunny tail out of a handful of cotton balls and some Scotch tape. My daughter, who trusts me so fully, agreed to go as a bunny because we had all the parts — at least I convinced her we did. But that tail fell apart in minutes and, even before that, looked like a piece static-y laundry stuck to her costume of broken dreams.

So you probably think I’m all over the store-bought costumes. Well, in fact I’m not (unless they’re really marked down, don’t have characters, aren’t all gender-cued, caveat this, exception that). We still go for homemade. I’m just not much involved. So I bristled with Slate columinst Tom Scocca and others who were outraged over the message of this Target ad. Continue reading »

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Ever feel like you practically live at the supermarket? You’re not entirely wrong. Marketing professionals believe women spend up to three years of their lives shopping.

Basically, what this marketing firm wants you to know is that giving up shopping can effectively add three years to your lifespan. That’s like, more effective than taking an aspirin every day, eating a healthy breakfast and powerwalking.

And all you have to do is not buy what they’re selling.

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The economic crisis has forced a lot of us to reevaluate our consumer behavior. Shopping-as-entertainment has been replaced with more cautious spending. Having just survived the birthday-Christmas-birthday gauntlet with my two kids, though, I’m really seeing how much STUFF is getting peddled to kids all the time, and how crappy most of it is. My daughter wanted just about everything she saw in the toy catalogs Target and Toys R Us thoughtfully included in our newspaper, and my attempts to explain to her why she was not getting that many toys were pretty feeble, I admit. Continue reading »

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Halloween isn’t one of the holidays that comes to mind when I think “wasteful” — anything that involves the wearing of costumes and eating of delicious candy is not a waste to me. But it could be a lot more green. Authors and mother-daughter team Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson have written a book about greening your holidays called “Celebrate Green” and went on NPR show “Tell me More” to talk about ideas for a green Halloween.
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The New York Times has done it again and hit the pulsing vein of a new trend among the wealthiest 10% of the population.  What’s the scoop this time?  It’s no longer cool to buy the $1200 Oeuf crib for your new arrival.  All the most fashionable people are buying the $500 Oeuf crib nowadays.  People who used to buy $900 strollers new are now buying them for less, used on Craig’s List.  What’s next?  People buying $90 strollers used for less on Craig’s List?

According to today’s Times, the high-end baby products industry has taken the same hit other luxury retail industries have taken in the recession, with many companies claiming Continue reading »

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