Recession Making Us Rethink Home Appliance Purchases
June 11th, 2009 | by myarticlenetwork |It’s one of the indicators of a ‘proper’ recession when the general public starts to rethink strongly held views on what they once ‘couldn’t live without’. Research conduced by Pew Research Center of a large number of US residents asked what household appliances and everyday items were being considered a lower priority as a result of the credit crunch. They asked the question “which of these are pretty much a necessity and which are pretty much a luxury you could live without?” regarding a number of household appliances and gadgets. The list ranged from cars to air conditioners to microwaves to cell phones.The results, perhaps shocking to some, show how more and more of us are becoming increasingly frugal with our purchasing decisions on ‘big ticket’ household appliances and electronics.The number of people who considered a microwave a luxury item went up by a fifth compared to the last survey. Having a home or portable air conditioner stopped becoming a luxury for 16 percent of people asked compared to a few years ago. The most eyebrow raising statistic from the research was the 12 per cent decrease in people who had previously felt they couldn’t live without a TV set.The items that didn’t take a hit in the survey were new-age gadgets such as ipods, mobile phones and broadband - these have become the things we can’t do without.
To be honest many of the results don’t surprise me all that much.You only have to ask around to friends and family to see that frugality is becoming key as we live in fear of rising prices, reduncancies and difficulties in obtaining credit. I suppose from now on it will be about spending the minumum necessary to get by. Having a ceiling fan instead of air conditioning during the hot summer we have coming ahead. Staying with the same refridgirator or mattress that you’d like to replace but dont desperately need to. Cutting car usage to essential trips only to cut down on fuel and repair costs. I believe we can make do with these types of compromise to be honest. What I and many others are really worried about though is that this is only the tip of the iceberg, and the situation could get too bad to be resolved by smarter household budgeting.Perhaps that will be the point when people start questioning on a large scale the billions and trillions of our tax money that is spent on corporate payouts and wars.
Tags: air conditioners, budget, cellphones, credit crunch, cutting back, economy, inflation, money saving, recession