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What Luxuries or Name-Brand Items Do You Refuse to Give Up?
By: Donna Ray Berkelhammer. This was posted Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
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Loading ...The lead lifestyle story in USA Today is about the small luxuries people are using despite the sluggish and uncertain economy. Chocolate, 99-cent music downloads, rescue dogs. On my way to work this morning, I caught part of a segment on FM Talk 101.1 (WZTK) about what name-brand items people refused to give up, despite the budget cutting.
Interesting topics, both. For myself, I would never give up Tide detergent. How about you? What (small) luxuries do you still buy and/or is there a name-brand item you won’t give up for the generic or store brand?
Tags: brand-name, FM Talk 101.1, luxuries, luxury, name-brand, recession, Tide, USA Today
I have to have name-brand ketchup. I prefer Hunt’s, but I’ll buy Heinz if it’s a good deal. I will not buy store-brand toiletries, but I am experimenting with that. Duke’s mayonnaise is a must. Other than that, I am pretty flexible and the quality of the store brands has gotten a LOT better in the past few years (especially food).
Posted by: Britt Whitmire | February 24th, 2009 at 12:31 pmIn my town, there is a high-cachet chain of gourmet grocery stores. Their store-brand prepared foods are all very stylish things like sun-dried pesto triple-cream gelato, Haralson apple dry-aged crab legs, Beemster grass-fed coffee, insert gourmet buzzword here. (All silliness aside, I like this store. I can’t afford to shop here, though.)
There is also a low-rent discount chain that sells meat & potatoes, Doritos, ketchup, square tomatoes, etc.
I just recently found out that the parent company of both chains is consolidating. The store-brand foods at the gourmet grocery chain and the store-brand foods at the discount grocery chain will be produced by the same manufacturers. Only the labels will be different. Kind of takes the winds of pretension out of my sails.
SO: What’s in a brand? Nothing more (or less!) than the way it makes you feel to buy the stuff.
Posted by: Amy Boland | February 24th, 2009 at 3:09 pmI will not give up my good $5 cigars. No way.
When I travel and spend 15 hour days working, I want a good hotel. Ritz (which is now often less than $199 a night), Westin, etc.
I refuse to give up dry cleaning my good shirts. Heavy starch.
Posted by: Mark | February 25th, 2009 at 1:22 pmThis is easy. My iPhone 3G, of course! Almost everything else is negotiable.
Posted by: Harry | February 25th, 2009 at 1:26 pmMy husband and I are BOTH unemployed, so we have already given up a lot. Name brands? Forget it! However, since we can’t afford to go out to dinner or the movies or concerts, the one thing we have not yet given up is DirectTV. If things get much worse… I guess we’ll need some good rabbit ears.
Posted by: Stephanie | February 25th, 2009 at 2:11 pmPremium dog / cat foods, as cutting back now would lead to increased health issues/vet bills later. Also, my dining out has changed from dinner once or twice a week to lunch maybe every other. Hope this helps.
Posted by: Deborah Repplier | February 25th, 2009 at 2:27 pmStephanie, Remember the signal is going digital. Maybe you should get a coupon for the converter box: https://www.dtv2009.gov/
Good luck to you both.
Posted by: Donna Ray Chmura | February 25th, 2009 at 2:29 pmCharmin toilet paper, the ultra strong variety. And my scotch – Highland Park or Aberlour.
Posted by: Mike Spanjar | February 25th, 2009 at 2:37 pmDo people understand that in an economy that is about half driven by consumer spending, every decision to cut back on spending only sends us deeper and deeper into recession. In fact, it could be seen as selfish for people who have not lost their jobs or otherwise been adversely affected by the bad economy to hoard their resources. That will only send us further down the vicious cycle of cutting production and cutting jobs because demand is falling further and further.
Everything seems to be on sale now, so it is probably a good time to spend money. If it makes you feel guilty to spend money on luxury items for yourself, it’s probably a good time to contribute money to charity. And if you feel compelled to save, it’s probably a good time to buy stocks. All of those steps would also help the economy.
Posted by: Joe Markowitz | February 25th, 2009 at 3:07 pmGood question Donna! I’m not giving up my fine single malt friend Lagavulin. I don’t drink much, so when I do, I’m sticking with the good stuff.
Posted by: James | February 25th, 2009 at 3:59 pmMy buying style went through this shift years ago, so now it’s habit, not financial (I am fortunately doing better than ever). But I wouldn’t give up Miracle Whip, real peanut butter (no generic), or high end toilet paper! As Amy so elegantly pointed out, it’s sometimes all in the marketing!
Posted by: Beth Anderson | February 25th, 2009 at 7:24 pmI’ve hung on to my gym membership becuase mental health doctor would cost a lot more! We’ve hung on to Digital Cable with DVR and certain brand names at the grocery store.
We have given up eating out, movies, coffee houses, air travel, buying things like clothes, jewelry, and expensive wines, and hobbies that cost money.
Posted by: Jen | February 27th, 2009 at 11:46 amI appreciate the truth of Joe’c comment, but debt was the house of cards that caused may of our businesses to expand, homeowners to overbuy and brokers to downstream questionable investment instruments. Last year, consumer debt was 100% of GDP. The last time that happened? 1929. This correction will be painful.
Posted by: Russell Lawson | February 27th, 2009 at 2:42 pmI refuse to give up my starbucks, shoot, need the constant energy. Also my vacations with family, need time to get away and recharge. Other than that, doing more stuff at home with the kids.
Posted by: Gilbert Pagan | March 3rd, 2009 at 11:48 amOne thing we will cling to at all costs is healthy eating. I am not the food director of the home, but my wife yields a powerful combination of knowledge, persistence, and creativity in ensuring that the family stays healthy through healthy eating. We drink organic milk from a dairy in SC, eat hormone and antibiotic free meat, she bakes her own bread and muffins. The food budget is the second biggest item in the budget. Guess what? We almost never get sick. We have active twin infants, a five and an eight-year-old and we don’t keep them in a plastic bubble. We are socially active. We are getting ready to go on COBRA, but even if we weren’t and had no insurance we would not change the strategy. You either pay for it up front and don’t go to the doctor; or eat as cheap as possible and subscribe to the AMA and Pharmaceutical mindsets of “we have a procedure or a pill that can cure whatever is wrong with you.” Both of these methods address the symptom and not the cause. We ran into a lady the other day with a 3-ring binder full of coupons. She was excited to save a bunch of money off of food items that could never increase the standing of her family’s health.
Posted by: Matthew Gannon | March 3rd, 2009 at 11:58 amHealthy eating is a long term investment not a luxury.