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North Carolina unemployment is 11.1%. There is one residential foreclosure filed for every 1,595 households. Forty-five percent of consumers believe the current economic situation is bad. We have discussed where people are cutting back and where they are not willing to scrimp, but as the recession lingers, more and more people will find it harder to make ends meet.

Yet our consumer-driven culture marches on. There are new iphones and video games. And our families need food, shelter and clothing.

As with most families we are cutting back. We are very upfront with our daughter about the values we chose — that it is healthier and cheaper to eat at home or that she doesn’t need 5 new pairs of shoes this summer. We talk to her about many of the economic choices we are making. Without scaring her (I hope), we also talk to her about the overall economy and how people are losing their jobs and tightening their belts.

I know a lot of people are uncomfortable talking about money, not only with their children, but with their partners. Some people are heart-broken to have to tell their kids they can’t afford something. Others have different spending and saving habits than their spouse, partner or significant other, which causes relationship stress.

How does your family handle discussions about finances and your household situation?

Tags: clothing, consumer confidence index, economy, food, foreclosures, iphone, recession, saving, shelter, spending, unemployment, video games

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 6:18 am and is filed under economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.