Frugal and proud

"I've been frugal my whole life, but I've become even more so with this economy," said the 24-year-old environmental engineer from Melbourne who carefully monitors his air-conditioner usage and even cuts his own hair every 10 days or so. "I was called cheap when I was a little younger but frugal sounds much better," he said. With an economy seemingly stuck in neutral and a general uncertainty about future employment and finances, not only are more and more individuals paring expenses and saving money, but longtime budget aficionados are finding that they're no longer chided as they once were for their ability and willingness to stretch a dollar.

They're frugal and proud.

Take the case of Eddie Bertot, a NASA engineer at the Kennedy Space Center, who still wears clothing that was popular, say, two or three decades ago. Bertot frequently shops at Wal-Mart on his commute between Christmas and KSC. He purchases his grandchildren's toys at thrift stores and garage sales. He reuses Christmas wrapping paper. Economists say it's not hard to figure out people like Francis and Bertot's money-saving motivations: savings have been shredded by the Great Recession, disposable income is at a premium, the housing market remains weak and unemployment, as Friday's release of jobs data shows, is stubbornly high. Nationwide unemployment is 9.6 percent. In Brevard County it's 11.8 percent.

Being cool may have consequences, because economists generally contend that about two thirds of all U.S. economic activity is based on consumer spending. A recent survey of U.S. consumers by Citi revealed that consumers across all socioeconomic levels and ethnic groups have made permanent the spending and savings adjustments that began in the depths of the recession.

Chris McCarty, director of the University of Florida's monthly Consumer Confidence Index, said the findings in the Citi survey were more of a snapshot of people's current feelings and probably not an indication of a permanent trend of how they may act when the economy turns around. "I think that people's memories for what happened with the economy is relatively short," McCarty said. "If people can continue to spend the way that they were before the recession, they will."

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Frugal and proud - FLORIDATODAY.com - October 24, 2010