Ka-Blog on the Good Question.
Posted on January 5th, 2009 – 5:33 PMBy Kara McGuire
I’ll be on WCCO’s Good Question segment with Jason DeRusha tonight at 1o. The topic? How to prepare financially in case you’re canned. Check out his “Deblog” entry about the upcoming segment. Now that I was on the show, I forgive him for naming his blog Deblog 
Dealing with a layoff also happens to be the topic of tomorrow’s Dollar Duo, and my co-host John Ewoldt will have a column on the unfortunately hot topic as well.
The bottom line message I hope everyone takes away from the stuff I’ve done on this topic is this: Have some cash at the ready.
Even if you can get nowhere near 3 to 6 months, set a goal of saving $50 a month, or having $1,000 in the bank, and you’ll be much better off if you end up paycheck-less. If you keep your job, you’re still better off with some savings.
A comment I’m sure won’t make it on the air that I made is that it’s time to get back to some of our Depression-era values of saving, conserving, and reusing. We media doom and gloomers have been focusing too much on the “Depression” and not enough on the “Great,” joked DeRusha.
Seriously though, as I argued in a recent column, it’s time to return to the values of thrift. Anyone in?
8 Responses to "Ka-Blog on the Good Question."
You are correct, the Great Depression comment won’t be making it in the story. Although I am all about putting the Great back into the Depression.
I have been pitching a Good Question story on what happens to the economy if people stop spending and start saving. Does the economy shift? Do companies figure out how to profit more out of saving? Or do we just slow down as a nation?
I helped him pick that name!
This move to thrift is simply a reversion to the mean - we have been thrifty in odd ways for years - but it’s simply been very un-cool until recently.
If people had been doing this all along then they’d have the cash now to buy investments, do some home improvements on the cheap and so on.
We’ve scaled back to frugal, which I think is a step above thrifty. Frugal is going back to basic cable. Thrify is getting rid of it all together. Frugal is only buying books with the amazon credits we get from the points on our credit card. Thrifty is getting the cashback checks instead and borrowing our books from the library. Frugal is going to once upon a child to get new pjs for the baby, and thrifty is cutting out the feet when she outgrows them and making her wear them anyways with a pair of socks. Frugal is a nice place to be right now because it helps with savings, keeps us from feeling too burdened, and lets us have another level to drop should a crisis actually hit.
Your $1000 as an absolute minimum is a good guideline. If you are laid off and go to collect unemployment benefits, you will have to serve a waiting week (a week for which you are not paid) before you can get benefits. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, it is hard to absorb the loss of a week of pay and then get only half of what you had been earning.
Yes, I’m all about the thrift…
Speaking of which, I was reading KaBlog on Twitter and couldn’t help but notice a fair amount of kid clothing purchases. With a two year old and a six month old at home, our family has regularly shopped thrift stores for kid clothes. We’ve had great success, filling their closets with clothes from Hanna Andersson, The Gap, etc. Have you considered buying used clothes?
DJM: I have purchased used clothes, but I find it hit or miss and time consuming. The kids clothes I recently bought were on steep discount. Sleepers and full outfits for $3.50 from Macy’s, for example. Spent an average of $5 per item at Gymboree. In my experience those are equal to thrift store prices. How about you?
I have a threshold. I won’t spend more than $7 on a kids item of clothing unless I’m desperate. Shoes I like to keep under $12 but will pay $20 depending on brand, etc.
Thanks for your reply. For everyday kids clothes, I think my threshold is closer to $5.00 per item. We’ll occasionally buy new for special occasions and holidays. And I guess I don’t mind spending $20 or $30 for a good pair of shoes. Your Macy’s bargains are right up my alley.
And you’re right, thrift store shopping is time consuming. We generally go once or twice per month. And as a stay at home dad who doesn’t really care about fashion, I do most of my clothes shopping there as well. (I’ve had great luck with Abercrombie shirts and Carhartt pants.) I guess we’re willing to make the trade of time for money. And there’s a time commitment involved in bargain shopping at regular retail outlets as well.
