Buying What?

In this time of daily doom and gloom, I think we are all reevaluating what we buy and why. And I have two separate lines of thought. First, if we have money and feel reasonably secure we should not stop spending all together. I know that no one feels very secure or totally secure right now. Business is slow in every industry, people have lost their jobs, scariness is right around the corner. But the conundrum is that until people start spending money, things won't get better. I'm really curious to watch how this turns around (and it will, it's just a matter of time, and could be a long time).

But my second line of thought, which in some ways feeds into the first and might be more interesting, is that if all of us are watching our pennies and our dollars a little more closely (which I think everyone is), but I don't see a lot of people (including me) living so differently that who they are is fundamentally different, what is implied? I'm having trouble expressing this, so let me try again. If I spend more at Trader Joes instead of at other stores, how does my life change? If I buy my kids clothes at Target instead of online where the quality might be better but I have to pay more plus shipping (most of the time) are my kids that much worse off? If we join the pool instead of doing yet another week of summer camp, do we become different people? I guess, my thought is that we have so much, and may realize through all this that we need less. That doesn't bode well for the recovery, but it might bode well for our children as they grow up and start spending their own money, and for us as we learn more about what we really need to be us and to be happy. I guess I'm wondering if all of this belt tightening is a fundamental shift or a temporary blip in American consumerism. I guess we'll have to wait to find out. But at least I know that blogging is very cheap. Maybe I'll do more of it.