Question How Much Are People Cutting Back Spending in General

[skb720]

The economy sucks and most families including ours are cutting back eating out, watch out for grocery shopping deals/coupons, reducing car trips save on gas, etc. Are people still spending thousands of dollars on buying off-roster toys? I have some stuff to sell to clean out my safe, and debating to put my Ads in Classifieds now or wait until things improve? Thoughts.

 

[sonofeugene]

I’ve always been frugal. And now, at my age of 73, I’ve stopped acquiring “stuff”. I have what I need and what I want. My wife passed over 3.5 years ago and I live alone. A busy day consists of sitting on my front porch, watching the world go by.

 

[no1important]

Honestly, I buy a lot of random things after I get super into it. I need to cut back but have been unsuccessful so far lol..

 

[bonesurf]

Kid finishing a very expensive private college freeing up funds so kinda making it all balance out. Worried about the blows my retirement accounts. But putting more money in now may not be the right move? I can’t do any more tax advantaged anyways.

The secondary gun market seems pretty soft to me. My impression anyways

 

[Dirk Tungsten]

I've been trying to keep expenditures to a minimum recently, cutting back going out to eat, etc. Thank God I don;t have a car payment right now (knock on wood). I also haven't bough a gun in nearly a year, which is a personal record.

 

[EsotericEpsilon]

Wife and I have been pretty frugal to begin with, enough for her to quit her job and be a homemaker (not trying to say working spouses is a bad thing), but I've noticed some coworkers attempting to retain the facade of a stable image: cruise trips, mouseland tickets, eating out, buying a boat, etc.

One guy returned his new truck and his wife's new suv, and bought their old sedan back. This freed up money for them to continue having cruises, eating out, Vegas trips, etc. They both have jobs to keep up the "lifestyle."

Another guy got a second job, his fiance-of-six-years works too (money they "save" for wedding is always being spent), and they both are also uber/lyft/postmates/etc drivers to make "extra" cash to keep their new cars, toys, and "lifestyle."

People will continue to spend regardless.

To OP, post what you have. It's not like it's something perishable you need to offload.

 

[p--and--p]

No slowdown here, but I can see the market is way more for buyers now.

 

[cali_jazz]

Cutting back somewhat but still judiciously buying but looking for deals. Waiting to find out what the tax bill will be and if Trumplestilskin will completely tank the market/economy with his horrific tariff "strategy".

 

[Pewpewwagon]

Everything is expensive, not made the same. Quality is down, you don’t get as much. For some time now I’ve been ordering ammo once a year. A few boxes of HST’s and a couples cases of 22lr. Cheaper to reload range ammo. Life is good though, praise the lord.

 

[DrPete]

My wife and I stopped going out on to eat on Taco Tuesday's and that saves us ~$200 every month.

 

[Tere_Hanges]

Not buying any uber expensive guns but I'm buying other stuff in case tariffs have an impact, and oddly, there is a lot of stuff on sale right now. Recently bought two new pairs of skis and a new pair of ski boots. Building up my "quiver" (it's a term used in the skiing community). There have been some crazy good deals on skis in the past month, since the season is ending. Went skiing a lot this year. Plan to go more next year. It helps me look forward to winter and getting through the cold months. I can't wait to watch the Winter Olympics next year.

Similar to firearms, ski equipment just looks so cool to me. If you ski, don't go to evo or level9, or you'll end up buying something.

 

[BigBossman]

No real cutting back for our household, my wife and I actually know how to handle money. I rolled my 401K's into real estate several years ago, and that's working out well for me.

When I was a youngster leaving home for the first time, my father (who was a child of The Depression) gave me simple but sage advice - "Son, if you can't afford it, don't buy it". It was a warning about buying on credit, and I have lived by it all my life.

 

[Sal0327]

Just post it at the price you desire, there's people out there with plenty of extra cash. It might take longer to sale than usual. If it's a "desireable item" its gonna sale regardless

 

[Jimi Jah]

Current inflated pricing took any joy out of spending money. It's more enjoyable not spending money.

 

[nubsors]

I am definitely cutting back on spending because I am expecting a pretty heavy and extended recession. Perhaps a depression. There are some things happening right now that people are not really discussing that I think are a greater sign of what is to come.
1) The staffing industry is in heavy decline and has been for several quarters - this industry is a leading indicator of the working class and professional/corporate class job growth.
2) The housing market is in decline. Inventories are climbing, and permits for new builds are dropping. Interest rates are high, despite the fed rates sitting at at about 4.5%. The FED is unlikely to reduce the rates any further as it will spur more inflation. This is likely to create a long term correction to home values. Many home owners will realize that they are under water (loans are greater than the value of the homes). Mortgage delinquency rates are approaching levels previously seen in 2006/2007 leading up to the 2008 housing crisis. A recession will only exacerbate this problem.
3) The Trump administration (agree with policies or not) is heavily reducing the governmental workforce. By the end of this year we could see several hundred thousand government workers out of jobs.
4) The tariffs (and greater trade war) will slow down exports and increase the cost of material goods coming in, making basically everything more expensive in the short term. It will take American companies several months if not years to offset by producing those materials in the states.
5) AI - Artificial Intelligence (or Augmented Intelligence) is playing a huge role in corporate efficiency. Corporations are adopting AI into their applications like Outlook / Teams / Word / Excel that will allow otherwise unqualified people to do tasks that could/would have gone to dedicated resources. This means that as corporations shed jobs as part of the normal downturn cycle, fewer of those jobs will come back. This will lead to fewer and fewer corporate jobs in all areas.

Anyway, hope I didn't F- up your Sunday, but stuff aint lookin so good.

 

[sonofeugene]

Meh. I’m old and retired and I live entirely on my SS which is going nowhere. No need to touch my investments. So the markets can go up or down as they do.