The Duh Factor

I haven’t seen much of Patrick and Lydia since they got pregnant and I got sicker. I keep in touch with them mostly through blogs. (That’s one of the reasons I think blogs are terrific. You can keep in touch with other people and maintain a level of knowledge about them even if you can’t see them. Although it is still weird to me to have people I haven’t seen in a year know so much about me. I guess I like having it both ways, huh?)

A few days ago Lydia was blog-griping about how the talk shows are all embracing the stock market drop by doing stories about how to save money. Part of me thinks if they’d done those stories before–instead of encouraging people to buy the latest $56 dollar shampoo–then some of the financial mess that was created by chicken little panic would have been avoided. One of the reasons I can afford to be blasé about the market drops is because the market isn’t the only basket for me to keep my eggs in. I can afford to be blasé about the credit crunch because I use credit sparingly.

I wish more people would be more open about the joys of saving money and not using credit cards. I can honestly say that the first two years of weaning yourself off credit are a BITCH. But once you’ve done it you’ll be a lot happier.