Fiscal fast, anyone?

Squirrel away money saved from forgoing lattes? Cook up a storm with leftovers? Suddenly, frugal is hip
Zuraidah Ibrahim, Straits Times 27 Apr 08;

Frugal is the new cool.

At least that's the impression one gets from following reports out of the United States and Britain. The sub-prime lending crisis, together with skyrocketing oil and food prices, are making some trendsetters in wealthy societies wonder: If you have to streamline your spending, why not make a virtue out of necessity and call it chic.

In rich countries, there is certainly a lot of easy-to-trim fat. In Britain, for example, wasted food apparently accounts for 40 per cent of household rubbish. The fact that someone bothered to tote that up and that the finding was reported in the media is itself a sign that the country's conscience is starting to be pricked.

Will this lead to a breed of supermarket shoppers who consider it cool to resist aisles and aisles of temptation and buy just enough food? Gosh, what a radical idea.

Perhaps the next icon of excess to be toppled will be the ubiquitous mineral water bottle. Consumers could finally decide to pay heed to scientific reports that say that the public water supply in developed countries is superior to bottled water - on top of being hugely cheaper. They could start insisting on their right to be served tap water at fancy restaurants, despite the disdain on their waiters' faces.

Already, there are blogs celebrating the triumphs of people who squirrel away money saved from forgoing lattes, cooking up a storm with leftovers, and trying their darndest to darn socks.

Frugality v market economy

The hip new term for this attitude is 'fiscal fasting'.

Old classics like The Frugal Housewife are being rediscovered as sources of inspiration for born-again savers. New books like The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map To True Riches capture the spirit of the times. Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping, who preaches on themes such as 'Stop the Shopacalypse', is another American figure who is making the most of the current mood.

It may make a lot of sense for an individual household to spend less. The Gross National Happiness index is based on the idea that increasing the output of goods and services does not necessarily make people happy.

Yet, the idea of disembarking from the consumer bandwagon is also strangely subversive.

You may decide rather virtuously that your present mobile phone will keep you happy for the next five years, and that you don't really need to take up that tempting offer to upgrade. The problem is that if everyone thinks like you, there will probably be a palpable dip in the country's economic growth.

Therefore, frugality is not exactly a welcome habit in a modern market economy. A standard prescription for a country on the brink of recession is for it to spend its way out of trouble. You may be healthier and happier if you stay home today, talking with your family or just meditating - but it's spending the afternoon at the mall that will contribute to the GNP (gross national product).

In the United States, people are reclaiming some of their pioneers' puritanical self-restraint because they can no longer afford to live beyond their means. For too long, American consumption has been funded on credit, approved and abetted by the financial system and its government. But high personal debt and a near-record low savings rate combined with the mortgage crisis and rising global prices are forcing a possible rethink.

But such a reaction is unlikely to become a long-term habit. Society simply will not allow it.

Resisting consumerism

One episode of the hit 1990s sitcom Seinfeld satirised the irresistible force that is consumerism. The iconoclastic Kramer decides that he has had enough of the endless stream of mail-order catalogues from retailers. He cancels his mail and campaigns against the postal service, not realising what he is up against. He is abducted and interrogated by the postmaster- general ('In addition to being a postmaster, I'm a general. And we both know, it's the job of a general to, by God, get things done.'). Kramer, successfully re-educated, meekly accepts his junk mail.

Besides, if you are sitting at the top of the ladder in this capitalist structure that we all subscribe to willingly or unwillingly, being frugal may appear to miss the whole point of your hardscrabble climb to the top. So it was that The New York Times ran an article last week - 'If they've got it, they flaunt it; New York's merely rich cut back, but the really rich keep spending' - detailing the lavish spending habits of the rich who consume away, like a group of four friends who went on a four-day weekend jaunt to Miami that cost them, oh, only US$50,000 (S$68,000).

As for the world's poor, the call for frugality is irrelevant to the point of being distasteful. They need to be given the chance to consume a lot more, not less.

The rich will always be with us, as will the poor. It is those sandwiched in between who will have to make adjustments. The rich will continue to shop for their Prada belts. The poor are unconcerned about accessories.

The middle class? Immersed in consumer culture but suddenly short of disposable income, they are the ones who will have to pacify themselves that it's not uncool to tighten their non-designer belts. Not a cinch, I'm afraid.