Consumers cut back on small pleasures - USATODAY.com

Do you find you have been cutting back more on the smaller luxuries in life because of a potential / imminent recession?

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Definately! We have cut back on many "little" things. They are more luxuries now.

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HeatherMama to TWO lovely children
4 year old boy
2 year old girl

I looking at different routes for our luxuries not cutting back. I now buy a $7.00 box of tea. I know that doesn't seem like I'm cutting back but when you figure that box of tea lasts me a month and I use to frequent Starbucks about 8 ($6.00 each trip) times a month compared to the twice a month now + the box of tea, I am saving money, even with the $7.00 box of to-die-for chai tea.

My daughter loves the holiday cookies at my local grocery store. They're a sugar cookie with a frosting on it that is decorated to the color of the currently holiday. And they are pretty good! They're also about $5.00 for 10 cookies! I wasn't even getting a dozen! 20 cookies costs me, probably $1.50 though I did buy a bottle of $4.00 sprinkles to go on top. That bottle of sprinkles will last me, probably 10 batches of cookies and that is with my 4-year old decorating.

And my husband use to buy movies usually they were used. He loved his DVD collection. Sure we could rent from our local video store but with late fees sometimes we were better off buying them since we've always been horrible returning them on time. We signed up for Netflix - started with the 1 movie at a time, which we now have bumped up to 2-movies at a time. Since he's done that, probably back in October, we've bought 1 movie.

I'm not trying to completely cut us off but instead we're trying to be smarter about our money.

We are cutting back on many things

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We are! No more stops at the convienence stores, no more buying a new movie on DVD (takes up space and money!). When the girls are good- we'll go to the local movie store and rent 7 movies for 7 days for $5.50 as a treat!

Everytime we went into town to shop I would get a Keva Juice drink. I've cut back on that and the ice cream trips. Bummer!

I am paying closer attention to the "little" things. We just received notification that our cable bill will be going up next month so I'm going to work with dh on maybe changing that down to just basic cable ($8/mo) and then sign up for Netflix or something.
It's scary to see where things are going to take us.

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Check out my weight loss journey ~ sparkpeople.com/mypage.asp?id=MAMAOF3KIDDIES

We have definately tightened things up since I left work to stay home with my son. We don't go out unless it is a VERY special occasion, we have a coupon, or a gift card. I've gotten really creative with cooking, and I have not bought any clothing in forever. Stuff really is getting too expensive.

I've tightened things up but it is because I do not like credit card debt.. not because I'm worried about a recession.

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We definitely are. We are cutting back in all aspects of our lives-family vacations, eating out, groceries, etc. and really tightening our belts.