Money & Men

Old-Fashioned Money-Saving Trends

As the economy struggles, everyone’s trying to make ends meet. So it’s not surprising that a few old-fashioned money-saving trends are making a comeback. Here’s a list of what’s “in”, from the financial website WalletPop.com.

• Brown bag lunches. Belt-tightening has caused workers to bring their lunches to work in record numbers. Prepackaged food companies have noticed, and are busy rolling out a whole new generation of instant entrées for the microwave.
• Home hair coloring. More than half of North Americans color their hair, and sales of home-coloring products have skyrocketed, especially products for men. Beware! Don’t go more than two shades lighter or darker than your normal hair color or you might have to pay even more to get a professional to fix your home dye job disaster.
• Sewing and ironing. To cut costs, people are starting to spend more of their “time” and less of their “cash” which means more people are making their own clothes instead of going shopping for them. They’re also skipping the dry cleaners and ironing the creases out of their own shirts and pants.
• What else is making a comeback? The suit. Hard economic times and conservative clothing go hand in hand. That’s one reason the racy Roaring Twenties fashions vanished during the Depression. So it’s no surprise that the ultimate in conservative men’s clothing is coming back now.
• Camping and fishing. A lot of people are out of work, or have been forced into early retirement. So they’re looking for less expensive hobbies, and low-cost, closer-to-home vacations.
• Here’s one product that’s making a comeback, despite the economy: Glass baby bottles. New parents take great pains to baby-proof their homes and keep their kids out of harm’s way. News that plastic bottles could pollute milk with harmful chemicals have sent parents flocking to companies that make old-fashioned glass bottles.