Changes in Spending Habits

Our local news this past Saturday night ran one of those really quick little storys about what is selling more these days in our lagging economy. According to the newscasters, here are the top three items:

1) Condoms
2) Canned goods
3) Romance novels

Yay for number three!

I went online in search of more information on this and found an article on www.time.com, Time Magazine's site. The article concurred that condoms (and female birth control) experienced the highest increase in sales the first two months of 2009 and that canned were second. No mention of a number three item or romance books. What's with that?!

The article also talked about what items had the worst drop in sales during the first two months of 2009, and those were:

1) Film and cameras
2) Sports and novelty cards
3) Magazines

This got me to thinking about what I've begun purchasing more and less of recently. I came up with my own lists:

Cathy's buying more:

1) Renting more movies at Blockbuster as opposed to going to the theater
2) Buying more Orville Redenbacher Butter microwave popcorn to go with the movies I'm renting
3) Generic brands at the grocery store (except for the popcorn - gotta have my Rendebacher)

Cathy's buying less:

1) Pantyhose - who needs 'em, they're hot anyway
2) Bottled water - I got one of those pitchers with the filter
3) Dog toys - no more trips to the pet warehouse store, the pooches are going to have to make do with my old shoes, which they were chewing up anyway.

So, what about you? What are you buying more and less of these days? I do hope romance books are on your "more" list.

Cathy McDavid