With No Great Crisis but Signs of Trouble All Around, More Coupons and Meals at Home for Area's Families
By Donna St. George
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Charlene Hennessy cooked dinner one Sunday night at her Germantown home, in another act of downsizing her life. Six months ago, she and her husband relied a lot more on restaurants, buying takeout a few times a week. Now she is wary of every little splurge.
On her weekend trips to the grocery store, she is on the lookout for sales; for the first time, she clips coupons. "I'm very much more cautious," Hennessy said. "Very."
It is not that Hennessy, 48, faces any personal financial crisis. Rather, she is reacting to what she sees around her: rising gas and food prices, a housing market in decline, whispers of recession. At some point, she said, it all became too unsettling, warning signs that it was time to conserve.
This mood of uncertainty and budget-tightening has touched families across the Washington region, where many in a large and relatively prosperous middle class say they are rethinking how and where they spend their money. The changes -- a vacation postponed, a lawn-care service stopped, a switch to $1 movie rentals or a discount hair salon -- might not alter the bottom line much. But experts say these measures offer a sense of control and comfort in a faltering economy.
In North Potomac, a mother in her 30s turns down the thermostat and tells her heat-loving husband to don a sweat shirt. In Leesburg, a father in his 20s no longer makes the gas-guzzling drive to his favorite fishing hole. In Hyattsville, a professional woman in her 50s shuns her credit card, choosing instead to pay with cash and shop at discount stores.
In Potomac Falls, two parents adopt a household budget, but the idea is startling to their daughter. "Oh my God, are we poor?" the teenager asks her mother.
"There is a great anxiety among the general population, and people are making modest adjustments in their lifestyles and spending patterns," said Stephen Fuller, a professor at George Mason University and an expert on the local economy. This is not because most people have lost jobs or income, he said, but because "the economic news is bad, and they personalize that news."
Adding to the bigger picture is the reality of daily life: Houses stay on the market for months, even more than a year. Gasoline averages more than $3 a gallon. Milk is up by 19.3 percent over the past year and bread by 10.5 percent. In Maryland, utility costs have soared. Metro fares and fees jumped markedly in January, the largest increase in the transit system's history.
"It feels like a stretch now," said Mukesh Saini, 49, a father of two in Centreville, who works three jobs, including one preparing tax returns at H&R Block, and still finds himself short every month. Now he routinely dips into his family's savings to pay the bills.
Walter Moody, 61, who just retired as facilities manager at a District library, worries about the stock market and whether his 401(k) is losing value at the very time he needs it. "I'm afraid to look," he said, describing it as "the elephant in the room."
He has become more frugal, continuing to drive a 20-year-old Oldsmobile and scaling back on the restaurant meals he and his wife so appreciate. When they do dine out, Moody said, "I definitely won't be ordering the wine."
As Larry Compeau, a professor and consumer behaviorist at Clarkson University, sees it, a steady accumulation of economic distress has pecked away at Americans' optimism: the mortgage crisis, the housing downturn, the credit crunch, the stock market decline and volatility.
The reactions might vary with age, Compeau said, with older consumers who recall other slowdowns, such as the recession of 1990-91, responding more quickly. "We have a whole new generation of fairly young wage earners who have never suffered a significant downturn in the economy," he said.
Barbara Runion, 56, of Hyattsville said she "absolutely" thinks the country is in a recession, reflecting the sentiment of nearly six of 10 people surveyed in a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Runion has suddenly been seized by a feeling that she needs to downsize. Once more spontaneous with her spending, she paid off her credit card, started to use cash and took a harder look at every purchase.
"I was conditioned to just whip out the plastic without thinking about it, and it just got way out of hand," she said. One day last month, she said, she looked at the interest rate and her pile of debt. "It all just hit me," she said, "and I froze in my tracks."
This was not long before her husband told her that for the first time he was trolling the Internet for restaurant coupons. The couple started cooking more and cut back on weekend getaways to Ocean City, which they have always enjoyed in the winter. When their beloved cat, Boobie, died recently, Runion stopped herself from getting another pet.
"We're doing an about-face, across the board," Runion said. "Times are getting hard, they really are, and we are only three years from retirement."
On the other end of family life are the Loucks in Leesburg. Jennifer, 31, and Bryan, 29, say the financial squeeze is so real for them that they have hardly ventured out since the birth of their first child about four months ago. Last fall, Bryan cut out his frequent trips to Front Royal, Va., to catch bass. He has resigned himself to pond fishing, near home.
Jennifer pointed out: "Milk is almost $5 a gallon. It's ridiculous."
Times can be especially tough for families with additional hardships. Jennifer recently lost a job, she said, and -- although the region's unemployment rate is just 3 percent -- she finds the job market "horrible."
The Loucks live in an apartment and would like a house, but they can't swing it yet.
To Kelly Markomanolakis, 43, a mother of three in Waldorf, the signs of getting less for more are everywhere. Looking at her careful records, she can say with precision that her electricity and heating bill for January 2003 was $244 for her four-bedroom Cape Cod. This year, in the same month, it was $444.
At the supermarket, Markomanolakis said, she used to fill two carts with groceries. In her records, she spots weekly receipts for January 2003: $211 on one day, $228 on another. Last week, she said, she filled one cart and spent $294.
For her, the case in point is ground beef. She bought 2.4 pounds last week and paid more than $12. "It's crazy," she said. "Spaghetti used to be a cheap meal for my family."
In Potomac Falls, Cindy Donahue, 45, said she and her husband decided last month to draw up a budget "because the economy is not in good shape." They cut back on shopping trips to Target and the mall, which drew some reaction from their teenage daughter.
"I was kind of shocked," said Rebecca, 13. "No more Abercrombie or Hollister." She admitted, a little sheepishly, "I'm kind of used to getting what I want."
None of this reassessment and angst has been noted at Kitchen and Bath Studios in Chevy Chase, where owner Jerry Weed said he has seen no hesitation to spend among the very well-off. "If someone wanted a luxury bathroom and they could have afforded it two years ago, they can afford it now," he said.
There are also those who say they have always kept an eye on prices and spending and are not making any changes. Said Nancy Costa, a mother of two in Herndon: "I'd like to see the economy get better, obviously, but it's not affecting my day-to-day living."
Fuller, of George Mason, believes that, even for those who do make changes, the urgency will wane over time. As with New Year's resolutions, he said, many changes do not take permanent hold. "Self-denial is difficult," he said.
For now, though, the wary are doing what they can, and some have shown up at Designer Resale, a consignment shop in Bethesda, where the owner, Tiina Hayden, said her business has been brisk in recent weeks. "When times get tougher," she said, "more people are looking for bargains."
Charlene Hennessy was among her patrons recently, there with her Coach purse and diamond earrings to consign. "I used to hold onto stuff more," she said. "Now I'm like, if I haven't worn this in a year, it goes. If this doesn't look good on me, it goes."
Her feelings about the economy have little to do with any personal peril. Two years ago, she and her husband moved from a townhouse to a single-family home, tripling their mortgage payment, but he works for the government and she is in health care, and their jobs are secure.
It is the well-being of her children, ages 21 and 22, that weighs on her most. Her son works in construction, driving a truck that costs $130 to fill with gas, she said. "If my son falls on hard times," she said, "I definitely want to help him."
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