Save the milkman?
With the slowing economy, every family is reviewing their spending habits, mine included. If you have a budget in place, you have a starting point. I used to itemized spending into a very detailed budget and tracked it with Quicken and later with Money. In practice, once you’ve done this for a few years, you have a pretty good sense of where your dollars are going.
Currently, my objective is to reduce expenses and increase savings, even though I feel we’re living within our means. I continuously hear those with financial know-how stating that the government needs to do something to kickstart the economy. How the government chooses to do that is open to endless debate, but the bottom line message I get as a consumer is to spend more money.
Last week we discontinued our milk delivery service because we can buy our weekly eight gallons of milk for half price at the store. I greatly appreciate the service we’ve received over the years from our milkman, but we justified the convenience when the price difference was less. My change in spending habits will have a negative effect on the milkman and if many other customers do the same, he may not be able to continue in his job. In the end, however, the additional cost of providing direct service to my home is more expensive and burns more energy. And I cannot justify the convenience.
JFK said, “Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.” Am I shirking my responsibility by spending less? Some will argue that by taxing me more, the country will benefit as I consume less. I don’t agree. To me the milkman decision is pretty easy. Other spending decisions can be much more difficult, especially when you start looking at more essential services and goods. I cannot help the economy at a microlevel or in the short-term, but by spending more efficiently, I can perhaps influence behavior, which in turn, may help our economy long term.