Ways Americans Are Cutting Back To Save Money

Three years after America was struck by the economic recession, consumers are still pinching pennies. According to a new poll conducted by Harris Interactive, majority of the American consumers are looking for ways to cut expenses and save money.
The poll surveyed 2,163 consumers online between June 13 and 20, 2011. Among others, the survey revealed that the adult American population believes the economy will get worse amidst reassuring reports. This echoes the findings published by the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index that showed a sudden decline in consumer spending from 61.7 down to 58.5. Obviously, Americans are still suffering from the effects of the recent economic recession and consumers are still cautious about spending money.
Notable is the sudden shift in the attitude of the American market over generic brands. According to Harris Interactive poll, consumers who favor generic brands has considerably increased from 61 percent in February to 67 percent last June. Consumers believe that opting for generic brands saves them dollars.
Interestingly, America is not as vain as what most people used to think. According to the survey, 43 percent of respondents have cut their budget for their hairdresser or barber, which enjoys a 5 percent increase from February’s poll result.
While consumers claiming business conditions are “good” remained static at 14.3 percent, those claiming business conditions are “bad” increased to 38.0 percent from 37.2 percent. Additionally people became more pessimistic about job market with 43.8 percent people stating jobs are “hard to get”, up from 43.5 percent last month. At the same time those stating jobs are “plentiful” decreased to 5.2 percent from 5.7 percent.
On the bright side, consumers are starting to develop better eating behaviors such cutting on coffee consumption, started bringing lunch for work and started using refillable water containers. Although these saving measures appear affirmative, it takes toll on the economy especially on businesses with directly linked with these industries.
Furthermore, buyers are also cutting their budget on expenses, which are considered indispensable such as newspaper, magazine and cable subscriptions, as well as dry cleaning. These recurrent expenses can significantly eat huge portions of consumer budget hence scraping off portions in this expenses saves lots of dollars.
While cutting back on household expenditure may be good, it does no good on the overall growth of economy. Experts foresee a continuous slowdown in the economic progress unless consumers are confident enough to start spend money again and businesses start hiring again.

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