Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Young People Find Unique Way to Cut Back on Spending


I don’t envy the generation that is leaving college right now. They are overwhelmed with student loan debt the day they get their diploma, they’ve got very little time in forbearance before they need to start paying back the loans, and there are no jobs out there for them in the field that they just spent years of their lives studying.

Many of these educated people are living with their parents again, something that I’m sure they never planned on (let’s face it, it’s probably no picnic for Mom and Dad either). It’s a sad state of affairs and these kids are having to work at minimum wage jobs just to pay for their gas, groceries and cell phones. Because of this, they have had to dream up new ways to make more and spend less, which isn’t an easy task.

One of the most intriguing things I’ve read about recently came from an article in BusinessWeek. It was all about clothing swaps. It’s the latest way that the post graduates are using to save money. There are swap parties where people show up at the party with the clothes they are willing to part with, and swap them for something new to them. No money changes hands and everyone has “new” clothes to take home. There are Meetup groups centered around this and even websites, such as swapstyle.com, where you can do it online. I am a fan of shopping at consignment shops and thrift stores, so I find this new way of recycling clothing to be ingenious.

The only drawback on this idea, of course, is that by swapping clothes these kids aren’t feeding the economy. It’s a Catch 22 because they aren’t making any money that they can afford to put back into the economy, but because of this the retail locations will suffer, possibly discontinuing even more jobs.

Maybe these kids can’t get a job in their field just yet, but their ingenuity is amazing and I will no longer be surprised at the next crazy thing they come up with.

Submitted by:
Bankruptcy Attorney

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