Monday, March 9, 2009

Vintage Collecting during a Recession

Are you finding it hard to keep up with your favorite passion of collecting? Have you had to put that passion aside for now? Maybe not...maybe you can just tweak it a little and still enjoy some of those little passions!

We are all cutting back just to be careful so we are sure we can make it OK down the road. Hopefully we won't have to do this too long, but while the times are lean we do what we need to do. Does that mean that you can't indulge yourself a little? I would say sure you can...just do it wisely! Maybe you were buying furniture to decorate your home...so now maybe you switch to accessorizing instead. Maybe your passion was bookends or glassware that costs a lot to ship....shop at local stores for some of that until you can resume your passion online again.

Why not start a new collection? There are really fun things to collect that are not expensive and yet are great fun to own. They could be buttons or stamps, gold or silver, (ok gold and silver might eat at your pocket book a little...but rumor has it those are commodities that are going to keep rising!) Maybe there are toys from your past that you could search for that bring back really fond memories. Polly pockets, toy cars, dollhouse furniture, paper dolls, marbles, Cracker Jack toys...all of these are small and can make really fun displays in a shadow box or on a shelf!

During the depression it is found that people still wanted to enjoy life...they saved up to go to a 25 cent movie, or buy a cotton candy at the fair. How much more do we waste today on fast food and designer coffees? There are many areas that we can cut back on and still spend a little on building memories for ourselves.

I would suggest that we re-think some of our budgets in this challenging time and pay attention to the little things in life.

While things are great to have...remember they can break and will not last forever...so let's balance the "things" in life with the relationships we have as well. Hug the kids...stop and say hello to a stranger...call your mother or Dad... and then get back online and buy them a little treasure too!

Check back for another post of how I learned to be thrifty from a depression survivor!

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