About sewing… my Grandmother sewed, as did my mom, as did I and I still do. The ‘sewing gene” seems to have missed my daughter, but my son sews And I have an 8 yr old granddaughter who is now sewing. And I’m giving her a sewing machine for Christmas – a garage sale find in cabinet for $15 – great deal!!! My daughter tho, does bring her sewing across the street to me, and ask for repairs – so she does realize the value of being able to sew.

I haven’t noticed major or seemingly permanent signs of real frugality. I doubt that Hummer lovers are switching to Smart cars en masse.

I find it odd that so many blogs and newspapers talk about what practices “we” or “everyone” may be adopting, you know, “together”. In reality, though we are all playing the game, it’s really “you vs. them”. There is no “we”; just winners and losers.

Last weekend I had to go to the mall to renew my driver’s license and I’d have to say, the mall is still quite packed. From my anecdotal observation, we definitely aren’t in a recession in terms of consumer spending and the general public has not become “frugal”.

I do work in the manufacturing sector, which has been getting obliterated, though. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not interested in a flat screen TV or whatever. I just haven’t yet bought any of that stuff for the past decade or so while the stores were jam packed with shoppers.