Who knows how we will be effected by this economic down turn in the years to come, but I have trouble envisioning consumerism halting.

Jobs are disappearing and yet NPR reported on rising sales in Halloween costumes this year. We like to escape in costume or into the bliss of a new toy. Iphone purchasing may be down this holiday system, but how many people are still going around with their $100+/month media plans for the convenience of checking personal email on the fly? And I won't deny that nice-to-haves become need-to-haves for the sake of convenience. But really, what will it take to get us to cut back? I suppose this is something to revisit in the next 6 months, 12 months...?

From what I make of it, the most important thing to do in this situation is to maintain a paycheck, make sure to have liquid cash for emergencies and if we're going to have these "needs-to-haves" then don't use credit for them.

(A certain and recurring error of my youth was when facial treatments, acupuncture, dinners with friends, a great pair of black pants and such were so absolutely necessary that even without the money in my account, a credit card was. That and less-than-stellar men are errors of my 20s that I'm glad to have moved on from.)