Those were the days

History likes to repeat itself, whether we like it or not. 80 years ago, our forebears found their seemingly fail-safe economy ground to a halt. The spendthrift, live-it-up, jazz 'n' liquor days of the 1920s seemed to be gone forever. People squeezed every penny, cut back to bare necessities, and found little escapes from reality in cheap entertainment such as dime novels and nickel cinemas. And after 1933, booze, booze, and more booze eased the pain.

We seem to be in similar times yet again. We enjoyed the no-end-in-sight orgy of consumption in the 1990s. Food prices were at all-time lows, and gasoline cost less than the $4 coffee we didn't think twice about chugging. Those glory days were abruptly cut short when people realized all the tech startups they'd invested in had no idea what the fuck they were doing. By the late 2000s, the easy credit of the previous decade finally caught up with people who bought houses, second homes, cars, boats, etc. with magical future money that wasn't flowing in anymore. The Second Gilded Age was over. While we didn't experience the widespread devastation of the Great Depression, practically everyone's consumer habits were affected somehow. Even if our jobs were spared, we found ourselves eating out less, going to fewer movies, traveling less, doing more repairs ourselves, avoiding unnecessary purchases, and basically hoping for the best while preparing for the worst.

This was certainly true for me. Just a couple years ago, we went to restaurants or ordered in 2–3 times a week, went to movies and bars nearly every weekend, bought new clothes when we fancied it, and took fabulous vacations. I even bought a car I didn't really need, when it would have been far cheaper to get my wife's old car in good working order. I just wanted it.

Even though we've been spared from layoffs and shrinking budgets, we've nonetheless been traumatized by the deprivation all around us, and being stuck on the same shitty salary while everything seems to be getting more expensive has made me particularly cautious. Nowadays, we eat out on our own dime maybe twice a month, buy food on super sale and freeze it for future meals to be prepared in our own kitchen, and take advantage of every offer for free food from generous relatives. Rather than call a plumber, I am proud to say I installed a new faucet myself and fixed a toilet that wouldn't refill. Rather than buy a car just out of a desire for something different, I stuck with my old reliable Vic and learned to like it, and have ceased buying unnecessary accessories for it. $1 Redbox rentals and microwave popcorn have replaced our weekly trips to the cinema, but honestly, I like home viewing better anyway—no rushing to the theater and no coping with babbling children, stale popcorn, or people straggling in 10 minutes after the feature has started, and we can pause it anytime to go pee. Plus if it's a shitty movie, at least I'll only be out a buck and 90 minutes of my life. Our vacations get more and more frugal each time. Compare the costs of our various trips over the years: March 2008: $5000 trip, versus March 2009: $3000 trip. October 2008: $1200 anniversary weekend; October 2009: $200 charity event and overnight hotel stay. Our recent trip to D.C. cost airfare and meals, with free lodging. Our next week-long vacation will probably be at the beach, where we stay for free, for the cost of gasoline and food, much of which will be prepared in the condo.

There's a part of me that feels that this whole downsizing trend will at least teach me that there's a lot I can survive without, and that it will make me stronger and tougher. Nevertheless, I long for a return to the Gilded Age of the 1990s. I don't know if we'll ever see days like that again.