Maybe the answer is that some consumers have finally learned that putting more crap in their carts will not improve their lives or make them happier. They have discovered that spending less and saving more is an excellent personal finance strategy.

The “spend to our economy is healthy again” advocates argue that we need more consumer spending so that more people will have jobs.

Sorry – that’s not persuasive.

I’m not responsible for your job. My first obligation is to manage the finances of my family. If that means spending less so that we have more personal cash reserves, then that’s what I will do. With that strategy, we don’t have to look to others for help when economic times get tough for us.

I’m all in favor of jobs for everyone who needs one. That doesn’t mean I’m in favor of full employment for lawyers or MBA students. Indeed, we need fewer of them so that some of those cash-cow unneeded degree factories might shut down.

But I will not spend more (or rationalize reckless spending) to “get our economy moving again.”  You get your economy moving again. I’ll worry about mine.

Here is a link to the article that provoked this rant: 10 Ways to Get Americans Spending Again

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Six months ago I persuaded one of our sons to also switch to Straight Talk. He did and likes it. Now we were down to two phones with AT&T.

Last month our youngest graduated from college. I told him we would continue to pay for his phone until he became gainfully employed, but he had to switch to Straight Talk.  Earlier this week he made the switch. No problem. He likes a simple phone as well – talk and text.

The last domino to fall will be Mrs. ToughMoneyLove and her beloved iPhone. I have ordered her a $20 refurbished phone from Straight Talk to try. It is nothing like an iPhone of course but it does have a full QWERTY keyboard.  She can continue to use her iPhone on wifi if she likes. (The actual “phone” part of an iPhone is not very good anyway.) Hopefully, she will be persuaded to make the switch.

Today I am pulling the plug on our last AT&T landline.  This will reduce our monthly AT&T phone expenses from $230/month to $0.  We will have replaced that with $90/month in Straight Talk costs. I like that trade.

This feels almost as good as dumping Bank of America for a local bank with a 3% rewards checking account.

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A typical headline using this theme was published by New York Magazine: “The Snowstorm May Have Cost Retailers $1 Billion in Anticipated Post-Christmas Sales.”

I’ve been through a number of snowstorms (and even worse, ice storms) over the years. I don’t recall ever being concerned or upset that the weather was keeping me from experiencing a sale offered by one of our benevolent retailers. So when I started seeing stories about a “lost retail spending caused by snow” disaster, I started questioning their accuracy. Actually, I concluded that if the stories were accurate, it was not a disaster at all. Instead, the blizzard had forced discretionary retail spenders to keep an extra billion in their bank accounts (or at least off of their credit card balances.)

Think about it. If retailers “lost” $1 billion because spenders were kept home by snow, the spending that would have occurred was entirely discretionary. The “spending” was gone forever. To me, that’s a good thing. It’s kind of like a recreational clothes shopper having to stay away from the mall for a weekend because they can’t find their credit cards or their car is in for repair.

I decided that the headlines like those published in New York Magazine couldn’t be accurate. I questioned whether a snowstorm could cause $1 billion in retail sales to disappear forever. Wouldn’t at least some of these home bound shoppers go to the stores when the snow cleared and buy what they needed or wanted?

It turns out that my skepticism was warranted.

My research revealed that the data source for the “lost sales” stories came from a shopping research organization called “ShopperTrak.” It’s story contained a headline that conveyed the correct message: Northeast Blizzard Postpones $1 Billion in Retail Sales

Did you notice the word “postponed?” Apparently some of the news reporters and writers didn’t. The ShopperTrak spokesperson was not gloom and doom at all about retail spending for the post-holiday period, even with the snow:

As expected the 2010 blizzard throughout the Northeast halted nearly all retail visits and spending during a period that is fairly crucial for retailers. “And at this point the prospect of momentarily pausing a potential $1 billion in sales has the collective industry holding its breath. While we do think there will be some retail strength later this week and into the weekend as folks begin to dig out, it will be interesting to see if levels recover in time to boost December sales and the overall holiday shopping season. At this point we believe our forecast of a 4.0 percent sales rise with a 1.8 percent traffic increase remains accurate behind the strength of November, a strong sales day on Dec. 23 and the possible late week surge over the next few days.

The lesson here is don’t pay much attention to the popular press if you want the hard truth about personal finance. That’s my job.

Related posts:

1. 10 Ways to Get Americans Spending Again – But Why?

Gmail users can now place calls from their computer directly from Gmail. All you need is the Google Video and Voice plug-in for your browser, a microphone and speakers (or a headset). You can dial with an on-screen keypad or use your Gmail contacts. (Very handy) I placed several calls yesterday and it worked flawlessly. This is now a major competitor for Skype and similar VoIP phone services. Google promises that calls to U.S. and Canada will be free through 2010 and thereafter, if they make enough money on international calls (which are dirt cheap).

The cost savings gets even better if you are a Google Voice user. You can now select your computer as a destination for incoming calls. This means that if you are in an area where cell coverage is poor or if you just don’t want to use a cell phone, you can send and receive calls using an Internet connected computer. When a call arrives, your computer will ring and a screen pop-up will appear. Everything is free. Ditch that land line once and for all.

I encourage you to read this list from Lifehacker of eight clever ways you can use free calling from Gmail.

Have you tried this new feature? Are you Google Voice users?

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I considered buying a refurbished MacBook from Apple or MacAuthority but the prices were still much higher than what a new budget Windows machine cost. So I turned to Craigslist.

In our community, dozens of new listings of used computers of all kinds go up for sale each day. Many of them are Apple products. There were many listings of iBooks but these are older units that are not upgradeable and do not handle Flash well. The MacBook listings were generally overpriced or had some serious flaw (e.g., no battery, no power supply, cracked case, etc.) But I kept watching.

Finally, I an interesting listing showed up. A gently used MacBook with Core 2 Duo processor, upgraded memory and software (including Microsoft Office), a carry case, fully functioning battery, and all of the necessary software CDs. It was owned by the IT manager for a church near us. I called Mrs. ToughMoneyLove and she drove over to check it out. She made the deal right then because others were calling as well.

It was an excellent unit for the price. A physically “like new” MacBook  for the cost of a bargain Windows machine. Yes, the hardware in her MacBook is a couple of years old but that will have no effect on her use of it. She is very pleased.

Thank you Craigslist for this success.

Meanwhile, I tried finding a bicycle for me on Craiglist. Although there are hundreds of listings, I could not find what I was looking for. Instead, I bought a new comfort bike.

Have any of you readers had any major spending successes on Craigslist?

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This morning I logged in to our rewards account and saw that our interest payment had been credited – $75 and change. That’s right – 3.80% on our checking account deposits. Try to get that rate at one of the internet-only banks that are blogged about elsewhere until your eyes glaze over. You can’t.

You know what Mr. ToughMoneyLove likes most about a rewards checking account? You are rewarded for what you are not spending.

Other folks like to brag about all of the points and rewards they can earn on their credit cards. That requires buying things. I prefer being rewarded for the money we did not spend.  I like a bank that emphasizes that.

The critics of rewards checking accounts complain about having to make ten debit card transactions each month to receive the top interest rate. It’s as if that will cost them a trip to Tahiti because they didn’t swipe their credit card instead.

Let me tell you how challenging it is to make ten debit card transactions in a month. It’s not. A few trips to the grocery store and stops for gas and you are done.

Does it bother me that these small transactions are taking money immediately out of our checking account? Not when I know that what is still there is earning 3.80%.

Other self-appointed personal finance geniuses (OK – I”m also self-appointed) will argue that strategic use of their credit cards will boost their credit score.

You know that I hate FICO and credit score obsession. I have regularly boasted that I did not know my credit score and have never known it. That changed yesterday.

I received a standard notification in the mail from our community bank as it processes our mortgage refi application. As I was reading the fine print and boilerplate, I suddenly noticed that my credit score was stated on it.

Whoops. I did not expect that so I couldn’t avert my eyes.

I’m no longer a credit score virgin.

So what score did FICO give to someone who dislikes credit and has ignored his credit score for his entire adult life? 793  I’m guessing that’s pretty good considering they tell me the scoring range is 300-850.

So now you might be thinking, if you didn’t know your credit score when you applied for your refi, how did Mr. ToughMoneyLove know he was getting the best available rate? Easy. I asked if I was being offered the best available rate offered to the best customers. I was assured that I was.

I probably didn’t need to ask. Think for a minute. Banks are going to promote their best available rate to get you interested in their mortgage loan product. When they run a credit check on you after you apply, you may be declined or the rate may change if they find something negative. If it doesn’t change, you are good to go.

So my recommendation to you is to think like a saver and not like a spender. Find banks and financial products that reward saving, not spending. They are out there. And keep your focus on responsible spending and building net worth, not your credit score. If you do, everything else will fall into place.

Related posts:

1. 10 Ways to Get Americans Spending Again – But Why?
2. Credit Cards are Bad for Your Financial Health: It’s Science

I quizzed the veteran repairman about his preferences then we started doing some research and looking online. Our big constraint was size.  The way our kitchen is designed, only a counter-depth refrigerator will work. Although no one could tell me why with a persuasive answer (and I asked), counter-depth refrigerators cost more even though they are smaller in capacity. My belief is that counter-depth refrigerators are more desired because of aesthetics so there is an upcharge. They can’t cost more to manufacture.

The other feature we wanted was a bottom freezer with french doors on top instead of a side-by-side. We were tired of years of stooping down to retrieve items from the lower shelves of the refrigerator near the floor.   We also were unhappy that wide objects (e.g. deli trays and pizzas) could not fit on the shelves in either the freezer or refrigerator sections. In fact, as your three sons reached their teenage years, we ended up buying a second refrigerator that we kept in the basement for auxiliary food storage. We simply could not store enough food to feed those guys in a 20 cu. ft. side-by-side.  Finally, we wanted water and ice in the door. We use this frequently, every day.

To get to the point of this post, the cost of a new refrigerator that met our requirements was over $2500. Ouch. That’s a nice vacation trip worth of refrigerator. We are achieving some operational cost savings. Our new Energy Star refrigerator will save us about $80/year in electricity usage. Also, because it is larger by 3 cu. feet and our sons are mostly out of the house, we are shutting down and selling the basement refrigerator, saving another $85 per year.

If you want to run energy cost numbers on your own appliances (replacing or retiring), visit the Energy Star appliance site. Something that really struck me when I ran our numbers is how much more folks in some other states are paying for electricity compared to Tennesseans like us. You can see those numbers here.

The shopping trip was interesting. Lowes had good prices but not much of a selection of models having the features we wanted. Best Buy had a few suitable models (most over $3k) but the salesperson had very little knowledge about them. Indeed, when I told her we wanted a counter-depth refrigerator, she didn’t really understand what that meant.

We went to Sears as a final stop. Sears appliance department a has fully commissioned sales staff and pricing that can vary day-to-day so you need to be careful. Our salesperson was experienced, knowledgeable, and knew not to pressure me. When he learned what we were looking for, he immediately went into “price matching mode.”  By this I mean that when he saw us looking at a highly-rated Samsung unit (we had researched on Consumer Reports), he found a local competitor online offering the same unit for $400 less. He then told us that he could give us that price. I was pleased that he found the price without us having to ask.

We bought the Samsung unit. It had the largest capacity of all units meeting our specs, was fairly priced according to our research, and came with free delivery and haul-off of our old unit.

But $2600 for a refrigerator? I’m still in shock over that.

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