Some items non-negotiable even in tough times

From the Saturday, July 12, 2008 edition of the Northwest Herald:

Some items non-negotiable even in tough times
By DIANA SROKA - dsroka@nwherald.com

Jamie Rodriguez likes a fresh haircut.

So much so, that the 28-year-old from Woodstock used to have his hair trimmed once a week.

But “with the way everything’s going up so high,” Rodriguez said, he’s cut his trips to the barber shop down to twice a month.

Rodriguez is among the thrifty who have reacted to rising fuel and overall costs by curtailing their spending.

But experts say affordable luxuries aren’t that easy to give up, which is why many refuse to let go of their daily indulgences despite their potential cost savings.

“I’ll still get my hair done professionally, regardless,” Algonquin resident Kelley Vojtsek said. “Every eight weeks, color and cut ... always at a salon.”

Vojtsek, 52, estimates that she spends $125 on each trip to the salon.

This little luxury is not only worth it, Vojtsek said, it’s well-deserved.

“I’m not going out to lunch with my girlfriends or having lattes,” she said.

Lunch and lattes aren’t in Vojtsek’s budget.

However, they are in Jill VanCamp and Rachelle Moody’s.

The two friends, both teachers at Lundahl Middle School in Crystal Lake, meet for coffee at least three times a week.

“It’s a time we can get together and chat,” said Moody, who lives in Carpentersville. “There are certain things you have to do [for] yourself.

They estimate spending about $20 weekly – Starbucks caramel macchiato is their drink of choice – but they allow themselves this luxury only during the summer.

“When we are working, I’ll make my own at home and bring it to work,” Moody said.

Consumer behavior experts say many businesses are based on the concept of affordable luxuries because these small indulgences become defining aspects of people’s personalities.

“People use them to distinguish their own behavior in themselves,” said Mary Ann McGrath, a marketing professor at Loyola University Chicago.

McGrath said rising gas prices were noticeable because gas typically is bought in isolation and isn’t really a choice. People don’t react the same way to expensive haircuts or coffees because they actively choose to buy these things.

“These are irrational, non-economic choices,” McGrath said. “It’s a different type of arithmetic that says, ‘This is something that is important to my life.’ ”

For some, it’s important to look good. For the Duex family in Spring Grove, the trump card is convenience.

Janet Duex said her husband and three children went out to dinner “once, maybe two or three times” weekly because it’s easier than cooking every night.

“I don’t want to clean up the mess; I don’t want to cook,” Duex said. “It’s convenience.”

It’s tough for Duex, a teacher at Nippersink Middle School in Richmond, to make dinner after work, so the family frequents Chili’s, McDonald’s or local pizza places.

But just because they’re eating out doesn’t mean they’re spending recklessly, Duex said.

“I keep track of every penny we spend,” she said.