DEL.ICIO.USSPECIAL REPORT: REWRITING THE AMERICAN DREAM
Couple weather economic storm, plan to stay thrifty
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, April 26, 2009
It’s just a big-screen TV.
Thirty-two or thirty-four inches wide. Samsung, or maybe Panasonic. Shouldn’t cost more than $700.
Joey Ivansco / jivansco@ajc.com
Chris Ray, prepares to give his son, Carter, a snack. His wife gets a ‘sippy’ cup ready. Chris has been laid off at least twice in the last 2 years from food-service/ IT type jobs. He’s happily employed now with Morrison Healthcare Food Services in Atlanta.
Joey Ivansco / jivansco@ajc.com
Chris Ray plays with his son Carter, who has worn borrowed clothes and played with borrowed toys as the family cut back its spending.
Joey Ivansco / jivansco@ajc.com
Chris Ray, reads a story to his son Carter before a nap.
Joey Ivansco / jivansco@ajc.com
Chris and Laura Ray keep a tighter rein on their finances these days. After Chris went through three layoffs in nine years, they say they plan to build up a six-month financial cushion, and maintain their thrifty habits.
ABOUT THE SERIES:
It's the American Dream, and it's over for legions of metro Atlantans.
They worked hard. Played by the rules. And expected, like generations before, to reap the benefits of jobs well done.But the Depression-like economy douses many dreams.
Over the next year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will chronicle the lives of a half-dozen victims of the economic morass. Some will founder or fail; others will persevere, even thrive. All will strive to recapture their dreams, a quintessentially American experience.
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Everybody’s got one. Why not Chris Ray?
“I could put in on my American Express and pay it off in a year,” Chris says. “But what if I lose my job?”
It could happen. In fact, it did to Chris last year. Twice.
Never particularly profligate, Chris, like millions of Americans, has been scared fiscally straight by the worst economy since the Great Depression. He and wife Laura have taken self-imposed vows of thriftiness.
Gone are the Buckhead meals and full-fare movies. Change from a dollar is cherished, and spent. Son Carter, 2, wears borrowed clothes. Their 34-year-old east Cobb roof will turn 35. Credit-card debt is the devil’s plaything.
“In hard times you learn some very important lessons,” Laura says. “Being more conservative in our spending will be a permanent change in our lives.”
The economy may be showing signs of rebirth, but the country remains in the thrall of joblessness, debt and misery. The American Dream — work hard, play fair and you’ll be justly rewarded – has turned nightmarish.
But even less-affected Americans, those with jobs and money in the bank, have embraced a newfound frugality. Like the Rays, they fear the uncertain economy.
Families save more money. In-house grocery brands soar in popularity. Sales of tomato and cucumber seeds boom. Men’s ears remain hidden as barber shop visits dwindle. Used cars sell very well.
Americans embrace their inner Thoreau. They’re returning to an original, more puritanical version of the American Dream, one of thrift, simple living and measured rewards.
“Many people have been forced to cut back on their spending habits and their carefree outlook about money that they developed during the boom years,” says David Shi, the president of Furman University. “They’re trying to regain control of their lives.”
But Shi, an expert on the economy’s impact on American mores, doesn’t expect the newfound frugality to last. The Rays harrumph.
“It’s a lifestyle decision,” Chris says, “that we’ll live with forever.”
Laid off again — again
Laura Ray bought a cardboard filing cabinet in sixth grade. Into it she placed notebooks, scripts and lyrics from songs popular on the radio. Planted were the seeds of a thrifty, clutter-free lifestyle.
Laura and her family moved from Long Island, N. Y., to, eventually, Atlanta in 1983. North Springs High School was followed by Berry College and 16 years of P.R. work.
She met Chris in 2002. She was in a single women’s Bible study group at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta; he was in the men’s equivalent.
Both lived in Buckhead, held good-paying corporate jobs and romanced each other in New York and Florida. On a whim they’d dine at the Capital Grille, Twist, Top Spice.
They were married August 2003. Three years later they bought an east Cobb house (low $300,000s) on a corner lot with two-car garage.
Chris was laid off in March 2008. It wasn’t his first dismissal. It wouldn’t be his last.
He was raised in tiny Arlington, Ga., and studied pre-med at Darton College before heading to UGA. He eventually graduated with a theology degree from Emmanuel College.
Chris ran Chick-fil-A restaurants in Ohio and Atlanta after college. He then did software support for Radiant Systems of Alpharetta.
The 2001 dot-com bust killed Chris’ job. Four months without a paycheck resulted in $5,000 in credit card debt. He became a private investigator. He videotaped a man claiming to be allergic to the sun mowing his grass. He also accompanied a husband who found his wife in bed — with another woman.
“I didn’t drive a Ferrari, have a mustache or wear Hawaiian shirts,” Chris says. “It wasn’t ‘Magnum, P.I.’ “
He was grateful when a buddy called with a job at Rare Hospitality, an Atlanta company that owns restaurants. But Rare was bought out in 2007. Chris stayed on until March 2008. Three weeks later he hooked up with an Atlanta software company. Business slowed and Chris was laid off in July – the third time in nine years.
The science of penny-pinching
Thankfully, Laura’s at-home business was taking off. She had taken a buyout from BellSouth in 2006 and began helping busy people organize offices, closets and lives.
She turned penny-pinching into a science. Starbucks was out, as were ice cream and Cokes. Gone, too, was the twice-a-month cleaning service (savings: $160) and cable TV ($55).
Chris and Laura gathered $30 in pocket change for a date night at Moe’s Southwest Grill.
“I played a game where I tried not to spend a single penny during the day,” she says. “I had many successful days.”
They cut coupons, compared prices at Wal-Mart and Target and discovered store brands like Publix green beans. Laura’s new moisturizer cost half her old one. Costco diapers work just as well as Pampers, they discovered.
Carter, too, chipped in. Friends lent or gave him baby clothes. Toys and the backyard jungle gym came from church consignment sales. Laura gave her father two hours’ worth of home-office organizing expertise last Christmas.
“I was motivated by how much was in the savings account,” Laura recalls. “I’ve never lived so close to the wire before.”
Meanwhile, the furnace and the roof needed replacement and Laura’s 12-year-old Toyota Camry rolled past 130,000 miles. Yet the Rays maintained their 10 percent church tithe. Their faith never wavered.
“God will provide for us in His time,” Laura reasons.
The financial pressure, the jobless uncertainty, the baby-induced sleeplessness all took a toll on their marriage. If the stages of marriage are like the seasons of the year, they figured, then a cold winter was fast approaching.
“We had a lot of stress,” Laura remembers. “We went to another Bible study, more to make sure our marriage was strong. It was. But we needed to make sure we reconnected with each other.”
America embraces frugality
If 2008 was the year crass consumerism, easy money and the American Dream withered, then 2009 brings about a wholesale re-ordering of lives and expectations.
The Federal Reserve reports that the U.S. savings rate hit 4.2 percent of income in February — quadruple the low of 2007. Another encouraging sign: Credit card debt dropped 10 percent recently.
Burpee seed orders rose 25 percent in February versus a year earlier. Libraries replaced bookstores; circulation was up 13 percent in Atlanta-Fulton County last year.
DVD sales dropped 13 percent at the end of 2008; dollar-a-day rentals and at-home movies soared in popularity. Profits rose at cheap-food emporiums like McDonald’s, up 4 percent the last quarter.
As new car sales plunge, used-car sales soar. And Americans keep their cars longer, a record average of 9.4 years, according to research firm R.L. Polk & Company.
“Once we begin to work our way out of the recession, and back to a more normal rate of spending, we’ll begin to see the economy pick up as well,” says Lynn Franco, an economist with the U.S. Conference Board.
And then America’s short-lived experiment with frugality will end, predicts Furman’s Shi, who wrote the book “The Simple Life: Plain Living and High Thinking in American Culture.”
“Historically,” he says, “once prosperity returns and people find new jobs and credit is easier to access, people for the most part revert to the way they behaved during periods of affluence and prosperity.”
‘Plodding brings prosperity’
Chris cites a proverb: “Steady plodding brings prosperity.”
He found a great job around Christmas managing computer systems for hospitals. Laura is as busy as she wants to be. The American Dream is alive again for the Rays.
Basic cable has returned. A maid comes once a month. Laura’s fancy Tassimo single-serve coffee maker percolates anew.
“And we can afford a flat-screen TV,” Chris says.
But they won’t rush out and buy one. The Rays plan to build a six-month financial cushion. The not-so-unthinkable could happen again. And a new car, roof and furnace must also be considered.
All will be paid for in cash. No debt for the Rays.
“I hope America wakes up,” Chris says. “You can’t live on credit forever. You have to delay gratification. There are very few things in life you can’t live without.”
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