copy and pasted! how hard was that...
Zoe Paul has made drastic changes to her former lifestyle. As a Web designer in San Francisco during the heady dot-com era, she started her mornings at Starbucks, bought her coworkers drinks during happy hour, and ate out nearly every night.
Now 30, Paul works without benefits for a small ad agency in the Bay Area and worries daily about being laid off. To help pay off $10,000 in credit card debt, she routinely empties coins into a jar by her bed. When furnishing her living room, a trip to a furniture store was not an option; instead, she bought a tweed sofa bed from a thrift shop for $67. She packs lunch every day. Cable is gone, so is Internet access.
The most painful trim: Abandoning her daily Starbucks run. “That’s a thing of the past. Now it’s a treat,” she said.
Serves her right, you think? Many twenty- and thirtysomethings raised on MTV and InStyle magazine have tried to mimic the glamorous lives of the rich and famous through the use of credit cards. But as the 21st century has ushered in skyrocketing housing prices, stagnant income levels and five- or six-figure student loans to pay off — a seismic shift has occurred: A growing number of young adults are reassessing their lifestyles and mimicking the frugal habits of their Depression-era grandparents.
They clip coupons, organize grocery-shopping trips to Sam's Club instead of darting to Whole Foods and now consider a $4 cappuccino as an infrequent luxury.
“Life just seems more expensive these days,” said Paul. “When I was growing up, I didn't know a lot about handling money or being frugal. Now I'm learning.''
High housing costs
With the median home price rising by 26 percent in the past five years — while young adults' income has gone up less than 10 percent — people in their twenties are playing an endless game of catch-up. Buying a home isn't even in the cards since prices in many urban areas where young people go to start their careers have more than doubled.
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