THRIFTY IS TRENDY

How things have changed in Ireland in such a short space of time.

In 1994, the Celtic Tiger started out a whimpering cub, trying to shake off the generations of poverty and lack of confidence. In the next decade, it grew into an animal that devoured all before it.

Confidence went up. The price of houses and wages went up. The cost of credit came down. The availability of it from all financial institutions became easy. Credit card spending became the norm. If you were not in debt then you were a fool became a tag line. Use cheap credit to improve your life was the advice of a new breed of homespun financial advisers, usually with an agenda to pursue.

The dot com melt down of 2000 caused merely a blip in consumer-oriented Ireland. A few shaky months passed and the upward trend continued. Houses soared in price and demand as immigrants fuelled the need for accommodation. New car sales set year on year records. Foreign holidays became a seasonal event and weekends away became a monthly event. The chattering classes outdid each other with their boasts of Mediterranean villas and Manhattan apartments. For God sake, even the window cleaner had a home in Spain!

Come the end of 2005, the first signs of the bubble bursting began to manifest themselves. Interest rates increased every quarter on eight consecutive occasions.

Suddenly the second mortgage on the Irish home to finance the holiday property did not seem such a good idea. Cash flow became tighter as monthly mortgage payments rose. Interest only periods on mortgages came to an end and the reality of paying over twice as much per month to meet capital and interest payments hit home.

The party is over. The new trend is thrift. Vanity has a new overcoat. It is coloured Green. Being forced to do without is dressed up as a virtue in helping to save the planet. All those carbon emissions – how dreadful, lets get a smaller car, dear.

The number of fancy cars repossessed has soared. The number of fancy cars voluntarily and quietly returned to their lenders has soared even more. Shopping in Aldi and Lidl for the upper middle classes is de rigueur. Buying designer clothes in Oxfam is helping the less fortunate, don’t you know. The Hermes bag and Mercedes convertible are vulgar monuments to the excesses of the past.

The thrift trend has permeated down to the working classes. Cheap imported beer bought at service stations is now the alternative to being fleeced in your local pub. Drink irresponsibly at home is the new adage.

Restaurants are feeling the pinch as people suddenly start to use all those fancy appliances in their homes that heretofore were merely for decoration. Aga cookers are actually used to cook food for the family. Who would have thought we would see the day?

Welcome to the new Ireland folks! What next? The D4 set ordering fish n’ chips at Malloccas?