I sometimes wonder, where is the line between non-discretionary and discretionary expenses these days? Slowly, but surely, more items are crossing the line to the non-discretionary side. No wonder it gets harder to find expenses that could be done away with during a recession.

Food, telephone, electricity have been necessary items from long.

People get bored eating the same food – so, a visit to the restaurant once in a while cannot be done away with. And how can I resist the idea of a visit to a mall / shopping complex before the dinner in the restaurant? Oh! I almost forgot the movie before or after the dinner. This is the minimum one has to do to get replenished after a long hard working week. Also, no one can blame me for not spending time with family.

And just landline telephone is too old fashioned these days. Imagine what would happen if someone asks me my number, and I have no cell number to share. How can one live with that trauma for the rest of one’s life? Value added services are the soul of any mobile service. Do you think that I have bought this phone only for sending and receiving calls? Are you out of your mind? And now that I have a cell phone, whenever I have to pass some time, all my contact list is at my fingertips. No longer do I have to sit in a public transport vehicle just looking outside the window and waiting for my stop to come. There is so less time to catch up with all the friends, family – forget the recharge that I have to do every 10 days or so – it is worth it. Moreover, it does not look good if one does not wish others on their birthdays, anniversaries etc.

Electricity has been a boon to mankind. Now, I have a whole range of ‘essential’ electronic items that I can buy. Television has become a part of everyday life. And is it possible to live without air conditioners and heaters given the climate change? I refuse to argue on the essentials such as refrigerator, toasters, juicers, iron, washing machine, audio player etc. Add to these things like DVD player, exercise machine and so on, and you get things without which a home cannot be complete.

I have not even mentioned two modern day essentials – personal vehicles and a laptop – and the set of accessories which are (you got it right) ‘essential’ to the core.

Walking is so passé that unless my doctor / physical trainer tells me to do so, my first step outside my home would be in my car. And not any car – one which is the highest model available within that particular species. Even if it is not the most fuel efficient and our home could have done with a cheaper car, this is a matter of status and that has to be carefully built. Don’t you know how difficult it is to travel by public transport these days? I know that thousands travel that way, but also thousands travel by cars. Are the car owners mad to buy these vehicles? When they can, why can’e we?

Laptop with the best configuration, graphics card, speakers etc. is something important for the kids these days. They need to start getting exposure to such modern technology from the time they are a foetus. Have you heard of the 16Mbps connection that is available in the market? So, what if the only work I do on the internet is checking my mails (and most of it is spam) – anything below 16Mbps is just too slow. I don’t like to be restricted when it comes to the amount of downloads I can do in a month. So, the unlimited plan looks the ideal for me.

Given all this, it is but natural that recession hits poor souls like me, the most. As you can understand from above, I am just living hand to mouth and there is practically no scope for cutbacks. I am so careful about my expenses, that there is hardly any discretionary expense that I can enjoy or have some savings for the future.

(Ashutosh is a recent graduate from IIM Ahemdabad. Before that he worked at Lehman Brothers and has done his undergrad at IIT Delhi in Computer Science Engineering.)

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