Talking Property

Frugality is the new fashion, writes ISABEL MORTON

IT’S war time and we must all do our bit. However, in much the same way as some people partied considerably more than others during the boom times, some are now being forced to live a more frugal existence than others. Some genuinely experience frugality, others are protected from it, and others pay lip service to it. And of late, many are even becoming rather competitive about it.

In much the same way as it was once fashionable to drop a few casual remarks that immediately made it abundantly clear that you were not short of a bob or two, now the opposite is the case.

Long gone are the moaning monologues once overheard in smart Dublin cafés: “We’ve just had to move into the Four Seasons, as the house is overrun with builders and Sophie gets asthma attacks if she even looks at a speck of dust. Thankfully we’ll only have to tolerate it for a few more weeks as we’re off to Portugal for the summer.”

That particular breed have either long-since quietly disappeared to Portugal for good or, if braving it and staying put, have resorted to making rare public appearances wearing dinner-plate-sized dark sunglasses and whispering discreetly to their few remaining friends about how much they hate the recession because life is so dull and they’re getting little or no attention from their stressed-out husbands.

The unfortunate aforementioned spouses are just about managing to keep a brave face on it while battling on, in the vain hope that they might actually survive semi-intact. Surprisingly, however, many choose not to burden their wives with details of the grim reality of the situation.

“It’s best not to worry them too far in advance. It’ll be time enough to tell them when it happens, which it undoubtedly will, sooner rather than later,” one man said to me recently, obviously not considering me to be one of “them” – wives oblivious of the recession.

I wasn’t sure whether I should have felt honoured to be included in the man-to-man chat about his personal financial woes, or disappointed not to be categorised as one of those enviable woman whose sensibilities are worthy of such protection.

People who might once have traded-up without a second thought are now staying put, and wives are being pacified by extending, renovating and decorating their current homes. In some cases, fearing that these women may lose the run of themselves, their husbands are making discreet calls to architects, interior designers and builders, emphasising budget restraints.

“Just don’t show her designer furniture and fabrics, as with her expensive taste she’s sure to pick them over anything else,” was the whispered instruction from one concerned husband.

In other cases, it’s the wife who is firmly of the belief that she’s being frugal, when, in fact, although getting more bang for her buck, she’s spending just as much money as she ever did.

These are the women for whom the recession has provided an excuse for shopping, their favourite pastime, to be taken seriously. They don’t just shop; they bargain hunt with a vengeance. It becomes their fulltime job and they can talk of little else.

Only satisfied when they get discounts on already greatly discounted items, they’ll use every trick in the book, from claiming fear of their husbands wrath to flirting, quivering lips and tears. Some even become threatening and aggressive.

A plumber recently told me of how he was berated by a woman who claimed that she knew the wholesale price of the sanitaryware being installed in her new bathroom and was not prepared to pay a cent more for it, until he pointed out that his quote included his charge for plumbing. “These days they actually expect you to work for nothing,” he complained.

“Things have gone from one extreme to the other,” said one estate agent. “Vendors are now removing light bulbs and loo paper on the way out the door. With property prices cut to the bone, generosity of spirit has gone out the window. If it’s not on the list of fixtures and fittings, it may not be there when you get the keys.”

For the few lucky ones unaffected by the recession, it is sometimes difficult to remember to play the impoverished game. Where once property buyers might have boasted about the outrageous price they paid for their home, they now look sheepish about their purchase and go on at length about how lucky they were to have bagged such a bargain.

And the chattering classes have turned dinner-party conversation on its head, as they’re no longer talking about how much they spent but about how much they saved. Frugality is quite the fashion nowadays; at least it is for those who can afford the luxury of such a notion. For the rest, it’s more about finality.

Isabel Morton is a property consultant