A new Hebrew year is upon us and we all wish our acquaintances and loved ones that it will be a year of peace, health, tolerance, love of others and more. To the standard congratulations we can add another blessing: ‘May this be a year of wise, informed and balanced consumerism.’ Sounds banal? Right. It’s a strange and even too direct greeting, but it’s certainly a good one. During the holiday season, we wish we didn’t dig too deep a hole into our checking account, so that we don’t have to toil throughout the new year to fill it up and close it.
In recent years, the holiday atmosphere is not characterized by shofar and pomegranate, white clothing and the spirit of autumn only. Every new year also begins with an unrestrained consumption binge, which intensifies from year to year and sweeps us, the consumers, into an uncontrollable shopping spiral. The supermarket chains, advertisers and malls tempt us to buy more, much more than we planned – directing us to the shelves and promotions whose connection to the holiday meal is completely coincidental (computers, furniture, etc.). Everyone seems to be riding the wave of extravagance that glazes our gaze, making the pre-holiday shopping festival a necessary norm.
The smell of the holiday mingles with the smell of the shops
The “smell of the holiday” combines the smell of huge ads, promotions and gifts – because a new year requires us to innovate and renew and acquire every brand. The “smell of the holiday” is highlighted in the media through images of long lines and people with overloaded shopping carts. But what’s inside the overloaded carts? How many of the products do we actually need? How many of them will we really use? We will not hear about this in consumer articles.
It begins with the familiar and repressed feeling that “if already – then already”. It’s time to paint the house, change furniture, buy the clothes in the shop windows and buy gifts for all the uncles – it’s on sale, so isn’t it a shame to leave in the store?
We give in to aggressive marketing, allow ourselves consumerism without an account, iron a card for huge sums that sometimes amount to tens of thousands of shekels and bury our heads in the sand. Indeed, there is no need to make a follow-up article to the headline “After the Holidays,” because the end is known in advance: for many families in Israel, “after the holidays” begins below the zero line in their bank accounts.
“After the Holidays” is almost a whole year
We are after the summer vacation, a time when the hand moves more often toward the wallet, and the beginning of the school year also burdens considerable expenses of registering for kindergartens and schools and purchasing school supplies. Registration for children’s classes will soon open, and won’t we prevent them from them just because of a lack of money? And who even remembers the shopping we did for Rosh Hashanah when Sukkot approached? And again carts must be filled and the children must be busy. In any case, we will deal with this ‘after the holidays’, there is plenty of time (at least until Hanukkah or Passover) to reduce and balance the bank account.
So that’s it, no. As adults, we must show responsibility – responsibility for proper shopping, wise decisions, and careful conduct. In other words, control over our economic destiny.
At Paamonim, we propose to start this new year, differently – with savings and an informed and wise purchase that will leave us with economic strength even after the holidays. Instead of skimping on expenses all year round in order to catch up with the bill – let’s just start it first: buy only what you need, host cordially without trying to impress, and invest in direct contact with our guests and family, instead of investing in unnecessary gifts.
