Published: July 22, 2008 12:30 am      

It’s tough times

Because an up market is so 2007

Show of hands: Who here has spent money in the last 24 hours?

OK, put them down. You do look kind of silly reading the newspaper that way.

Even though the best things in life are free, they’re definitely still taxable. We’re used to paying for food, gas, and clothing, but the present recession has made us hyper-aware of every cent we spend. Prices rise, and paychecks, well, don’t. It’s enough to put a damper on even the most earnest retail warrior.

(For illustration, dear Class of 2012: When I was your age, gas was $1.77 a gallon.)

The middle class has been hardest hit, as have the stores we frequent — everything from Macy’s to, yes, even Wal-Mart has seen losses. An April 28, 2008, a Newsweek op-ed piece lamented the death of the shopping spree. It seems that everyone is too busy trying to buy food to look at those new Diesel jeans.

But keep your chins up, peers! We still have the most expendable income of any age group. (Of course, that’s also why we’re targeted so often by advertisers selling everything from music downloads to weight-loss panaceas to the next great fashion trend.)

“I spend most of my money on hanging out with my sisters, iced coffee, and clothes,” Leah Nestor says.

We buy small stuff — well, not that the iPhone is “small stuff” — but it adds up quickly. Those of us aged 13 to 17 spend an annual $30 billion. That’s ... a lot of iced coffee.

Just where is all that money coming from? While the practice of mooching off one’s parents is widely accepted, something — a vestige of guilt, a desire for more cash — led 60.6 percent of teens ages 16 to 19 to participate in the work force last month. Whether or not you get minimum wage, it’s still money that can go towards as many “Lost” downloads as you want.

“I have a job because I like the sense of independence I get when I don’t have to ask my parents for money. I can decide what I want to spend,” Marissa Pulice says. “I work hard for that money, too.”

It’s very easy to see the summer job as a first step towards autonomy, whether fiscal or emotional; there’s a lot of pride in being able to take care of yourself.

Yes, you are now licensed to call it your “adolescent independent career initiative.” Thank me later.

Of course, even though teenagers spend most money on entertainment, that’s not to say we don’t buy other things — necessities, if you will. One of those necessities recently passed $4 a gallon.

“Gas prices are really starting to hurt,” Caleb Lough says. “I’m staying home a lot more often.”

For many people, escalating costs mean it’s no longer possible to get to work every day; for others, it means that a trip to the grocery store is going to sting in two different ways. And for us, it means that the traditional who’s-paying negotiations become a lot more awkward. We don’t want to pay for ever-more-expensive insurance and fuel ... but neither do our parents.

After all, they’re already footing the bill for another big expenditure.

“Saving for sending me to college next year, and paying for my brother in college this year, is an issue,” Jenna Carpenter says. “It wasn’t before.”

Already fraught decisions become therapy-level, and even Xanax costs something.

So what’s a recessionista to do? Remember that markets — like water and the lives of butterflies — move in cycles. It may not be pretty at the moment, but time cures all ills — though, workers of the world, overtime waits for no man. For the moment, saving seems to be the way to go, as hard as that can be. (Have you SEEN what they’re charging for coffee? Goodness!)

I propose a toast: Here’s to keeping our sanity, and our wallets, in trying times. How does tap water sound?