Patricia M. Murret/The Gazette
Grace Vidal, 49, of Germantown, said her family is planning to forego vacations, except for college visits for her daughter and stays with family.
|
Today is deadline day for millions of Americans still scrambling to file their income taxes and around Montgomery County, residents are reporting a new urgency in getting documents filed.
In interviews across the county last week, residents reported a newfound frugality. With significant refunds harder to come by, gone are the days of splurge vacations and rushing to the mall.
"Everyone is just hanging on," she said on Friday outside the fabric store in North Bethesda's Mid-Pike Plaza. "Everything that I would've normally put into investments is now in my 401(k) and CDs and other safe places."
The $3,500 refund that Germantown resident Jimmy Jones and his wife Sharon got two months ago went entirely to bills: The mortgage on their home of 14 years, light and utility bills and car payments.
But the economy wouldn't let him, Jones said Sunday at the Village Café Bar and Grill in Montgomery Village. As more people stay home amid growing layoffs, his wife isn't needed as much as a home nurse. Then he got laid off from Han's Auto Center in Gaithersburg, where he painted cars.
Now he scrambles day-to-day to find part-time work.
"Things like where I would take the day off and rest, now I got to try to make a little hustle, you know, get some gas money and stuff," Jones said. "… It puts you in this — depressed. I used to go fishing and all that stuff, man. Now it's just mope around, trying to think, ‘What am I going to do tomorrow?'"
Other residents are trying to avoid that grief.
"We've been thinking about saving for my daughter's college," said Grace Vidal, 49, of Germantown. Her husband, a sales manager at a Honda dealership in Bethesda, has been making less money this year. The family is planning to forego vacations except for college visits and stays with family. "That's the reason we are saving the money for her because we don't know what will happen," said Vidal, who does not expect a large refund. "It's not much, but it's something."
Tricia Shuster, 29, of Urbana, picked up a part-time job at Gymboree children's clothing store in Gaithersburg's Lakeforest mall.
She got a scare earlier this year when her husband, Eli, lost his job in information technology. He found a new one a week later, but the family has since relocated twice.
"We're now much more careful, we're putting extra, extra in the bank just in case it happens again," said Shuster. "We're doing a lot of downsizing … we just don't want to worry."
She and her husband sold their home, rented a smaller one and traded in leases on two BMWs to cut costs. Their tax refund is going toward bills.
"We didn't save it," said Shuster. "We just put it toward things that were necessary to be paid off, like your credit cards," she said. Using a credit card is "no longer considered luxury, it's considered an emergency."
Gary Hunter, 43, a plumber who commutes daily to work in Gaithersburg from Warfordsburg, Pa., said "Money's tight. I don't go out, I buy generic food now, I shop at Sav-A-Lot, I'm quitting smoking." Any savings he receives is "going toward the kids," said Hunter, a Potomac native.
Montgomery County is an expensive place to live, said Jones, who is holding on at least until his daughters graduate from Watkins Mill. Then he'll face whether to tap his 401(k), sell off some other assets and return to his native South Carolina.
"I think it'll get better before it gets any worse. I really do. If not, I'm going to have to move back, buy me a little trailer or something," he said. "I hate to lose what I got; I worked so hard for it. It's sad, it's really sad. It's kinda bad, but, I'm trying to ride it out."
Staff Writers Sebastian Montes, Patricia M. Murret, Bradford Pearson and Erin Donaghue contributed to this report.
