staycation posts

The financial collapse has brought about many changes to our lifestyles -- from how we work (or don't) to how we spend our money and even to how we talk. These changes have prompted the creation of new terms, and the revival of old ones, to describe activities and actions that have gained new relevance thanks to the recession.

While staycation has received the most attention, there are many words and phrases that the media, present company included, have overused in the past year. With that, WalletPop presents, your guide to recession buzzwords and phrases.

Staycation -- Perhaps the best-known term, tracing its roots back to 2003, but gained popularity and notoriety in 2008. Despite earning a place on the banned word list earlier this year it recently found a home in the newest version of the Merriam Webster College Dictionary alongside "Acai" and "sock puppet."

Transumer -- Rather than describing Optimus Prime on a shopping trip for Rocky Horror-style clothes, Transumer is used to describe consumers who are in a constant state of transition. Originally used in 2003 by marketing agency Fitch to describe shoppers who made purchases at airports, train stations and hotels, recently it found use as a descriptor of individuals who rent everything, from handbags and homes to cars and movies. If any recessionary term deserves to be banished it's this one, if only for the mental image it calls to mind.

Every camping space, cabin and yurt in Idaho State Parks was reserved for this Fourth of July weekend, for the first time ever. One-hundred-percent booked, said a KUOW report. In Washington state, camping reservations were up 9% in the first half of 2009, proof, said a state spokesperson, of the staycation trend.

Hmmm? As I understand the recessionary term, a "staycation" is when you stay at home, or within a few miles, instead of spending lots of dollars for driving, flying, or using other methods of transportation to get out of town. It's still a "vacation" if you're leaving the city, even if you're staying in your own state's park system, even if you're saving cash by camping instead of staying in a hotel.

Lake Superior State University has released its annual List of Banished Words, a compendium of overused, idiotic, and otherwise grating words that we're all completely sick of hearing. Most of them, culled by submissions from the public, are words that have had deep meaning wrung out of them after being flogged to death as shorthand, either by lazy journalists or shallow politicians.

Among the vocab pariahs: "Bailout," the pairing of "Wall Street" and "Main Street," and "maverick." But there's one word on the list that irks me more than any other: "staycation."

The word was bandied about the media in the early summer as a quick way of illustrating a malaise about gas prices. People weren't interested in seeing the world this year, we were told. They're taking staycations instead. Staycations, apparently, are like vacations, except you don't travel far from home, or away from home at all. Which still makes them vacations, but whatever.

When I was growing up, we just called that "budgeting." When we couldn't afford to go skiing one winter, my mom didn't give the decision a snazzy name to make it seem cool or trendy. We just did something else. What irks me most about staycations is that by giving a sensible economic solution a catchy name, we legitimized the fears that kept some people home. It was like agreeing that travel was too expensive to be done now.

Staycation has become the marketing buzzword of the season. I've been guilty of using it in writing myself, but last night I was watching TV and a commercial came on that made me think it's all gone too far.

The furniture store Raymour and Flanigan was having a Staycation Sale. "Gas prices put the brakes on your vacation plans? Take a staycation instead and create the ultimate getaway with Raymour & Flanigan!" their ad says.

Lots of retailers have tried to jump on the bandwagon of people saving money by staying at or near home for vacation this summer. USAToday reported in May that big box retailers were targeting homeowners with backyard equipment. I've seen ads just on Maine cabin rentals hawking their places as a staycation for other Maine residents.

If you're going to save thousands of dollars by not driving or flying out west this summer, sure, go splurge. Buy a new grill or Adirondack chair to make your backyard more fun. But spend hundreds or thousands on furniture instead? Raymour and Flanigan furniture may be nice and might well be a great improvement to your home. But I think it defeats the purpose of saving money by staying near home.

Today the federal minimum wage increased 70 cents to $6.55, as the second phase of a series of moves meant to bring the minimum wage up over a three year period. The "raise" will affect roughly 1.7 million workers or 2.3% of hourly workers, which means that collectively the cost of employing all minimum wage workers for one hour jumped $1.19 million today.

Despite the increase, the new rate is still below the inflation-adjusted 1997 level of $7.02, and far below the inflation-adjusted level of $10.06 from 40 years ago, according to a Labor Department inflation calculator. And it obviously still leaves many families well under the poverty line.

You'd think that getting a 12% raise during poor economic times would be a great help for 850,000 people over 25 who are making minimum wage. Unfortunately the increase is often quickly passed to the items these same workers need to buy; including food and gasoline. Smaller Businesses will also feel the pinch as they struggle to cope with higher wages and customers who are sick of seeing prices go up time and time again.

Earlier this month we covered 25 ways to raise cash quick with ideas ranging from medical testing and gambling to renting out your extra parking space. If for some reason pimping out your bod for science doesn't sound like a sound method for raising some extra dough, and you already have a day job, then I have the answer for you! Instead of taking a stay-cation and exploring your local town for your 2-3 week vacation, take a workcation. That's right; you can use this short period to do some temping, or work at one of many random jobs while still collecting pay from your regular employer.

For example, if you already have some kind of part-time or freelance gig, see if you can use your vacation to tackle a new project or get some extra work done. I've been using my vacation days to write posts here at WalletPop, but even if you aren't a blogger, there are many possibilities for taking a workcation.

If you've already tried a temp agency, then your next stop for finding short-term employment should be with small businesses. Hit up any small businesses you frequent or whose owners you know to see if you can do any odd jobs that have been sitting on their corporate "honey-do" list for ages. Your own company may be the source of some workcation money. If they have extra tasks which need completed, see if you can take your vacation days and still come in to work at full pay even if you are doing something else in another department. If your company is weathering the recession, they might be up for it.

We have already covered the frugal vacationer's plight this summer, as many families will embark on staycations.

Our own Tracy Coenen has shared some great ideas for planning your staycation. Despite the fact that you can make the best of a staycation to explore your hometown, John Hodgman explains what it means to go on a staycation or as he calls it a "holistay." You may know John better for his character "PC," in the Apple ads currently in heavy rotation on TV.

This clip is wonderfully hilarious and brings up an interesting point about positive spin that media in general is giving to the staycation. I suppose the staycation could be a sign that people aren't financing their travel on credit cards.

Me? I'll call a staycation what it is, a bummer! You can watch the embedded clip and surf the web all day during your staycation, but how would that differ from work? Actually, I take it back: Staycations are awesome, especially when you consider that next year due to a failing economy you'll be taking a workcation. You heard it here first.