To a lot of people, the fact that we are now officially in an economic recovery mode means that soon enough, the era of saving money on things is going to end, and the times of bling will soon be back in full force. Obviously, some people are always out to save as much money as is humanly possible such as carpooling or driving an old car to avoid a higher car payment. And of course, some people are always going to be out to show off just how much they can spend on the same things that many people are very frugal about. But during difficult economic situations, a lot of people find that they turn into followers, saving not because they have to, so much as because it is considered to be the thing to do.

Obviously, the saving and conserving trends are not going to last all that much longer, considering that jobs are coming back in force. When people start to make money again, the first thing they do is take in a deep sigh of relief. And the second thing they inevitably do is begin spending more money on things that make them look and feel richer, whether or not these things actually produce any positive results for their actual net worth. Obviously, there is a very wide gulf between what a person “should” be doing in any given situation, and what they actually are doing. Nobody should just blindly follow the trends. But a lot of people have been doing precisely that for the past couple of years.

Car pooling is a prime example of this follower tendency. After all, a lot of people have decided that they can save a bundle of money through maintaining their cars for a longer period of time (and being able to pay off their cars while the things still work). And many of these same people have also decided that getting other people to help them pay for their gas is a great money saver, as well. But if they have only been doing these things for the “fad of saving,” these practices are going to be short lived; bling’s back.