Depending upon your source of information, the American economy has been adrift since October 2006, recently pulled into a perfect storm of credit crunching, inflation and rising unemployment, as well as devaluation of the American dollar. Certain retail sectors are feeling the pinch. Single-family housing starts have cooled dramatically.

When President Bush quickly passed his economic stimulus package, the goal was to increase consumer spending, keep the economy growing, and create jobs . Although the package contained other key features, it is fatally flawed. Average consumers don’t have the luxury of spending like there’s no tomorrow. Many plan to pay off debt or make needed repairs with their rebate. In the meantime, prices for necessities continue to rise. To avoid getting caught in the cross-hairs, many have already adjusted their lifestyles. Through the lesson of harsh economic times, they are cutting back on consumer purchases. As a result, the engine of our economy will likely remain status quo.

A consumer economy built upon the mantra of “it’s fabulous, got to have it now” is bound to have its setbacks. Whatever we desire may in fact be fabulous, and we may definitely want it, even think we need it, but the truth is, nine times out of ten, we can live without it. Therein lies the difference between need and want.

Delayed gratification, the nemesis of a consumer-fueled economy, is a pillar of sound financial management. Doing without. Making due with what one has. Making due with less. Such a simple concept but so many times ignored.

Families with disposable income often have difficulty teaching this lesson to their children. The money is there, so why not spend it? Unfortunately, that kind of mentality fails to teach children the difference between need and want. Delayed gratification is a lesson we would all be wise to learn and teach our children at an early age. Sometimes, it’s not so simple.

As my own children grow older, I deny them more and more luxuries, hoping the delayed gratification lesson will finally sink in. We still have a long way to go.

Our teenage daughter has a part-time job, but still comes to us for handouts. Now that she’s about to graduate from high school, I have resorted to tough love. She asks for a Starbucks coffee, I tell her we have coffee at home. She wants to call her friends in foreign countries, I tell her to buy her own calling card. She wants gas money, I tell her she can walk or ride the bus.

These items are not necessities. Let her use the money from her part-time job. One day, she will look back on these lessons and thank me. Today, she regards me as a dried up bank account. Better that than to be an independent adult with a dried up bank account. Just yesterday, she tried to hit me up for gas money. I, in turn, hit the roof.

“Where did you go yesterday?” I snapped.

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you and your friend go clothes shopping at the mall?”

“Well, yeah,” she replied, “What’s your point?”

“My point is, didn’t you have money to go shopping then?”

“Yeah, so what?” She looked confused. You would think I just asked whether she was the Queen of England. I was hoping the lesson would simply dawn on her, thereby ending the conversation. No such luck.

“Look. If you had the money to go clothes shopping and you knew your car was getting low on gas, you should have reserved a certain amount of money to pay for it,” I explained, exasperated.

“But I’m saving that money for a bathing suit,” she protested. “I have to get a new bathing suit. It’s almost summer.”

Oh. Stupid me. I should have realized a new bathing suit was more important than gas. This kid has a long way to go. As for the “spend like there’s no tomorrow” mentality, tough love time had arrived. I looked her straight in the eye. “You can walk to where you need to go, get rides with other people, or take the bus, but I’m not giving you gas money.” Thankfully, she knew enough not to argue.

As you can imagine, she arrived home later that day with a half tank of gas and some packages in tow. Yes, a new bikini lurked inside. She claimed to have cashed an overdue paycheck, so I didn’t pry any further. There’ll be other opportunities to beat the delayed gratification lesson into her consumer brain. For now, it’s enough that the kid had to open her own wallet.