Economy is taking it's toll.... what are YOU doing about it?

[IluvLucy]

I, too, try to consolidate trips to stores. We have a Super Wally World, so I can do everything in one place. I clip coupons and cook rather than eating out.

I worry about young families with children to take care of. How in the world do ya'll do it? My heart goes out to everyone suffering economically now.

[Patti]

I hardly ran the ac this summer, used a fan. Consolidate trips, we sold my husband's SUV last week and he has a mini cooper on order, we are selling his old corvette too as it is in need of work. I am going to keep it cold in the house this winter except when DH is home he has a medical conditon that causes him to not be able to stand the heat. I am also looking at getting a part time job. Before I buy something now, I say to you need that or want that!. I have cut back on eating out too. which is really hard for me. I feel so bad for those who are so less fortunate and can't affor d food and medicine. It's a shame America has come to this!

[ladybugg74]

Both me and hubby live 2 - 3 miles from work, which this saves us lots of gas. I have always used coupons. I carry a little folder thingy with dividers and put my coupons in it. I always have it in my purse. People laugh, but hey look at the $ I save. I never go shopping for clothing unless I have a coupon for like 20% Kohls reg and sale items ect. I never pay full price and always look at the clearance items. We also consolidate our trips when we go out of town for shopping ect if we can. We now have a 2 month old baby and he will be going to daycare soon. That is another expense out of our pocket, which will make us cut back on things like eating out and going to the movies. I am nursing which saves us from buying formula. We shopped around and compared prices of diapers to the quantity in the package to come up with the best place to get them including baby wipes. Right now at work they are able to work all the over time they can so I intend on doing that when I go back. I wanted to get out of the military when I was pregnant, but we just can't afford it right now. I do this one weekend a month. My enlistement is up next year and then I will be getting out due to now having a little one at home. Yes, I have a civilian job and military job. My internet service went up like $10.00. We have it through our phone service. I called them and complained and they dropped it down for the next year. I am only paying like $2.00 more now. I will be keeping an eye on this thread to see what others are doing too.

[celstu1]

I had an anxiety attack on friday night. Im freaking out. I don't have anxiety attacks, never did. I didnt know what was wrong with me. I have to step back from all this stuff and just remember Im not the only one and what will happen will happen. I have no control of the economy by myself. I pay my bills and struggle like everyone else. I have my times where I can spend more in luxury items and times where I need to really buckle down. My savings is almost depleted at this point as Ive had to subsidize my bills with it. Im just living month to month. Each month I make the bills is another month I have a place to live!

[Erin]

We live in the Chicago suburbs and everything is super expensive here. We are selling our townhouse (and loosing $ on it) and moving to Wisconsin where things are much more affordable. Lots of foreclosures in this very nice neighborhood. People were maxed out. The only way most families could afford these houses was with creative financing. The average family here cannot afford the average house. I saw this "burst" coming years ago, but it's still devastating.

We can't wait to get north and have an affordable house payment. That will make everything else tolerable. Even 3 feet of snow won't feel so bad - I hope!!

[ARCHIE]

Like everyone else, less driving, clipping coupons and looking for sales on
everything. I would like to retire in the next 1 1/2 yrs so I am really
considering moving back to NJ where I can actually purchase a new home
for less than what my condo is worth! Invest the difference and pay 1/2
the taxes that I am now. With my income dropping lot's in retirement years something has to be thought out. Leaving my kids is the bad part. Have lot's to think about but you gotta do what you gotta do I guess. I don't want
to work until I drop! Besides with once a year increases in salary's someone already put claim to the money. Taxes, food, gas, electric, bridge costs.
Who ever see's this added money? No I. But I get taxed on it and
can't claim a darn thing!

[jencar98]

Originally Posted by Erin

We live in the Chicago suburbs and everything is super expensive here. We are selling our townhouse (and loosing $ on it) and moving to Wisconsin where things are much more affordable. Lots of foreclosures in this very nice neighborhood. People were maxed out. The only way most families could afford these houses was with creative financing. The average family here cannot afford the average house. I saw this "burst" coming years ago, but it's still devastating.

We can't wait to get north and have an affordable house payment. That will make everything else tolerable. Even 3 feet of snow won't feel so bad - I hope!!

You could move here, have a very reasonable house payment and last time we had three feet (or anything near that) of snow was in 1989 .

We've been fortunate, live close to stable jobs, have medical insurance and usually below national average gas prices. Like many others though we are watching our retirement shrink and are hoping things improve soon. We've cut back on eating out, shopping less for frivolous items, etc.

In our section of the country there was never the crazy over-inflated pricing for housing like on the coasts and in other select areas. So, we don't have the foreclosure rates, as the creative mortgages were not done on such a large scale here.

[labrown]

What is a bread store? I've never seen those locally, only overseas.

Cost of living in KS and OK is some of the most reasonable in the US. I miss my $500/month 1000 sq foot apartment. But I don't miss being in the middle of nowhere. My sister lives in KS but owns a home in MI and she can't afford to sell it. Stinks.

[tatertot15]

I have been married a little over a year now and we have been out on our own for only a few months now. My husband got laid off and is now working a crappy job to bring some money in, I couldn't make the last payment on my car, we are a payment behind on my husbands truck. We are struggling with the rent. My mom bought us groceries because we had nothing for 3 weeks because we had a bad wind storm here and it knocked our power out for a few days so we lost all our food and couldn't afford to replace it. I'm cutting back everywhere I can, even though it seems to not help. I'm trying to sell everything I can live without, even some things I don't want to sell but need to. I have a 40 mile round trip to work my husbands is about 30 round trip. I don't know how to conserve more money than I already have. we don't turn lights on in the house unless we have to so it helps with the electric bill. I will have to buy Bandit some more food soon and he eats Innova and as i'm sure some of you know its not exactly cheap but I will NOT make him suffer because of whats going on. I'm getting depressed. I just had to go to the dentist to find out I need two root canals and crowns and my insurance only pays 40% so out of pocket it will cost me over $2400, so looks like i'm going to walk around in pain for a long time before I can get it fixed. If they weren't important teeth I'd get them pulled, one of them I am thinking about it but the other I will not let them pull. I'm so scared of losing everything I've worked so hard to get. It makes me feel a little better to know I'm not the only one in this position. But I'd also rather noone be in this position. Thanks for listening.

[Patti]

Originally Posted by tatertot15

I have been married a little over a year now and we have been out on our own for only a few months now. My husband got laid off and is now working a crappy job to bring some money in, I couldn't make the last payment on my car, we are a payment behind on my husbands truck. We are struggling with the rent. My mom bought us groceries because we had nothing for 3 weeks because we had a bad wind storm here and it knocked our power out for a few days so we lost all our food and couldn't afford to replace it. I'm cutting back everywhere I can, even though it seems to not help. I'm trying to sell everything I can live without, even some things I don't want to sell but need to. I have a 40 mile round trip to work my husbands is about 30 round trip. I don't know how to conserve more money than I already have. we don't turn lights on in the house unless we have to so it helps with the electric bill. I will have to buy Bandit some more food soon and he eats Innova and as i'm sure some of you know its not exactly cheap but I will NOT make him suffer because of whats going on. I'm getting depressed. I just had to go to the dentist to find out I need two root canals and crowns and my insurance only pays 40% so out of pocket it will cost me over $2400, so looks like i'm going to walk around in pain for a long time before I can get it fixed. If they weren't important teeth I'd get them pulled, one of them I am thinking about it but the other I will not let them pull. I'm so scared of losing everything I've worked so hard to get. It makes me feel a little better to know I'm not the only one in this position. But I'd also rather noone be in this position. Thanks for listening.

Sounds like you have it pretty tough right now, hopefully for you and all others in this situation things will improve. Have you looked into getting dental work done at a university dental school. I know someone whose dtr had terrible teeth and they got them fixed very inexpensively.

[jencar98]

Originally Posted by labrown

What is a bread store? I've never seen those locally, only overseas.

Cost of living in KS and OK is some of the most reasonable in the US. I miss my $500/month 1000 sq foot apartment. But I don't miss being in the middle of nowhere. My sister lives in KS but owns a home in MI and she can't afford to sell it. Stinks.

A bread store is generally an outlet where they sell what is termed "day old bread".....it's bread (and other baked goods) that may be close to, out of date, but still perfectly good to eat. Also, I think the mfgrs must make bread, etc. specifically for these stores bc I've got some really fresh bread before.

[tatertot15]

Originally Posted by Patti

Sounds like you have it pretty tough right now, hopefully for you and all others in this situation things will improve. Have you looked into getting dental work done at a university dental school. I know someone whose dtr had terrible teeth and they got them fixed very inexpensively.

Really?? I've never heard of that, I will have to look into it. Anything to get these teeth fixed and get out of pain, they gave me 3 scripts, one for the infection and two for pain. I don't know how much longer I can walk around like this.

[Patti]

Definately call around to dental schools in the area. It would be worth a drive to get them done cheap and get out of pain.

[Darlin Beauxs]

I try to limit my trips to town to 1 or 2 per week.

I avoid stores where I tend to impulse buy/overspend, like Target.

I stock up on the things we use the most at Sams...like sodas (I can't give up, sorry) bread, chips, dried chicken breasts for the pups, and laundry supplies. The bread we eat (nature's own) is 2.50 for a loaf at wal-mart, 3.36 for 2 loaves at Sam's!

I stopped buying large amounts of treats for the dogs, and instead just buy the ones they enjoy the most (dried chicken, tiny t-bones, and Doggie Wishbones from Merrick).

I buy my shipping materials and ribbon online, in bulk. Much cheaper than anywhere locally!

I also wanted to add I find it interesting that some companies are now advertising concentrated cleaning products that you dilute in water, and re-use the bottle as a means of being "green", and saving the environment. I have been using spray bottles of lysol, or pine sol as an all-purpose cleaner, for years. I limit my cleaning supplies to something like lysol, or odoban, windex, and an enzyme cleaner for doggie mistakes.

I'll be checking this thread out too. I don't want to live a bare-bones life, but it is amazing how you can trim back in little ways, and not even notice!

[LittleMansMomma]

Like everyone else has said, I do all my shopping at one time to save on gas. I haven't been a coupon clipper, but now I have clipping coupons and using them when I do go shopping. I've cut my cable bill in half by downgrading to basic cable. My house phone I did the same thing except I did keep my internet just went with the cheapest high speed they had. As for the electricity, I just turn everything off when done using it or leave the room. I haven't ran my a/c in the last 2 months, just had the windows and doors open and a fan in the livingroom window. Believe me there were a couple of times I wanted to turn that a/c on. I started washing my dishes by hand instead of using the dishwasher. Our cell phones, I think I am going to let mine go and just have hubby's because of his work and maybe pick up a prepaid for me to have when I'm not home so I can have it for emergency use only (we're still not sure about that one though).

Hubby and I cut our date night(movie & dinner) from once a week to twice a month. I'm still working on him about that cutting it down to once a month, but he still thinks I need that time away from home and not cook. I admit it's nice to have that time, but its not a necessity that we need right now. I know some might think I'm crazy for turning down a night on the town so speak, but with the economy the way it is right now I don't think so. The only thing I refuse to cut corners on is my furbabies.