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

I know that it is on lots of our minds....... and it is affecting all of us (some more than others). I thought that a thread may help..... we can share how it is affecting us and helpful ideas making things a little bit easier.

Gas prices are really making a dent in our budget..... my husband not driving his full size truck.... instead, he is using our old little truck and getting 2x as much gas mileage.
We also make less trips to town (I make a list, and we "do it all" in one trip).
We have been camping closer to home.
I use every coupon I can get my hands on, and plan our menu according to what is on sale.
I am doing FULL loads of laundry..... it takes as much electricity to run the washer and dryer regardless of how much is in it.
Having a gargage sale!!!...... all that stuff you don't need or use..... plus there are people that may NEED what you have..... and they get it at a garage sale price!

Instead of going 30 miles to the movie theater or out to dinner...... we stay in our little "Po-dunk" town. Not as big a variety...... but I think that the "ghost walk" that they are having this month might be fun! :)

........ any suggestions or ideas that you can share would be great!
A big part of the solution is to keep on plugging along.... and being as creative as you can!

We haven't changed much of anything. I drive the truck less but other than that we are doing fine. ;)

Its not really affecting us to much (yet). We've always been somewhat poor, so its not a major deal to us. I live less than 3 miles from my job, so I use very little gas. I would just bike and use no gas, but I work 2nd shift and don't get off until after dark. When I get paid, I buy only groceries and the absolute necessities like deoderant. I also clip coupons and compare prices before I buy anything. I get paid every 2 wks and before I go to the grocery store I look to see what stuff is already in my cabinents and plan my menus accordingly. This week I only had to spend $23 for two weeks worth of menus! :D I also quit buying sodas and juices, I drink milk in the morning and the rest of the time I drink water- its healthier and I save money!

Well, I was always stingy with everything, & conserved energy at home to begin with and saving as much as I could is nothing new. But I notice I am combining more trips together. Also I'm doing without more, like no more Evaporated Milk in my coffee because it's gotten so expensive, I've learned to like black coffee. Also I get more Bread at the Bread Outlet stores now to freeze and thaw a loaf out to every week or so. I can't tell it's been frozen and it's alot cheaper to buy bread at the Bread Outlet store than at the grocery.
Thats all I can think of for now. :)

WOW!! $23!!! That is awesome!!! :notworthy

I don't know if you have them or not.... but I found the individual creamers at BIG LOTS.... they are a name brand and very reasonable. (... and in the hazelnut flavor!)

We cut back on all of the unnecessary things. We get bread at the bread store, check for sales, just what everyone else is doing.

A dear friend of mine lost money with Wamu:(

I have had to cut down alot for the last year already. I am not allowed to work Sundays, Holidays, etc, anymore because of my pay scale, my company is down-sizing where-ever possible. That forced me to rent out my 1/2 acre field to a person with 3 horses to make up part of the difference. I dont go to movies as much or eat out as often. I now go to a cheaper hair-dresser. The cut is not as nice, but not bad either plus its closer to home. I dont go see my Mom as often. What used to cost 30 in gas now costs 80. I dont have TV anymore. I have done without a water heater since May. I will be getting one at the end of this month. The water out f the tap is just now starting to get cool. I use an evap cooler as much as possible, except for the 2 humid months. One thing that I have always done is I only put cloths in the dryer for about 5 minutes then hang them out on the clothsline. The only thing I dont skimp on now are the Yorkies, horses and the goats.
I wonder how this 78billion dollar "buy-out" will effect all of us in the long term?

Great thread !

I have to admit I'm at a loss on how to cut down more - I'm already doing bare minimums - - I'm blessed to be working full time but helped support myself by working from home too - lately things have slowed way down ...so I'm looking at new ways to save....I'll be reading this thread for ideas - thanks !

HOW ? Can you tell more ?

Well, I've been consolidating errands and buying only what is necessary at the grocery store. I've also been making hubby lunches a lot more. We've cut our cell phone package back a bunch. I have been cutting back on unnecessary spending for a while now so that is good. I say to myself, "do I really need that?" Also really been conscience about turning electrical things off and unplugging unnecesary appliances such as microwave and computer screen, etc.

I did the phone package also 4 months ago - I knew during summer my electricity would triple and it sure did....:( I keep my thermostat at 80 so it's not like I'm living in comfort -

Even with gas prices coming down a tiny bit, we, as Americans, should be outraged at the high cost of everything.

It's getting so frustrating and scary ......Everything is going up except for the paychecks .....

Unfortunately many of us are being affected by all that is occurring in our economy. This is not a problem of affecting only the "poor", this is hitting the middle income people just as well......I just saw the news and the utilities are being shutoff for a lot of people, by the time they pay for gas for the car, the mortgage payment and food, nothing is left to pay a $1000 gas or electric bill......

New York has 230,000 people with their utilities shut off and Michigan has about 18,000 people with theirs shut off.....What a shame....this is going to get a whole lot worse as it gets colder. There's going to be some tragedies occurring out of this with people trying to keep warm......

It must be nice for the ones that haven't had to cut back or change their life style to make ends meet unfortunately many of us are affected by this. A person sure loses their sense of security when they have to worry so much on how they are just going to survive with the bare minimum. It sure takes away a persons peace of mind.......

One nice thing about this year (at least here) the weather has been beautiful! I've had my a/c on for about 4 days in the last 2 1/2 mos so that was a blessing. I have not had to turn on the heat just yet but it was in the 40's last night, but the days are still in the high 60's and 70's and where I live we get the hot sun on the back of house pretty much from 10 am til evening. I wish I could cut my house phone out but we live over the bridge and in the long run, it is really easier to a landline phone than just cell phones.

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.

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!

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.

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! :)

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!! :eek:

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.:eek: But I get taxed on it and
can't claim a darn thing!

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.

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. :rolleyes: My sister lives in KS but owns a home in MI and she can't afford to sell it. Stinks.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.