Friday Question #27
Are you doing anything to cut back on expenses during this “economic recession”?
There is this daily feature in the newspaper about how people are saving money during these “hard times of recession.” They’re eating out less, quitting smoking, taking public transit, blah blah blah.
Has anyone directly noticed the effects of the increase in fuel and food, etc., and is actively planning a way to cut back on spending?
We have started saving bowling coupons, and only going bowling when it is cheap or when we have a coupon. At most places, it is at least $4 a game! We have coupons for $1 a game, so that helps. Heh.
But otherwise, we have not changed much of our habits, yet. We both tend to… buy things when we want them. We’ll wait on some big items, and we research the things we are going to buy, but we usually don’t hesitate. Maybe that will change. And maybe we’ll start eating out less.
Themocracy
Not really… We VERY rarely eat out – maybe two or three times a month – and public transportation isn’t really a good option here in CO, unless I want to take 2 hours and 6 buses to get to work. There is a chance we might cancel our planned October vacation because of gas (we were going to spend two weeks driving around the southeast US), but that hasn’t been decided yet.
Other than riding my scooter and making my lunch, I’ve not really done much to cut back. I still go to concerts, still purchase gadgets and electronic items, still have cell phone and Netflix monthly recurring charges on my credit card. It’s pretty much business as usual for us.
I haven’t yet bought the camera I’ve been drooling over for a year. And I have the money to buy it. So, I think it has more to do with the craziness surrounding the sale of my condo and the purchase of a new condo and all the RIDICULOUS expenses related to those transactions. Oh my!
Any truly “good” American should be spending even more money to help break this country out of this period of slow economic growth. Save money? Are you crazy? Spend, spend, spend. People shouldn’t be thinking of themselves during this crisis, think of the country and go buy even more stuff. You must have more stuff – now get out there and buy more stuff!
We eat out a lot less but I’ve managed to pay off three smaller credit cards (and get rid of three payments) with my tax refund, tax rebate, and terminated retirement account from a former employer.
Even without those three payments, we’re still not “comfortable” anymore. My biggest credit card minimum payment TRIPLED this year (with no balance increase) and that has just whored us. Lenders are so afraid of losing money they’re doing everything they can to make sure they get as much as possible to make up for the customers who just flatout couldn’t pay anymore.
Here’s a tip for you and your husband … Don’t get over your head in debt. That “credit card for emergencies” can quickly turn into 10 cards and a whole lot of debt.
We’ve been fighting it the past 23 years. It’s a shame how much money we’ve wasted.
We don’t have a car, so fuel prices don’t really affect us. And we are lucky in that we don’t have many expenses and so we are able to put away some money into savings. So for now we haven’t changed our habits much. We’ll see if anything changes with our situation.
Well, I’ve given up on my Ford Escape idea for this coming fall and am now pricing out smaller, much more fuel efficient cars. We’ve cut back on groceries and buy what we need when we need it instead of storehousing stuff. And we don’t go out as much as we used to. Oh yeah, we sneak food into the theater now, too. Shhhh…. 😉
I don’t have a car, so that big expense isn’t really showing up for me (except in a fuel surcharge for taxis). I’m in a weird transitional point right now for my job, where my finances are all crazy anyway.
Travel is something I do often for work. But personal trips… especially abroad… are being pushed aside because the expense of taking them have gotten out of hand.
We’re cutting things all over the place. Our state, which already out-taxes almost every other state, is starting to suggest they’re going to raise taxes even higher because of THEIR cost increases and how we’re all bad for not shopping more and supporting our economy. That just infuriates me, considering it costs so much more to live here in the first place.
So, big garden – not buying veggies at the store if we can help it. We do a lot of trading with neighbors (applesauce for asparagus, eggs for corn, etc) I buy big when something is seriously on sale or we go without it unless it’s a staple. I only buy milk from the local dairy, so a gallon costs me $3 instead of $6.29 at the store. We had already pared down a whole lot of things (like satellite – all the way to basic. Without it we have NO tv signal at all – or radio, so we have to have something.) No long distance, cell only with 9-1-1 capability, that sort of thing. We don’t have debt, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll be returning to work now that I have graduated and hopefully that will help…but I think the biggest change is that we’re now dead serious about possibly moving states (hence me bugging everyone asking if they like where they live.)
But then, I’m paranoid about money. 😉
I, like 3 friends of mine in as many recent months, have, uh, found a new and (we hope) better job… Recession? What recession? 🙂
OK, I recognize that we are probably in one right now. Vacation aside, D & I have started trying to cut back on eating-out, and until I put my 2 weeks’ notice in on Wednesday, I had begun making more of an effort to come in a few minutes earlier to work… And because I drive a car with a manual transmission, I can get away with putting it in neutral and idling as I slow down whenever I have to come to a stop (this probably doesn’t save as much fuel as I like to imagine it does). And I’ve been making slightly-slower off-the-line acceleration too, to save on gas (in recent months, I’ve been getting the feeling other people are doing this too).
But other than those small things – meh, not much; except on the things that are critical to my health, core interests (e.g. computers), and friends, I’m generally pretty frugal… Although, I’m hoping to move into a probably more expensive apartment this year (one where I no longer can count bugs as pets or run the A/C when it’s only 75F outside or put duct tape on my bathroom window in winter b/c it leaks cold air into the shower), the increased cost of which will easily outweigh all the things mentioned above.
As E. mentioned, we are trying to go out to eat far less, but that’s for a variety of reasons, including healthier eating habits.
As you know, I don’t have a car so the gas prices don’t really affect me except for the associated price increases on groceries. I shop Peapod and sort everything by what’s on sale so I’ve been keeping my grocery costs down for awhile now…
Our CEO released a press statement that our brands have not been impacted by the economic slowdown at all and my boss is already talking about positions she’d like me to work on next summer, so I’m not fretting too much…Heh. 🙂
We have changed everything. -We only eat out about once a month -We car pool to work, keep my dodge durango parked in the drive way. The $145.00 a month in gas just wasn’t working -We don’t go to the movies any more – and instead of family get together’s where we grill steak and ribs we have burger and hotdogs lol. It’s all good though, we do still splurg once in a while. But the biggest thing is is the gas. Everything else we have cut down is just to save money for bigger things we want!
oops I meant the $145.00 a WEEK not a month!
Haha! Me? I’m the opposite of cutting back, what with moving and all. But that’s ok. We do need to stimulate the economy as best we can. I’m doing my part, even though Uncle Sam didn’t give me the full $600 (BOOO!)