In spite of all the turmoil in the world, I realized today that my personal economy is better than it's ever been. I've found more ways to cut back my spending, and it's really made a difference. I canceled my expensive land line, and I don't even miss it. I pay $25.00 a month for Internet, and I don't have television, so my expenses are low. I've been reading at least three library books a week, and finishing knitting projects. How about you?
Pretty dicey, actually! Dammit all. But making progress.
I had more income and time when the economy was betterBut I'm ok. I don't tend to regard such non-fatal fluctuations in economic fortune as permanent anyway. Stuff changes, one hopes for the better, but hey ...
Trees don't grow on money
Right now it's really bad. DH got laid off from his day job he took last year. We just finished a big art project but that money won't last longer than a few months. I only work part-time. Not sure what is next for us but I wish it would get here quickly.
Float On: My "Happy Place" is on my little kayak in the coves of Table Rock Lake.
Sorry Float On, do hope your husband's business picks up soon...
All over the country people are suffering. Unemployment, underemployment, doing more work with less people. What adds to the frustration is that at one time at least people could depend on social security and pensions and most pensions have gone the way of the horse and buggy and social security and medicare are certainly under intense scrutiny. So it's doubly hard to keep your chin up. As someone once said here (maybe bunnys) it is hard to pull yourselves up by the bootstraps if you have no boots.
We are lucky to have no debt, and during the good times thanks to good books, good websites and good friends we realized how important it was to live below our means and save. So we are OK. Holding steady. Not making gains. We even managed to sell our house for a decent price and will be downsizing and moving where taxes are much lower. That will help after the initial outlay of cash to move.
I wish I could help our floundering family members. One has long periods of unemployment, we have a few getting ready to graduate from college with big loans and few job prospects, and several others are treading water. That is the frustrating part because they are really good hard working people caught in a whirlpool trying desperately to swim out.
awakenedsoul, What service is your internet? That is really my big expense. I tend to use it as entertainment, but have considered changing my service (not close enough for the google fiber unfortunately), so my options seem limited.
As for my personal economy, when I paid off my house two years ago, I started stashing money away for some bigger expenses. I am pricing putting a new roof on, and have some other goals. I am in better shape then some, but still consider myself underemployeed.
Awakenedsoul, we are not in your league but have also been moving in the same direction trying to reduce our expenses. We have learned to look at even small expenses in 30 year time frames, so things like cutting the land line become really huge savings - $18K for us in 30 years. (We are actually still working on that one.) We have saved a lot by doing more of our own work around the house, cooking from scratch, cutting back on insurance to the essentials and just trying to get getting rid of a lot more stuff than we buy. We would like to downsize next year and that will be a huge cost saving.Originally Posted by awakenedsoul
I got hooked on the simple living idea when I read a magazine on homesteading and realized those people were actually leading pretty healthy lives and living on very little money. We would not go the whole homesteading route, but then I read up on simple living and urban homesteading and things started to click for us. We now work less but have more free time so it has been a good trade off for us.
I also started making much more use of the library. I get a lot of books on how to manage our money better and on urban homesteading.
DH's business dropped a great deal during the past few years, but the exodus of our friends/his customers from this area as well as the exodus of two major customers is largely to blame. It's all fine since it's time he scale back anyway. Our net worth continues to grow and by that measure, all is fine.
It's not bad. It would be better without Chez Albatross, the bane of my existence, but that's a personal problem. I could be more frugal, and there are lots of opportunities to cut back. If everything went completely to hell, I'd move in with my beloved and we'd be truly as snug as two bugs in a rug. And I'd have to rent a big honking storage unit.
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