If you haven’t been a student of the economy or our current credit crisis, then this probably won’t interest you. But if you’re like me (you’ve been watching the situation for quite a while and you’re opposed to the bailout), this will crack you up 🙂
I avidly collect recipes, far more than I’ll ever use. But it’s an addiction, and every time I make something new that my family loves, my addiction is reinforced.
Some of my very best recipes have come from the Internet, specifically from Lucianne.com. Lucianne doesn’t allow recipe sharing very often, because her site is intended for the discussion of politics and culture. But every rare once in a while, she permits a weekend recipe thread, and people share some fantastic recipes.
The thread runs only for today and tomorrow, and I imagine it will probably stay up for just a few days afterward. So don’t wait….pop in there soon and check back, as people will probably add to it all through the weekend 🙂
The bad news about the economic instability of our economy as well as those of other countries continues. Scary stuff, and it can make you feel pretty helpless. But there are things you can do.
First off, stop spending money on things you don’t absolutely need and try to save money wherever you can. I know many people believe that in times like these, you should spend today’s dollars because they’ll be worth less tomorrow. Beans! There’s nothing like the feeling of having money set aside for a rainy day.
Here are a few ways to save right now:
Pay for necessities with cash and put the change in a jar.
Take the amount you save by using coupons and put that in a jar.
Brown-bag it and put the money you would have spent for drive-up fast food in a jar.
Skip the Starbucks and put that money in a jar.
Pretty soon you should have a nice, full jar. Now, start with a new jar. In the past, I would have suggested you take that full jar to the bank and deposit it. But I’m thinking it’s a good idea to have some cash on hand at home. There are some shaky banks out there (check yours here), and it sure wouldn’t hurt to keep some of your money nearby….like in your house.
Today at the grocery I made a major killing. I spent $25 and my receipt showed I saved $28. Of course, that’s money saved off of full price, which I almost never pay. But it’s still savings. Shopping the sales combined with using coupons is always wise.
Buying in quantity when on sale is another no-brainer. I now have three 32-oz. jars of Miracle Whip Light in the house. At 99 cents each, they were a great deal. They’ll keep for a while, so I don’t mind having a few extra. I use them for homemade potato, tuna or egg salads, which are far cheaper homemade than what they cost at the grocery store deli counter.
Homemade….that’s another thing you can do in these unstable times. Make your own meals! You pay so much more for take-out, and plenty just for prepared foods and mixes. Case in point: the guy ahead of me in line at the grocery was buying a dinky container of seafood salad (surimi and pasta with dressing). The little one-pound container had a deli label on it that said $5.94. Good grief! You can easily make a huge batch of that stuff for less than $5, especially when you’ve got the items waiting for you in your pantry and fridge since you bought them on sale. A box of pasta for 69 cents, some ranch dressing mixed with mayo (maybe $1 worth) and a package of Crab Delights on sale for $1.50 (and even cheaper if you buy the store brand), plus a little diced celery….what does that total, maybe $3.50? And you’ll have enough to feed eight people.
Yet another thing you can do to save money: Don’t put anything on your credit card unless you can absolutely, definitely pay it off at the end of the month (credit card interest is a tax on spendthrifts!) Why even bother buying things on sale if you’re going to put that 14-25% tax on it? Ditto for buying furniture on time….no payments until 2010! Big deal…that’s how they rope you in, and later on you learn the interest has been piling up all that time, waiting for that first payment two years down the road. Don’t do it! If you must have furniture, if it’s a real need (not a want!), buy it used. Better yet, put out the word among family and friends that you need a new table or sofa, and maybe you’ll get a freebie. This is no time to be dropping hundreds or thousands of dollars on new stuff.
If you’re like me and you live a no debt/cash only lifestyle, be patient. Before long, overextended people will put their plasma tv’s and leather sofas on Craig’s List for next to nothing, because it’s going to be the only way they can raise cash. Their credit is tapped out and they need some money. The signs are already there. I’ve been looking at fifth wheel RV’s and there are some great deals out there!
Those are just a few areas where you can save money. There are many more. Go to the library and find yourself some books on saving money. If nothing else, use interlibrary loan to snag some of the classics written during the recession of the early 1980s, or one of Amy Dacyczyn’s books of the 90s (they all have “Tightwad Gazette” in their titles.)*
The more techniques you learn for saving money, the more empowered you’ll be, and the bad financial news we’re hearing on a daily basis these days won’t be quite so scary. This is not the time to sit in the corner and whimper. It’s time to take action!
* In case your library can’t get them for you, here’s Amy’s wonderful book plus some more that will help you:
My old dentist was a pretty modern kind of guy. Along with all the latest high-tech dental equipment, he had televisions in every examining room. Unfortunately, my most traumatic dental experience occurred in one of those rooms, when I was held hostage with a mold full of goo clamped to my jaw (the mold for my new crown was being prepared) so that I was unable to beg, “Have a heart…Please change the channel!” while on the tv screen, four unbelievably dim women blathered endlessly. That was the one and only time I ever watched “The View”…..until today.
Apparently, one of the show’s resident windbags spewed off yesterday, calling homeschooled kids “demented.” I had to watch the clip before sharing it to make sure I had the right clip. I hope you appreciate my sacrifice in doing so. It was every bit as painful as watching it from the dentist’s chair.
(Scoot the time up to about 5:30 to catch the beginning of the rant.)
(Hat tips: Extraordinarily Ordinary, The Homeschool Lounge)
I receive so many email forwards. Some aren’t worth forwarding, so I delete them. But this one makes a good point:
One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”
“It was great, Dad.”
“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.
“Oh yeah,” said the son.
“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.
The son answered:
“I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.
We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.
Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.
We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”The boy’s father was speechless.
Then his son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are.”
Isn’t perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don’t have.
The past few decades have seen many people caught up in things, new things, like new cars, new big fancy homes, new designer clothes….why use what you have when you can get new everything? Fueled mostly by borrowed money (borrowed against the house or put on credit cards), new things have been easier to come by and people have gone for them in a big way.
But times are changing. The economy’s in bad shape. House values are dropping and home equity lines of credit (HELOC) are being frozen as a result. Many people have maxed out their credit cards. They’re running out of ways to buy things.
And that’s not all bad. When people are forced to give up their obsession with things, they’ll be able to pay more attention to what’s really important in life: other people, experiences, and especially God. I’ve always liked this saying:
The best things in life aren’t things.