just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

have you changed how you live your daily life?

edited for grammar

Message edited 3/2/2008 9:37:54 PM.

Re: just wondering... HOW HAS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

It really hasn't yet. But DH just drives to the train station, and I only do local driving, so we don't use a lot of gas.

Over the summer we converted to gas heat from oil heat. Our burner had pretty much crapped out, so the cost of the new burner was a wash, but we've saved a lot on fuel versus last year.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

Honestly, it just means we can't buy a house...we'll stay in our apartment. We don't go on vacation or things like that. It's not so much the economy but cost of living being far higher than our salaries.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

I dont know if its affecting my daily life but i do see it affecting my scrapbook business. When money is tight, people are not spending money on the extras!! I hope i turns around soon!!

Message edited 3/2/2008 9:45:08 PM.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

Fortunately, we haven't been effected by it yet. But we do live within our means and we aren't extravagant anyway.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

I have gone against my beliefs and shop at Wal-Mart now

I just look for ways to not spend as much as we used to and focus on saving and paying off my debt

this year wasn't great for us- but things should be getting alot better now-

my DH had to take a major step back in his career (b/c of the mortgage industry turmoil) - but he has now gotten a job back on his level and he is very excited

and hopefully we can take what we learned from a bad year to make sure we never have one again

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

well oddly its been working out great for us, but its a weird situation. My DH works in an environment that is not really affected by the "little people's economy" as they call it. And they are building/selling tons of houses to Europeans coming to the Hamptons to get the fire sale prices. Business is great for him *thank god*. My office is very busy as well, still waiting for a hiccup but we haven't had it yet. I'm always looking to buy another investment property & with the real estate market crapping out on LI, its looking like I'm going to find something soon.

Personally we are savers not spenders, so I'm not feeling like I need to cut back on buying stuff. We are the simple living type so our overhead is pretty low.
I just bought a hybrid, so I'm ok with fuel costs right now. I paid an extra $2.00 for a dozen bagels this morning, it feels like every single item has jumped up in price for 2008.
Some of our investments are taking a major beating, I'm not loving that.
I have been hearing about more & more layoffs, its scary.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

For DH & I, it means that we might actually be able to buy a house! With the drop in real estate market & the lower interest rates, it brings prices down to a more affordable level for us. If those two things hadn't changed, it would not be a possibility for us for a long, long, long time ... and we probably would have needed to move out of NY.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

I don't think it has hit us yet. DH actually got a promotion and raise so we are doing okay (knock wood). Both of our cars are paid off. We can afford our condo mortgage but probably not a house just yet.

As far as the rest of LI, DH and I wanted to take DD to dinner last night at any of the local chain places and ALL of them were packed with 30-40 minute waits. If the economy is doing poorly, people sure aren't behaving as such.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

It hasn't affected us at all. Everything is the same for us.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

Well, really it's just affecting DH's job search. He is currently employed (but underemployed), but there isn't a lot out there for him right now. Hasn't affected me too much or our general lifestyle since we pretty much don't lead extravegant lives.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

lost my job

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

my mother lost her job due to the mortgage crisis.

we're paying an extra 2 k for a business trip followed by vacation in europe this june, becuase the dollar basically has no value anymore

the situation is likely going to be much worse for everyone in several months. economists believe we may encounter rather severe inflation in the near future... so our food bills will skyrocket as fast as our fuel bills

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

It's not really affecting us yet. We were able to buy a house because of the drop in housing prices.

However, we've really cut back our spending over the past 2 years to be able to save. We don't go out to eat as much and we try to buy things when they're on sale.

If we need something, luckily we're able to buy it. But right now we're not spending needlessly.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

COL is higher, especially considering my lengthy commute (by car).

At work we didn't have such a hot month sales wise. What we're selling is not a "necessity" so it can be affected by the economy. I don't think my job is in danger (in fact I was fortunate to get a promotion, a raise and a bonus this past week!), but it will have an impact on who we can hire and how easy it will be to work.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

Probably similar to everyone else, more to fill up on gas every week. Every penny we spend more in the budget is just less that we can save
Other thing is that interest rates on savings and cds are down, so we are making less on our money.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

I work in a field where I am busier when the economy is not so great. I'm a lawyer and I handle a lot of bankruptcy cases. I am self employed so this could mean a pretty good year for me, even though it is sad to see so many cases.

Message edited 3/3/2008 12:05:33 AM.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

I wouldn't say its killing us by any means but I can see a noticable difference in spending money versus bills like food and gas. Not fun.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

I posted just this week that our COL is considerably higher than when we bought our house in March of 95...just taking HEATING OIL, ELECTRIC, PROPERTY TAXES, HO INSURANCE, & GAS our COL has gone up $6000..not to mention increased food costs (milks increase alone costs me an extra $10 per week) and all the other costs in owning a home...DHs income is not economy based and his job is rock solid but the slowed economy has definitely effected our home business. We are technically selling what some would considered "collections" and people dont have the extra $$$$ to spend on their hobbies right now...in a time where my DHs 3% yearly raise isnt keeping up with the COL increase that extra money would really help and people just arent buying.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

thankfully it has not affected us at all. and hopefully it won't!

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

I think (hope) it's going to help us when we start building the addition on our house. I'm hoping that contractors will be eager to get work from me, so I can get the work done cheaper than if the market was doing better. Other than that, we're not affected yet.

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

Posted by SweetestOfPeas

thankfully it has not affected us at all. and hopefully it won't!

Re: just wondering... HOW IS THE BAD ECONOMY AFFECTING YOU?

We haven't seen any major impact on our salaries YET... but my husband is an electrician and we are very concerned that come June he will be out of work. It is a scary proposition because overy 400 men in his union are currently out of work - some have been out of work for over a YEAR. So we have to be prepared for the idea that Rob might have to get a temporary job that pays far less than what he gets now... just to SURVIVE.

Many life decisions have been made based partly on the shaky economy and my husband's less than stellar job prospects in the coming year.

For example - we have written off the idea of having a 3rd child, we have decided that we will not be starting any of the home improvement projects we had budgeted out for, we have opted to forgo the travel plans we had for this summer.

Minor things too... we don't eat out or order out with half the frequency that we used to. I don't entertain as often as I had been. I am very conservative with our own foods at home - pasta, chili, tacos and chicken cutlets win out over steak and roasts.

We have been socking away every extra bit of cash to make certain that we will not have too much of a crisis on our hands.

Right now things are fine. We are both working and making a decent living... but the knowledge that everything can turn on a dime has us preparing for the possible consequences before we are stuck.

Message edited 3/3/2008 8:04:31 AM.