<p>The media are determined to convince us that the American economy is in recession, even though the textbook definition of that malady has not been met. I’m curious about CC forum members. Thus, my question:</p>
<p>Have gas prices, rising food costs, and other economic factors caused you or your family to alter day-to-day lifestyle in any tangible way?</p>
<p>There may be direct trickle-downs that affect college-related issues, but I’m more interested in daily lifestyle issues. Have you switched to alternate transportation at all? Have you dined out less frequently? You get the idea.</p>
<p>Do you think that our forum family here is more affluent than those at other forums you visit? Are CCers, in general, higher up on the standard-of-living scale or do we have a comprehensive spread?</p>
<p>What’s happening with your family in these days of economic “turmoil”?</p>
<p>In general, I feel that CCers are upper-middle class. Notice I said in general. This is simply evident from the amount of resources many of these kids have available- research opportunities, internships at famous law firms, legacy in Ivies, etc. </p>
<p>There are however a lot of exceptions. I been one of them. </p>
<p>My family is very middle class (I am in HS!), making an average of $60K per year. Although the “recession” has cost us some business, in general, we are still living like we always have- going out when we want to, buying everything we need to, buying unnecessary items, etc. </p>
<p>I, personally, have not experienced any sort of negative consequence from this so-called recession. My family and I still live very well.</p>
<p>My family hasn’t made any really big adjustments either. We haven’t really been going out to eat as often, but only because everyone has such different work schedules for the summer.</p>
<p>Our biggest adjustment was to change how we both commute–we are both on the bus now. </p>
<p>We are also saving more and spending less on the house–gardening and remodeling and upgrades are all on hold for awhile. I anticipate we will all be wearing sweaters this fall and will set the thermostat another degree or two lower.</p>
<p>Yes, the cost of gas has altered the way we live but only in small ways. For the past five years, we have been living on dh’s meager teaching salary for the most part so our lifestyle had been cut to the bone already. We’ve always lived a frugal existence: no cable, stayed in our smaller house when we could have moved up when I was working (in fact we bought a smaller house than we could have afforded, and I’m so glad we did), hardly any new clothes or shoes for dh and I, haven’t had my hair cut and colored at a real salon since my kids were born, no mani/pedis, buy generics.</p>
<p>Dh and I each get a $50/month allowance, and that’s it for extras like lunches out or movies.</p>
<p>So, as you can see, we’ve lived cheaply already. The small ways we’ve changed our routine is really thinking about how we can combine errands to spend less gas. I’m excited that the last two fill-ups have been 14 and 15 days apart. I am thankful that the huge gas hikes came after ds1’s sports season, so that there is a lot less driving to/from practices and games. I have turned down invites for myself and younger son that involve too much driving.</p>
<p>Also, even though had a string of 100-plus days in June, I wait as long as I can to kick the AC on and run it higher than I normally would.</p>
<p>I’ve put off finding a new dentist (old one dropped off insurance a few months ago) because I don’t want to hear what he/she would want done that we can’t afford. Especially orthodonture.</p>
<p>I definitely think there is a level of affluence on here. But everyone is nice. And I’m thankful for what we have.</p>
<p>I have not used my credit card in months. With the exception of travel for business, and recurring monthly charges to gamefly, netflix, and napster ( total about $65) , I don’t think I’ve used it in more than 6 months ( Christmas). Some consider me “well off”.</p>
<p>It’s been terrible for us. Costs (mostly health insurance, gas, food, education costs for the kids) are going higher and higher faster and faster, and the income is not making ends meet. There’s nothing left to cut back on – cable TV, cell phones, gym, newspaper subscription… all cancelled. We haven’t eaten out except as guests of other people in probably 3 years. The 16 year old car (our only car) is dying, the roof is leaking, the hot water heater is only half-working, and there’s no money to fix any of it.</p>
<p>Since we’ve been healthy (thank heavens!) all our lives, I’m on the verge of dropping the health insurance for awhile. It’s nearly $600 a month, but the deductible is so high it never benefits us in any way. We never, ever have come close to meeting the deductible, so it’s $600 a month for nothing. That money would be a huge help right now.</p>
<p>Oh, and wanted to add that we pay off our credit card bill every month. I am adamant about that. What with the super-careful spending and less driving, our bill was only $350! I actually kissed the bill when I sent it off. No going into savings this month!!!</p>
<p>Interesting that PP mentioned cutting newspaper. I’m considering that and a friend of mine is, too. I read so much online, but I am sentimental about having a paper in my hand so I just can’t bring myself to do it. Plus the kids copy the crossword and then we all have our own copies and compare notes. Surely, the fun and educational value of that is worth $15/month.</p>
<p>Also, any raise my dh gets is eaten up by health care premiums. It’s really bad.</p>
<p>Try not to drop “major medical” ( for disasters) health insurance! I have seen uncovered medical expenses be blamed for homelessness! It can be difficult to get it back too! Congrats on the credit card bill! I am determined but struggling.</p>
<p>Upper middle class family here, and we have altered our lifestyle. We make sure to combine all errands (we will wait to visit our post office until we need to pass it). We have done away with eating out/take out for now. We have not gone out to a movie in a long long time (we do still subscribe to the company that sends DVDs by mail and we have debated continuing that). We did take our younger son to visit colleges, but we did watch our dollars as far as hotels and food on that trip (we had a couple of free nights coming to us and we used those, and we booked a night through that name your own price website ;)). We substituted that college visit week as our summer vacation btw.</p>
<p>ACK! No matter HOW bad things get don’t cancel health insurance or ignore dental health!! </p>
<p>No matter how much you invest in your child’s education, they can’t find a job if they have nasty teeth. Having bad teeth is a huge, huge handicap–think how rare it is to see anybody under 50 who does not have reasonably straight nice teeth and you’ll see that orthodontia is NOT a frill–it is just the price of admission to the middle class, like a degree is.</p>
<p>Wanted also to add that ds2 is going to an expensive summer camp this year, but we got a huge scholarship or it wouldn’t be possible. And he’s paying half of the balance himself through his job earnings. We joke that the boys take all our vacations for us (his brother did the camp the previous three years). And we’re doubling the trip to the camp with college visits for the older one. That’s as much vacation as we’ll get. I am so glad we took a big family vacation to Cali the summer before I quit my job. Good memories that will, apparently, have to last a lifetime!! LOL.</p>
<p>Nope not realy. My family is pretty good off and haven’t felt too much opersonally. Although I did buy an electric scooter.I always wanted on e now I have an excuse lol. And it was like >$1000 :D</p>
<p>Recession? I would say our family has been hit by long-term bad luck. DH lost his job in January - still unemployed. We have incurred some medical bills from surgeries. D will be going to college in the fall; and to top it all off, our only reliable car was flooded and the insurance company saw no “visible” damage (becuase it took them a week to see it?) so they closed the claim. Now, we’re stuck with a potentially unreliable vehicle which the dealer won’t honor the warranty on any more. So, the rising cost of gas and food just goes along with everything else we have been experiencing. Like most others we know, we have cut back on unnecessary “local” trips to the grocery store, etc. and have begun to really question “necessary” purchases versus “unnecessary” purchases. It is tough and I don’t think it will get better until after the election.</p>
<p>However -
I use credit cards a lot (as much as I can) but I always pay them off at the end of the month and they pay me to use the cards (cash back cards).</p>
<p>I didn’t run out and buy a more expensive house than I could reasonably afford and after it appreciated greatly in value I didn’t run out and get ‘equity loans’ to go out and buy boats, RVs, etc.</p>
<p>I’ve been driving the same car to work for over 25 years and it was considered an old classic when I started driving it. The car appreciates in value every year. In the time I’ve been driving that car to work I’ve seen colleagues go through 5-7 new car purchases - often expensive cars. They’ve lost huge amounts of money on car depreciation. The ‘family’ car is currently a 10 year old Dodge. It’s served well but I’ll likely replace it pretty soon since it has 153K miles on it. </p>
<p>I have taken some expensive family vacations but I can afford them and don’t go into debt to do so. </p>
<p>We’ve always combined errand runs but it’s always made sense to do that not just from a cost perspective but also convenience and time.</p>
<p>In short, I live within my means and always have. If I can’t ‘reasonably’ afford something then I don’t buy it. </p>
<p>I do know people who are feeling the gas prices. They’ll need to make decisions about the types of vehicles they drive, how far they live from work, car-pooling, etc. Given fuel prices, I’ll probably look a little more closely at the fuel mileage of the next car I buy.</p>
<p>We were going to visit schools this summer as well & unfortunately I am afraid to spend the money-.
I also have not visited my daughter who lives in another state with gas so high, even though I really would like to.</p>
<p>Whats tricky is when you already save money by buying used clothing, not going to the dr to save on deductibles,repairing things yourself or doing without- where do you cut back?</p>
<p>This fall will be even worse- H’s union is due for a new contract- he barely makes the hourly wage he made before 9/11 & I anticipate with the problems his company is having, that there will be a strike as they still have not made up the benefits they have had in the past.</p>
<p>It’s hard to cut back when you didn’t have the frills (dinners out, expensive vacations) to begin with, so in a sense the higher cost of gas and food is not hitting us as hard. One thing we did do this year was to re-install a clothes line. Had one when we first moved here and when it collapsed didn’t bother to replace it. We were already living the conscious-consumer life - belong to a CSA, buy other foods in bulk, nearly exclusive home cooking, riding bikes when possible, use the public library as much as possible. Having put one through college, we know how to do it. That doesn’t really make me more confident that we’ll be able to do it a second time (coming up soon) and we’ll be looking at all the options. You never know what the economic situation (for the country or personally) will be in April of senior year - the old adage “plan for the worst and hope for the best” applies.</p>
<p>Mombot - I’m with you. No matter how bad things get, don’t forgo needed orthodontics or dental work. Most orthodontists will work out payment plans.</p>
And I’m thankful for what we have.</p>