Has "Recession" Hit You?

<p>Please, PLEASE stop believing that “I am saving $20-$30 a week doing the half-tank method.” </p>

<p>Wishful thinking does not make it so. If I go to the store and don’t buy the $100 pair of shoes, have I saved $100? If I go every day next week and don’t buy the $100 shoes, have I saved $700? If I need a pair of shoes and buy the $50 pair instead of the $100 pair, I haven’t really saved $50. I’ve spent $50. How do I know this? There are fifty fewer dollars in my account.</p>

<p>tensighs, </p>

<p>I am sorry if I have offended you in my frustration to get a clear answer out of you. You continue to say you “drive 90 miles a day” as if the actual mileage you drive is in some way a factor in your saving money by filling at half tank. I understand in a week’s time you will consume more gas than someone commuting 20 miles a day. But I also don’t know how many miles per gallon your car gets vs. another car. </p>

<p>And it turns out your entire point (I think) is that a car will get better mileage during the first half tank of gas vs. the last half tank of gas. It took you a while to get to that point, but it is finally out there.</p>

<p>I ( nor have some others apparently) have never heard such a thing but I will certainly research this.</p>

<p>Yes and No. My firm has had one prospective client, a logistics and transportation company, delay work due to the slowdown in the economy after doing all of preparation. Others may defer things. Most of our work is overseas and that has not slowed down yet. We’ve had new enquiries and clients from the energy industry. The international work may slow down as the cost of airfare for the clients may get pretty high. Business class airfare from Boston to London can be over $10,000.</p>

<p>We’re generally somewhat frugal relative to some of our friends/children’s friends; that is relative to upper middle / upper class town. We don’t eat out that much though we buy lots of organic food, which is more expensive. We have very short commutes (10 minutes for me; my wife works at a studio we built next to our house). Our big expense is private HS for one kid and college starting next year for the other.</p>

<p>I travel internationally a lot for work and we often travel as a family – sometimes the family meets me. We’re unlikely to meet in the near future in the UK especially or in Europe due to the flop of the dollar. More likely trips to Mexico or Central/South America.</p>

<p>If I go to the store and don’t buy the $100 pair of shoes, have I saved $100?</p>

<p>Some of my relatives think so.
They love to go to the Bon/Macys and spend hundreds of dollars so they can get a small amount off the more they spend :rolleyes:</p>

<p>Now I can’t see what they find to buy, I go in the same store and say :p</p>

<p>My spouse was unemployed for 2 years until 3 months ago. So we were already tightening as much as we could so that we did not hit our retirement savings. I brought in some income into the house but it was half of what my spouse made. We eliminated gym memberships, lawn mowing service, ordered medications online or asked the doctor for free samples. My spouse and I have not purchased new clothes for ourselves in two years. We stopped going out to meals. ( We used to go out once a week for dinner as a family.) We stopped going to movies. We stopped renting movies from Blockbuster. We stopped purchasing coffee from Starbucks. We raised the deductibles and co-pays on our insurance policies to reduce premiums. My spouse and I delayed our dental treatments but we kept up with the children and we were able to keep up with everyone’s medical check-ups. We told our son, who is a college sophomore, that he had to get a job and purchase his own clothes, gas and entertainment from now on. But we have had to delay our younger daughter from getting a driver’s license because we cannot afford the resulting increase in insurance premiums. Now my spouse became employed again a few months ago and then gas shot up! So, as a family, we still feel very battered financially. However, I feel more optimistic ( I am not crying every night in private anymore) despite the rise in prices. And this month, after two years, I will finally be able to add some money to our retirement savings! Hurray!</p>

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<p>That’s because our consumer way of life is so ingrained. I lived with a practicing Buddhist earlier this year, and though I pride myself as frugal, she puts me to shame. My friend invited me to stay in a Buddhist monastery in Nepal for a while and I turned it down because of the high altitude. I bet I would be more astonished at the monk/nun’s way of life. In her house bath water is recycled to flush toilets. Rain water is saved. All electric appliances are unplugged when not in use, even though every outlet in the house has an on/off switch. My friend, an executive with a multinational, happily wear hand-me-downs, (or she looks like she does…:p), her wardrobe is probably 1/4 of the size of mine. Her bathmats are old pillow cases. She wipes down her Glad wraps and reuses them. There are very few disposables in her house. I don’t think I can live like my friend does, but it sure give me a different perspective about my way of life.</p>

<p>She wipes down her Glad wraps and reuses them</p>

<p>Now some of the things I think are good idea.
reusing grey water, catching rainwater, but reusing plastic wrap is not on my top 10 or even 100 ways to save money. :wink:
( showers use less water than baths. I bet if I lived by myself- that is without my H who takes daily showers that are at least 30 minutes long- I could halve all my utility bills- what does he do in there?)</p>

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Of course, this is not possible due to the law of physics. Moving more weight (i.e. the full tank) will take more energy - i.e. slightly, but negligible, lower mpg.</p>

<p>tenisghs: I think what you’re seeing is the result of a non-linear fuel guage. This isn’t unusual at all. Remember that when you ‘fill it up’, some of the fuel is completely to the top of the tank and often in the filler neck as well. None of this ‘extra fuel’ is able to be guaged by the not very sophisticated fuel level guage in a tank (it’s generally just a ‘float’ like in a toilet). </p>

<p>I’m not trying to give you a hard time but I do want to save you the time and frustration, and sometimes expense, of going to a gas station more than you need to.</p>

<p>emerald: turndown the thermostat or get a smaller hot water tank.</p>

<p>We haven’t been affected by the downturn - thankfully, but husband’s 45-minute commute is costing plenty in gas. We’re very thankful to have steady public-sector type jobs that come with full health-insurance and benefits. After reading all these posts, I’m going downstairs to put on a pot of beans and start cooking some bread. We’ve become a little bit lax in behaving frugally around here, and I need to get back on track. :)</p>

<p>DH elected to take the retirement package from his fortune 100 company about 6 months ago. He’d been eyeing the packages as they came along. I INSISTED that he not take one until he qualified to take the retiree health benefit package, not just Cobra the health insurance. The health plan is obscenely expensive for our family, and yes, theoretically there are cheaper plans out there (I could get one for my small business) but for now we just chose to go this route, because the retiree plan is forever, and the benefits are good. DH has started a new job with a small start-up firm that has yet to explore healthcare benefits, so for now we have chosen to pay the outrageous premiums. Fortunately we are financially able to have this option, thanks to careful savings and a frugal lifestyle. We can “splurge” on healthcare,and it is well worth it, IMO.</p>

<p>emeraldkity4: I think my egs. distorts my point, I meant to say, my friend buys very little, except for food, and maybe toilet paper & other necessities. That is not the focus of her life. I know I spend a lot more time shopping than she does, even if I am careful about my spending. Her mindset is totally different from me. She has no idea about prices generally, she buys so little so it has little relevance in her life. When I was there, she was wearing a pair of shoes we bought together 15 years ago, and the same $5 Columbia cotton t, faded from so many washes, but usable. I have that exact same shirt, and still wear it, but I must have 10 other shirts like that, so mine is still relatively unfaded.</p>

<p>“but for now we just chose to go this route, because the retiree plan is forever”</p>

<p>Is this true through a bankruptcy?</p>

<p>whose bankrupcy, BCeagle? I seriously doubt the international (meaning worldwide, but based in the US) company providing the insurance will go bankrupt, and our finances are such that I cannot, thank heavens, fathom a situation that will bankrupt us. Now having a horrible medical situation without adequate health insurance- THAT can bankrupt someone.</p>

<p>The company’s. Who would have thought that GM could go BK 20 years ago? Today it’s not out of the realm of possibility. Or 50 years ago? Enron? Worldcom? The airlines? A company that I worked at many years ago was bought out and then that company was bought out. The current company is doing great and I get my pension statements regularly. But the nature of technology is that companies, even big ones, can fall on hard times.</p>

<p>And then there is Congress. Sometimes I wonder if they would consider raiding pension funds and 401Ks to help fund social security.</p>

<p>This time around we have known more kids who made decisions based on the finances. With both the older kids, though there were some we knew who did this, for the most part kids took the best/favorite school. This time around parents have put on some pressure with the finances. This is with S3 graduating from an expensive, private high school and most kids we know are from the Upper middle income families where we have not seen the effect of any recession.</p>

<p>BCEagle-
While the chance of this particular company going belly up is, IMO, extremely remote, I can get my own small business insurance coverage at any time, as long as I still own and run a small business. There are a few side complications not worth addressing here, but bottom line, I can get a company plan should this big company close its doors (not gonna happen). I’d be more worried about the pension $$ that we’d lose than the insurance benefit. My point in saying that it is “forever” is that if we’d taken the Cobra option, DH would have to have explored a job with benefits, rather than doing some consulting (he wanted to keep his options open) and then being forced into either getting a small business plan or personal health plans (which stink).</p>

<p>Rough here.</p>

<p>I live under the flight path to O’Hare…the decrease in planes overhead is very noticeable.</p>

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<p>I know that I have been lax around here–and although we haven’t been personally hit by economic disaster, I know that conditions can change in a heartbeat. It wouldn’t hurt to start eating some of that stuff in my freezer instead of going out to eat.</p>

<p>We tend to shop in “spurts”. Haven’t done clothes shoping in eons, but when I do, I hit sales and hope to hit the jackpot.</p>

<p>We also haven’t done any home remodeling around here in a long time, but as S#1 took his bed when he moved out, and we’d also considered getting an HDTV when the kids were gone, the shopping sequence has begun. Sofabed from DH’s office is now in DS’s room-- bookshelves from the family room are now in DH’s office. Family room now has a new (brand new as of today)console for the new TV we bought (at the recommendation of DS#! who found a phenomenal deal). But, being a bargain hunter/frugal person/cheapskate, I found a great deal and am happy with the purchases (which also included a new daybed frame for the rickety one in the basement.) However, this is leading to other renovations, which may include the kitchen island and the master bath. My point in bringing this all up is that we’ve been careful with our finances, and despite the awful hit we’ve taken in the stock market, we can still make this happen without a major financial challenge. I count our blessings, and the fact that we have had a long history of saving for this rainy day.</p>