<p>Great idea! They’ll eat the scraps that normally end up in the compost heap. I’ve been thinking of laying in a stock of field mice before the fall and they go to ground, and the rats around a few dumpsters have been looking pretty well fed, too. Maybe will just have to grab a breeding pair or two. Helps to have a bit of variety, makes planning menus far easier.</p>
<p>Don’t forget the dishwasher fish…my mom actually did this once. My dad thought she had finally lost it.</p>
<p>I keep coming back to this thread for culinary ideas… and help to keep me on an veg diet.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I just finish reading the sad story of Ninja, some poor cat attacked by 9 years olds in the Guam base and this does not help. I wished her owner was strong enough to shot poor Ninja in the head instead of leaving her in the hands of uncaring people. :(</p>
<p>yes!! Poached salmon in the dishwasher. We’ve had this discussion elsewhere on CC lately. It is for real!</p>
<p>Because of special circumstances, we’re actually better off because of this recession. My family is upper-middle class, but we’re fairly frugal in the first place.</p>
<p>Though, there’s still a few things:
1.) Gas prices caused us to pay more attention to fuel efficiency when it came to getting a car. Probably not much of a difference, but research behavior was definitely affected.
2.) Slight decrease in road trips. Usually, we’d take a couple every year. This year, we only took one short one.
3.) General change in mood. The happiness that comes with a huge boom in the stock market just doesn’t happen as often.</p>
<p>Because of Pres Bush’s tax cuts we recieved a tax windfall of $12,000+/yr that has allowed us to maintain our lifestyle and then some. Thanks George!!!</p>
<p>Air fares for the kid to come home from Boston are going through the roof. I put off buying a new car to replace the aging VW. I don’t drive my truck unless I need to haul something.</p>
<p>my daughter mentioned she has been a vegetarian while working at camp.
Perhaps it wasn’t the mystery meat spaghetti that put her off, but the ratonastick or grasscutter she was offered in Kumasi. ( nobody says anything about eating the wild dogs & an annoying rooster ended up dead. hmm)</p>
<p>While a local venue argues that if God didn’t want us to eat animals he wouldn’t have made them out of * meat*, I am leaning toward vegetarianism more myself ( except for wild salmon- gotta support the local fisherpeople 
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<p>Be sure to cook squirrel very well if you live in CA…bubonic plague issues.</p>
<p>My family is very middle-class. We’re into financial responsibility and we haven’t had any major emergencies, so our expenses have never been too high. The “recession” hasn’t yet affected us much. High gas prices force us to look for alternatives to driving, though.</p>
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<p>Buffalo work quite nicely, too, and you’ll never have to mow your lawn again.
(I’m a vegetarian.)</p>
<p>As a parent getting ready for the first kid to go to college this fall, it is hard to separate belt tightening to meet college expenses from the effects of a declining economy. In general, I don’t think it is a bad thing to rethink spending habits and priorities from time to time. A sudden change for the worse in the economy may force us to do this at a time that is quite inconvenient. The prospect of big inflation on the horizon has led to some stockpiling of everyday items. Too bad this approach won’t work for gas and milk.</p>
<p>I like * beefalo* but I do not have room for a bovine or a bison.</p>
<p>I’d love to be able to have room to have my own chicken#$%, but I think the only thing I am going to farm is Eisenia foetida.</p>
<p>( funny story- I have been complaining that the robins are eating all my worms- night crawlers I don’t need but I don’t want to lose any red worms- however yesterday I noticed that I had * lots * of ripe strawberries, from ground covers that weren’t even supposed to get berries! * they are very good too*- I guess the robins were too full of meat to eat the berries.
Myself if given the choice between worms or berries, I will take the fruit- I don’t need protein * that* badly)</p>
<p>I don’t think the so-called ‘recession’ has ever really hit my family. We’ve always tried to spend as little money as possible (my parents are just like that) so I guess we just didn’t have to adjust.</p>
<p>But I know that for those that like to live from paycheck to paycheck, cost-cutting has been essential.</p>
<p>The recession is hitting us hard. We live in an area without mass transit, and where driving is a necessity. I often see posts on this forum that indicate teens can easily get jobs & make a bunch of money … but I am a college educated adult who left a great job almost 20 years ago to raise my kids … and I can’t get a full time job that pays more than minimum wage … my kids certainly can’t get one, either! Gas prices have surged, health care costs have skyrocketed (increased insurance costs & increased copays), food prices are rising at a fast pace … and I am almost certain my pay will be cut when I return to my sub teaching job in the fall. We are not going on vacation. We never go anywhere expensive, but we like to travel a bit & see things … but this year, the cost of gas precludes it. We do not eat out anymore. I do not go anywhere unless I HAVE to. </p>
<p>My sister in law has it worse, though. Her H lost his job. She makes about $50k/year. Their mortgage payment is $2200/month. Life is very tough for her.</p>
<p>We, unfortunately, starting feeling the affects right after our D applied to colleges. My husband works in a union in an industry that is directly affected by the slowing economy. I recently went back to work for the first time in years after being a stay at home Mom. D worked hard in High School and we encouraged her to apply to schools she had aspired to attend. She got in to her dream school- Northwestern and the CESPY program (135 accepted into her Major) which was actually a little bit of a shock (big reach) and then just plain heartbreaking when we realized the school didn’t care at all that my husband’s income had decreased 30% and it may get worse before better. Basically came down to requiring us to figure out how to find more loans or let someone else take the spot. With a sibling following to college in 2 years and husband’s job getting shakier and shakier, we just couldn’t use all of our resources for one school. We looked at selling our house but the housing market also fell. Didn’t have a choice (other than have her owe a ton of money upon graduation) other than have her go to a Public school (granted a great one…). Husband is now working 6-7 days a week while he can in case… The scary thing is Northwestern flat out told me we were in “No man’s land” with our income and that the FAFSA doesn’t take into account if you live in an area of the US that is a high cost of living. The number they give you is supposed to be the amount you can reasonably pay for school in a year without totally altering your life. It was over 55% of our take-home pay. It was impossible. On a happier note… she has fallen in love with her school and I now couldn’t imagine her anywhere else. It all worked out okay.</p>
<p>Snappy1, how wonderful that it did have a happy ending.</p>
<p>New construction is down, which makes working at a structural engineering firm a little nerve-wracking.</p>
<p>We haven’t particularly been hit yet. The Texas market is pretty good in comparison to the rest of the nation, and we’re shipping work out to our other offices and we continue to scramble for all the new business we can get to float the rest of the company. We’ve been having some issues with steel prices going up drastically (new budget for our project has an EIGHT MILLION DOLLAR INCREASE just for steel price inflation… last budget was prepared less than a year ago!!) and with our suppliers’ ability to get enough material to the job site on time. It takes fuel to get material to the construction sites, and for some of the suppliers, they’ve had to deliver less product and take a hit because they simply don’t have money for fuel.</p>
<p>On a more local basis, DH and I are doing okay. I take the bus and light rail to work every day, and he’s working on his dissertation from home. Groceries are procured from the grocery store on the corner and are brought back home on foot. Gas prices really haven’t affected us too much. We’ve noticed that food’s getting pretty expensive, though. We’re on one income and are trying to pay off debt, so we’d already been in thrift-mode. I’m sure that if we had family other than just the two of us to support, we’d be really feeling the strain…</p>
<p>I can’t read all the posts…just don’t have enough time. But I can say…DO NOT drop the insurance.
I have had a spouse die with no insurance. We survived. But it wasn’t easy.<br>
About 20 years ago I didn’t have health insurance. And I got sick. Not sick enough to run up a lot of bills but sick enough that I should have been in the hospital but didn’t go. Since then I have never taken a job that didn’t provide health insurance. With the exception of a short period of unemployment I have made sure I had insurance.</p>
<p>So I basicly paid insurance premiums for 20 years and never used them…until last year. Last year my wife was diagnosed with cancer. without insurance we would have been destroyed. Absolutely destroyed. And she probably would not have recieved access to the treatments that she got. She is a survivor.</p>
<p>This year, I got sick. Just a minor operation was required, but that minor operation ran up over 10 grand fast. Again, the insurance saved us. I would find some way to keep the insurance.</p>
<p>My industry, in my city, has dried up into nothing. I’m very lucky – lots of young people with similar (expensive) credentials are searching for jobs and not finding anything that beats bartending.</p>
<p>I think kelsmom and I live in the same (depressed) state, and I agree wholeheartedly with her assessment. Last year my employer of 22 years abruptly closed my work site, and suddenly 2300 highly-educated highly-paid professionals were scrambling for anything. Luckily I did find another job in the same geographical area (so that D was able to graduate with her friends), but that new job pays less than half of my old salary… not that I’m complaining (much), because I’m one of the lucky ones who found SOMEthing. Lots of my old colleagues are still loking for something, anything, over a year later.</p>
<p>No mass transit, steadily rising gas prices, and a very tight labor market. DD has aggressively looked for a part-time job since Jan/Feb with no luck (why hire a teenager when you can get a desperate adult for the same price?) Thank goodness H and I have always lived frugally and banked a fair amount of salary from that old job of mine. We’re doing okay, but it’s still scary.</p>