Mac the Dog is right....I've been working almost 24/7 since the middle of November. The good news is that it's a fascinating project and I love what I'm doing. The better news is that our market seems to like what we've done and we're getting really positive feedback on it, so I'll probably keep my job for at least a little while longer. Despite that good news on the work front, we're hunkering down financially for a long haul, due to the economic realities. We're lucky in that we have no credit card debt, we make more than we spend (at least most months) and we've always saved some of our paycheck. We're in pretty good shape all in all, but we're still making some fundamental changes around here, and I'm wondering if anyone else is doing the same.
First off, we had to tell our daughter that the wedding fund was a bit smaller than it was last year. That hurt, but there is only so much money left in the account. Then, instead of leaving the wedding fund in the investment account where it's decreased 50% from last year, we closed the account and put the money in savings. We just weren't confident about leaving it in the market.
Then, we paid off the mini cooper. When we bought it, we could have paid for it outright, but the terms of the loan were 4.2% and our investments and CDs were paying out at almost twice that, so we decided to finance a portion of the car. Last week, when CDs were paying 1.25% it seemed a better idea to pay off the car loan. I still can't decide if that was foolish or wise.
We're also cutting back on entertainment expenses: I cancelled our Netflix account, we cancelled all the movie channels except for HBO and I returned two cable boxes (my bad--we never should have had them in the first place, but I didn't realize that our TVs would receive without a box). Total cable and Netflix savings for the year is $657.
I cancelled my trip to Palm Springs to watch and play tennis.
My entire family was planning a vacation to the Caribbean for my parents' 50th Wedding Anniversary. We've delayed those plans for a year--maybe for longer. Partially it's because of the big wedding we're having but mostly because none of us want to spend that amount of money in these uncertain times. Instead, we'll all get together at my parents' lake house in Ohio and throw them a whopping good party in town.
We decided to not replace the kitchen floor in the Cushing Cottage. We found a nice used, braided rug at an estate sale and agreed that it covered most of the really icky parts of the floor. We may still replace the kitchen counter. But whereas it was a done deal back in September, now it's under discussion and consideration.
RG is now only semi-retired guy. He's looking for more consulting work and if that doesn't come through, I'm hoping that he'll find another part time job. We'd like to build up an 12 month cushion of savings should I lose my job. Better safe than sorry in these times. But then I wonder--Are we being un American by not stimulating the economy? Should we "spend it cuz we've got it?"and help those whose businesses are in trouble? What should we be doing?
So, what do you all think? Have you made changes to how you spend your money? Are you foregoing vacations or new car purchases? Are you eating in more? My friend Marge is only buying food and wine. Everything else is now non-essential.
Recent Comments