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What people don't realize is the cause and effect here. Your spending cuts are causing the jobless rate. If you buy less, companies will produce less thus need less workers. I don't think a "stimulas bill" will help if people are being frugal with their funds. Treat yourself to something special, so you can help stimulate your economy.
I think people realize this. In my case and many other peoples cases, there is very little job security this year and while I understand the need to stimulate the economy its quite foolish to continue to spend money if you are unsure whether or not you'll be employed in 6 months. Because you know what? If i lose my job there isn't anyone out there who is going to pay my mortgage or come to my rescue.
I agree and I'm not going to say "I told you so" but I am going to roll my eyes a bit. For 10 years I have had to endure people telling me about 'good debt' and using debt as a tool to build wealth, that we can't take it with us so we might as well have some fun, that it was STUPID to save up and pay cash for home renovations instead of max out a HELOC.
I don't know who your friends are, but I've never met anyone who acted as if I was "depriving myself of air" by not buying frivolous things, especially Starbucks coffee. Perhaps you need to find yourself some friends who are less shallow.
My wife and I are headed across the border to British Columbia next weekend (we live in Washington state) for skiing and hot springs, instead of to the Caribbean.
We figure to realize a substantial savings by opting for a more modest early spring vacation. Unless we fall down and break something, that is.
What people don't realize is the cause and effect here. Your spending cuts are causing the jobless rate. If you buy less, companies will produce less thus need less workers. I don't think a "stimulas bill" will help if people are being frugal with their funds. Treat yourself to something special, so you can help stimulate your economy.
The last economic 'boom' was a mirage. People couldn't afford all the crap they were spending money on, those jobs were based partly on the false picture of wealth created by over-leveraging and 'creative financing'. It was a house of cards and mirrors, little substance. We don't fix that by adding more cards and mirrors!! It is fixed by adjusting to what is realistic, scaling back to something manageable. We can't keep up with the negative savings rate and increased debt load just to keep the fantasy train rolling. Yup, some people are going to lose their jobs, but it will turn around in time...I suspect faster without the pork package. I have to look out first for my personal economy....as we all should!! For many people right now that means scaling back, saving and paying off debt, not spending.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZugZub
I don't know who your friends are, but I've never met anyone who acted as if I was "depriving myself of air" by not buying frivolous things, especially Starbucks coffee. Perhaps you need to find yourself some friends who are less shallow.
I didn't say my friends. I said people. And I'll add this, if people don't think your frugal ways are 'weird' and try to give you normal financial advice then there are 3 possible explanations I can think of off the top of my head.
1. They are all just as frugal
2. You're not really all that frugal
3. You do a REALLY good job of hiding your frugality.
If you interact with normal people at all you WILL hear some of the above posted 'advice' regarding finances. Yes, normal people are shallow financially and no...most of my friends are not as weird as we are but we try to keep it to ourselves IRL.
My husband works for an architecture firm and like the other firms in town, they have had lay offs. Thankfully, he still has his job but all the salaries were cut 20% for the time being. Ouch! We have cut down on meals out, housecleaning service, cut out WeightWatcher's membership, Gro Green lawn service, my husband's fitness club membership. We are looking for other cuts to survive this but right now, we may have to consider downsizing our house (which we were considering anyway.) I am trying at this point just to keep my eyes on God and believe that He is our ultimate provider, not our jobs.
Things are getting pretty bad for me. The only real thing left to cut back on is food. I eat pasta and sauce, toast and eggs I got on sale, and tonight I made soup out of a head of cabbage.
Things are getting pretty bad for me. The only real thing left to cut back on is food. I eat pasta and sauce, toast and eggs I got on sale, and tonight I made soup out of a head of cabbage.
Hey I love Italian food, and toast and eggs. And there are various other ways one can cut back on the food bill....basically the more you make yourself the more you save. Those pre-made dinners and things are generally not just unhealthy but expensive. And that's one thing winter is good for...eg hot soups/etc are more appealing and easy/relatively cheap to make. And fortunately I love PBJs too
Rather than recreational shopping I'm getting into simple things and myself. I'm reading more, exercising more, knitting and cooking. It's actually wonderful.
No, thankfully I have very few bills - car/home paid for, but have a couple of small credit cards I owe on, thats about it.
Did cancel the cell phones (911 still works).
Electric bill still running out of this world, as is water bill. Still have to pay car insurance too.... and car maintainence.
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