It’s official, we are now in a bad economic patch. Of course it has taken the talking heads on TV over 2 years to realize that things were not so rosy after all. Most of us “small minded” people had realized a long time ago that we just could not deal with the current economy. The day I filled my tank with $60 I knew I was in trouble. For someone earning less than $50,000 a year, that hurt.
The good thing is that I started saving earlier and started watching my investment portfolio with a keener eye. That worked then but not now. With everyone running around scared, a domino effect starts. When people start selling stocks due to good economic reasons, any investment going through a bad patch is likely to survive. However, when a panic state starts like it is now, then you should be very worried.
I can’t do much about interest rates and bailouts I am against. However, I can do something about my spending. I have immediately started cutting costs on the following:
1. My cable and phone bills.
I am sorry to tell my friends that I can’t call them as much as I used to. Funny thing about the cable company is that when I called to cut my premium service, they offered a 15% discount. One year ago, I might have taken the bait, but no more. If I don’t need the extra cable service, it is gone. That extra 10-50 dollars a month, can go a long way in my groceries.
As to the phone, gone is the home phone and we now have a family package in our cell phones.Turns out it’s cheaper. If I need to make a long distance phone call, I buy a calling card.
2. Gas bills
I just sold my beloved SUV. Let other people deal with the high cost of gas. My wife and I have rescheduled our commute to go to work together. It means that I spend an extra two hours in commute but we are saving some $40 a day. It all adds up.If we were not against getting any more, we would have thought of getting a hybrid. We shall leave that until later.
My daughter is now leaving her car home and using public transport. It’s great to see even the younger ones taking the bull by the horn.
These were the immediate steps we took. There are more coming later.
[...] course the first and easiest things to cut off from your bills are gas and phone bills. Reducing your home expenses is essential especially if someone is working in an industry that is in big trouble. If the world [...]