Posted on 11/09/2009 1:56:12 PM PST by Chickensoup
So, are you doing anything different economically?
Are you cutting back?
Will Christmas and Thanksgiving be any different?
Are you spending, saving, paying down?
Am I shrugging? Oh h*ll yeah!!!!! Big time!!!
What, me worry?....
The dog might get a couple of new chew toys this Christmas but that’s IT! Nothing else for anyone, seriously. And no one will care, either.
No debt besides a mortgage, no eating out, no purchases from any government owned or subsidized businesses, or any business that seems to be falling in line with the Gorebot/Pelosi/Soros/Marx/Obama world.
I have reduced my hours to put me in the lowest tax bracket I can manage. I am stocked up on food, and all necessary gear is in good working order with spare parts.
This government and the people of this country that are supporting it are not getting anything from me that I can possibly avoid giving them. Not now, not ever again.
All I can think to myself is that if Bush was president with an unemployment rate at 10% like the annointed one, the news agencies would be doing nothing but talking about bread lines and the homeless.
RE: “And no Christmas shopping this year at Costco after they put ALGORE on the cover of the NOVEMBER Costco Connection.”
...and...
“I was disgusted when I got my copy—immediately tossed it in the bin without even cracking it open.”
****************
I KNEW there were good reasons I do not belong to Costco! Now I’ve found another one!
The lease is up on my business and I am seriously considering taking my inventory and warehousing it for the next several months up to a year.
I could use the downtime. My employees can draw unemployment or whatever, they aren’t all that great anyway.
I won’t contribute to the economy in the way I have been. No taxes, no rent, no payroll.
I own my own home and live frugally anyway. This economy has eaten away most of what I’ve built up since 2000.
I’ll go home, produce what I love and enjoy it. Who knows?
Re: “Glamour Magazine has Me-chelle my belle on the cover. I didn’t even take it out of the plastic sleeve-just threw it in the trash.”
*************
If you paid for that rag, time to cancel, demand a refund and tell them WHY!
Hubby hit a 6 point buck awhile back, we had his 1999 w/230K truck fixed ($500 deductible) through our insurance rather than replace it. Never had a bit of trouble with that truck other than replacing the fuel pump once, it still runs like new. I put a "cow catcher" on my 2005 truck when I got it just for that reason, we live in the country, so deer and cows in the road are common.
Christmas is going to be real slim this year, our savings were depleted and my CC debts piled up due to medical bills when hubby had an emergency triple bypass last year, now he's unemployed. I have our budget set so we can pay our normal bills without his salary, but it is really tight. We'll probably just buy for the 3 grandkids and the limit for them, usually $100/Ea. is going to be cut in half.
Definitely cutting back this year, same as we did last year. This coming spring, we’re enlarging our garden (again). Nearly all clothing comes from second hand stores, dinners out are a thing of the past, spending is very limited and only for things we really need. Frugal living serves us well.
Sooooo....holidays are always slim around here so nothing will be different this year.
We feel great about it. It's freed up literally hundreds of dollars a month that we used to pay in interest. It's just that coming up with the great wads of cash to pay the bills down to zero wasn't easy.
We just found out last week that we'd actually overpaid one of them by $300 when a check arrived in the mail. Man did we laugh about that.
We have two vehicles with a combined 300,000 miles on them and no payments. We are shopping at garage sales and thrift stores for necessities.
I have also joined a "collective" of folks that are trading goods and services between each other. A friend in this group is building a garage at cost for another member (mechanic) in exchange for a used pick-up and 2 years bumper to bumper maintenance and repairs. I have my taxes done for free, lawn care, IT support and plumbing done in exchange for my time and talents.
Think about what you are good at and find your own consortium of producers. It cuts the government out of the equation. The risk is a little higher as you can't do contracts. It's all got to be handshakes.
You’re up to $375 at Sam’s for Groceries. You must have a big family. LOL.
How many of us had parents that came through the Great Depression (the first one, not the Obama one), World War II and the Cold War and lived lives of self reliance, frugality, sensible consumption and freedom from debt as a natural way of life?
My parents held those values, learned through those hard years, and taught them to their children. And though I have occasionally strayed, it was never far and I have always returned to those basic tenets. I now thank my parents for the valuable lessons I learned from them and that I now try to pass on to the next generation and the one after that. These are values that lead to true freedom and have helped insulate us from past economic downturns and will do the same as this Depression and the socialist assault on the middle continues to worsen.
Because of my parents gifts of knowledge and skills we have never allowed ourselves to accumulate consumer debt and have no credit card balances. With the exception of our home, if we didn’t have the cash to buy something we didn’t buy it. We literally were uncomfortable owing money on our home and paid our mortgage off as quickly as possible.
We now only buy necessities along with tools and other goods that will be needed when the consumer economy and the worthless Obama dollar collapse.
If a miraculous intervention takes place and the Republic is saved from Obamunism, the food we store and the tools we own will still be just as valuable and useful.
Like you and the others, I’m paying down what I can, as fast as I can. My biggest financial fear is the coming inflation tsunami. So this will be a quiet year on the gift front.
When I see the first amazon on a mag in the store, I turn it around backside out.
So guess my answer is everything is the same, no change here.
PS:
Chickensoup, this is a great thread. Thanks for starting it.
It is enjoyable and rewarding to hear ideas and stories of combatting the monster from other Freepers.
“You can’t kill the beast while sucking at its teat.”
— Claire Wolfe
Yes, turn over all mags and papers in stores to block views of Zero and spouse. Also saw new Zero 2010 calendars at local malll — cover those with others as well —
No WAY do I want to look at that communist’s face when I’m out and about.
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