This economy...how people are handling everything...working from home?

[sunnydee]

Im a single full time working mom of two. For me gas, fuel and electricity prices have certainly hit my budget very hard. We have made some adjustments in our life style to get us by. Keeping the heat turned down and wearing more clothes, keeping AC off and using just fans, not driving into town of something we really don't "need", not going away for summer vacations, but staying at home and enjoying our outdoor fire pit and spending quality time with each other.

I have a good job, good benefits and okay insurance for me and kids. Thankfully we are blessed with good health. I drive 60 pluse miles per day to get to my job so I am now driving a ford focus. Took a lot to get used to but you would be surprised what one can "put" in a car this size!! And the 34 miles per gallon is well worth it.

I wish I had a vegetable garden....need to work on that for next summer. Fresh produce is VERY expensive and harder to find.

Not looking forward to the cold harsh Maine winter.

 

[DuckyBoys]

I've been working from home for over a year now, I'm not self employeed though, I work for the state. It is soooooo nice not to have to drive in everyday, though I do drive in occassionally. I live about 45 minutes from the office and I used to go in like every two weeks for this meeting or that meeting or just to pop in and make sure everyone remembered me. But lately I've been conference calling and avoiding the drive.

The good thing is that my boss is so overworked and my job so inconsequential, I thinks she forgets I work for her most of the time,

They are giving me an office this month, and maybe even a phone and a computer! Funny, I have a work phone NUMBER, but no way to anser it other than voice mail. Dumb.

I just hope she doesn't expect me to be using that office too much because I'm definately not driving in everyday with gas this high, they'd have to give me a sweet raise to do that. My job description says work from home on it and my position is mandated in the state legislature, so I know, even if everyone around me starts getting pink slips (God forbid) my job is forever safe. I'm looking for full time though, the money itch is calling me....

My motto about life is simple... "It can always be worse so be thankful for what you have."

It can ALWAYS get worse.

 

[2manyhats]

We opened a Physical Therapy practice 2 years ago in a small rural area. We are doing fairly well for a new business. We have a decent lifestyle - no complaints. I am usually an optimist and don't worry much about the state of the nation. But, right now I'm worried. We have a decent income. What are people going to do this winter with the high costs of heating fuel, gas and food? I am really worried that the elderly will choose food over heat and medicine and we will have a lot of losses on our hands. Sad. I don't have enough to keep us afloat and help anyone else. This a very frustrating situation. We are growing a veggie garden and raising our own meat. This year has had the start up costs, but hopefully for next and the years to come, we will be able to produce from our flocks and herds. Good luck everyone. Let's share any good ideas. I love saving money with the homemade laundry and dishwasher soap shared here. Thanks.

 

[PurpleChicken]

I'm amazed how positive and optimistic this is. Threads like this usually go very bad.

It is true that a lot of Americans are suffering from hard times but this is always the
case, in so called good and bad economies.

I thank God every day I can put food on the table and a roof over my families heads.
Somehow we have a lot more than that.


Back to the OT my wife and I both work full time. I have a part time business maintaining
generators and also do a little computer consulting(I hate it but they keep calling me
back). I've had a few good sales on Ebay but that isn't income since it's usually
selling older electronics that I've replaced.

 

[BuckeyeDave]

I am a self employed telecom/technology rent a geek; I travel a 100+ mi. radius from my home. My business consumes 2500 – 3000 gallons of fuel a year; I of course pass the additional costs on to the customer. Business hasn’t been bad, but in Ohio it seems that we’ve been in this odd funk for about 2 years where everyone else is finally feeling it and now with the local automotive industry going through the throws of layoffs and plant closures, it is getting worse. It seems that everyone wants to wait to invest in new equipment, everyone wants me to repair their aging equipment, I don’t mind, its billable.

My wife owns a bridal shop, business has maintained but her costs have increased quite a bit. The petroleum based materials and beads, labor costs and shipping have all added to it. Of course, it will all work out and her business will be fine it’s the volatility of the market is what concerns her the most.

I think 3 things need to happen for the economy to get better.
1: Energy, we need it. Stop the politics. Drill here drill now, add Nuclear power plants, explore alternatives to fossil fuels and the automakers needs to follow Toyota and Honda’s lead and make alternative energy autos.
2: Food, stop using it to make bio fuels. People will die; the world needs cheap food more than bio fuel.
3: Media, Shut up. Stop reminding everyone how gloomy it’s supposed to be.
Peace,
Dave

 

[MagsC]

Single parent, things are tight, but my daughter and I adjust. We try to save as much energy as we can by keeping electronics off when we can. I never use the dryer anymore, especially in this warmer weather, I always hang the clothes outside. Plus we have been eating quite a bit from our garden.
In the process of trying to get a some chickens and a couple of dwarf goats. Also, I am extremely careful where my money goes at the grocery store. Our local store has a dollar aisle. I have been using that a lot.

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

things are ok here.
I have been a SAHM and working for dh's company off and on. Also the fudge and hot fudge sauce brings in some money. We have a small container garden. We will have eggs when the girls start laying.
We own our own home. Electric and natural gas through the utility company our city is stuck with is the HIGHEST $$ in the area. Business's are leaving due to this... as are residents. More homes are on the market and being foreclosed on weekly.
People, like my mom and her dh that are on a fixed income have it tougher though.
I will be going back to work this Sept. Part time. either fast food or retail. But I need something "out of the house" and something that I can walk away from and get back into according to the school year.
Dh takes the commuter train to and from work. 2 hours one way. costs $250 a month. I am sure that will be going up again. I only have to be out to feed my horse once a day. Since my barn owner feeds in the morning. And we dont take long vacations. We dont see my mom as much as we did last year. They didnt bother putting the RVon the road this season due to the fuel costs. Which stinks.. but with gas costing so much there wouldnt have been many trips to the Cape anyway
Daycare rates here have gone up. Pay hasnt. Most jobs here are min wage($8 an hour) with gas being right at or just under $4 a gal I cant afford to pay someone to watch my dd. Plus put gas in the Hyundai and help pay house bills etc.
I was going to get another horse this fall. Take one in since the horse market is so bad. People here are giving them away. And that is only going to happen more as winter approaches and hay/grain $ rises again. But right now the money that comes in needs to go to house and the one horse I have. Maybe when things improve.. or when the kid is old enough to be home alone for a few hours an afternoon.

 

[Chickenaddict]

Last year around christmas time (late november to be exact)
there was a knock at the door.... It was the sherriff handing me foreclosure papers!!! Turns out my hubby the one who takes care of the house payment and i take care of the other bills was over 4 grand behind and didn't tell me until it was pretty much tooo late. I freaked out and thought what a crappy christmas all im getting is a kick to the curb and loosing everything we worked hard for. We tried to work with the mortgage company but they weren't willing to work with us. My hubby was desperate for help and it seemed noone was gonna help us. Everyday was stressful thinking about having to sell my chickens and all our belongings. I cried everyday for hours on end. He kept calling the mortgage company begging them to please help us and a lady said "let me call u back" this was 2 days before the house was going up for foreclosure auction (dec 17th) he was frantic trying to get ahold of this lady finally he did and she told him she couldn't help. He asked why and she told him.... Because you dont make $100 more a month means you dont qualify to get the help!!!!! He was crying on the phone to her telling her how this wasn't fair and that he could find some way to make an extra $100 a month. She talked to her boss and called him back and eventually with a day to spare got us help thank god!!! But that just meant we get to keep a house that we can't afford. ARM loans are horrible!!! Ever since we moved out to the country 3 years ago i have been trying to find a decent job but with no college education its pretty much not gonna happen. The jobs out here start at $7 an hour!!! how the heck am i gonna make ends meet on that and they only want to hire people part time so they don't have to offer health insurance. So i started a house cleaning business but that too takes alot of driving and gas which pretty much leaves me with little profit after gas and supplies are purchased. Good news is he hasn't been late or behind on the house payment since we got out of the foreclosure and it has to be that way for a year or more before we can get into a fixed rate rather then the arm. We eat alot of cheap food and never go out to have any fun. I haven't been able to so much as buy new socks since we have lived out here and all my clothes are worn and tattered but at least i have clothes and food and of course my chickens to make me smile after a long hard depressing day

. I know im not the only one out there suffering we all are in some way, i just hope things turn around soon.

 

[VT Chick-lit]

My husband and I are hunkering down. I, until 2 years ago, worked a full (plus lots of OT) time job and had for 30 + years. After my layoff, I went back to school to retool my skills. When I finished my schooling last May, the gas prices were more than $1 more a gallon than when I started. The gas prices are now more than $2 more than when I started. It is no longer cost effective for me to work away from the home. We live 35 miles away from the jobs that pay above minimum wage and 45 miles away from the "city"where better paying jobs might be found.
I do my bit by keeping a garden with veggies that I plan to can. I now have 4 chickens that we get eggs from (love them). I sew and have boodles of fabric from when I worked and didn't have time to sew. I car pool into town with my mom and sister, who live next door and are in the same boat as us. Our cars never have only one person when we go to town (35 miles away). I have had tag sales to clean out the junk and make a little cash. I gt many of the extra things that I want from Craigs List or FreeCycle and pickthem up when I am in town for other things. We supplement our oil heat with wood and plan to heat almost solely with wood this year. I will be in charge of putting another log on the fire. We make do!
I also agree that Congress needs to stop obstructing the access to any of our energy sources, oil, oil shale, nuclear, natural gas, coal, wind, solar, and any others that will spin off from our need for energy. Congress seems to think that these energy sources were put here, not to be touched. I believe that the Lord provided the United States with ALL these options within her own borders inorder that she be strong as a nation and provide for the less fortunate elsewhere in the world. This is something that we have historically always done but will become more difficult as we use our extra food to make fuel and stay indebted to those who sell us their oil at great cost.

 

[michaelvcrowder]

holliewould wrote:

On a side note, I support a family of 3 with a monthly rent of 3000 with electric and water not included.

3k a month on rent? whoa! around here that would *buy* a nice house with enough cash left over for a car.

holliewould also wrote about health insurance:

That's one thing we don't have. In actuality it doen't seem worth it. I spend MAYBE 300 a year on dental and health.

you can afford 3k in rent but not health insurance? for my wife and i health insurance costs about 650 a month for the full deal. best you can get. we never had a claim until this year when i injured my back and slipped a disk. thus far the insurance company has paid out nearly 10k in costs and there has not been a surgery yet. a friend recently had an emergency gall bladder surgery. because he didn't have insurance he didn't go to the doctor until it was nearly too late. it had become severely infected and required a 2 week stay in the hospital. the bill was 125,000 dollars. living without insurance is so risky that i can't even imagine it.

cjeanean wrote:

I don't know how people are expected to survive. My friend is a single mom who just got a job making $9.98/hr, and based on her income she can't get any state assistance for the $400/mo babysitting bill she would have to pay. They won't help her with anything!!! They expect her to pay for all her food, housing, transportation, etc.....on $1,500 a month!!! It's so ridiculous!!!

it is not the governments job to support us. nowhere in the constitution does it refer to us being a welfare state. i believe all charity should come from the private sector except in cases of severe disabilities. every church i know has a food pantry for people that are having trouble making ends meet. most also provide assistance with bills. the down side for most people with this is that they don't provide the cash directly and don't buy beer, smokes or tater chips.

henmamma2,
i like your photos from romania. i spend a good deal of time in south america, especially peru. i know of entire villages that don't have electricity or septic facilities. in lima there are thousands upon thousands of people that call a cardboard box home. even in the developed countries of europe people live much more modestly than we do. hearing people complain about the price of gas when i have been to villages where they don't even have cars has me not knowing whether to laugh or cry. the citizens of the united states need to look at our situation realistically. the poorest person in this country is still better off than 50% of the rest of the worlds population. just look at india, china, the african continent and south america. folks need to quit a lot of their whining.

folks,
history proves that good times come and good times go. people that live in denial during the good times and don't prepare for the bad usually don't get as bad as they deserve in this country. i know a person that just lost their house. they borrowed money on an ARM loan for a house bigger than they needed. they bought two new SUV's on credit, financed their furniture from rooms to go, used a best buy credit card for new home electronics and so forth. within a month of their ARM readjusting and his boss cutting him back one day a week at work the entire family was out on the street.

while i have sympathy for people like this it isn't much. the basic rules of finances are that you should have at least enough money in savings to live for six months without income. if you can't do this then you don't need to be buying new cars, televisions, going out to dinner on friday nights, or a new bicycle for the kids. i know way too amny people that are driving a new suburban but claim they can't afford health insurance. if they were driving a used ford taurus instead they could afford the insurance.

if a person is living so marginalized that the price of gas going up a buck or two a gallon forces complete lifestyle change then the price of gas is not really the problem. the real problem lies in living too close to the edge of your financial resources. i drive an 11 year old truck with 280,000 miles. i could buy a new truck but then how do i pay for the health insurance? my wife and i live in a small 2 bedroom house. we could qualify for a loan on a bigger, fancier house but how would we pay the electric bill if our mortgage increased? i could buy me a new boat but then how do i continue to contribute to my retirement account?

we have just come out of one of the longest periods of prosperity our country has ever seen. where are the fruits of everyone's labor? tied up in paying the balances on credit cards for purchases that they didn't really need. the average american has his priorities wrong. when i see someone that lives on government assistance smoking cigarettes or drinking beer i have to resist an urge to strangle them. when i look at the average american and see what they are really spending their money on and how they fail to save for a rainy day when things are good i really don't care if they can't afford gas when it goes up a little.

does the government have the obligation to pick up the slack when people fail to plan properly? no. in this country faith based organizations provide over one billion dollars in humanitarian aid every year. it is our responsibility as children of God to help our brothers, sisters and communities when the need arises. but it ain't our responsibility to prop up someones bad habits or lack of financial control.

people learning to budget and live withing their means is the key in all of this. if you can't afford gas for your truck, trade it for a geo metro. don't buy a house you cannot afford if your income adjusts down 25%. most importantly. if you are not contributing to a retirement account and an emergency savings account EVERY month during the good times, how are you expecting to survive financially during the bad?
michael​