Wrap up of the Week

It's Friday and the weekend is not starting off too well for most of the country, what with stock markets crashing and everyone losing their 401K investments AGAIN, and fears of another recession. Another recession? I think millions of other Americans who are still looking for a job after the first recession hit would agree with me that we never got out of the first one.

But some of the big businesses are doing well what with GM or Chrysler or whoever it was that we bailed out reporting huge profits once again, and Apple apparently having more money than God.

Anyway, it's a little scary out there.

We have decided to go ahead and get a room for tonight in Vegas even though we really shouldn't spend the money, but I would really rather have a nice hotel room to stay in. James has been cleaning out the house and there are 45 garbage bags of clothes (with more clothes still to go) in the living room that even Goodwill doesn't want and are waiting on a dumpster rental to put them all in, and I'm wondering if there is even any toilet paper in the bathrooms because James is on his last few dollars and I'm sure is not thinking about things like toilet paper. So, I went online and after a frustrating 20 minutes or so trying to figure out where these hotels are in relation to her house and I really don't want to stay in a casino, I found a Best Western in a quieter area that is just a Best Western, no casino and hopefully no casino customers drunkenly stumbling through the hallways at 3am, waking us up. With our AAA membership discount it comes out to $85.00 and doesn't look like a fleabag hotel and hopefully they don't have bedbugs.

I'm figuring that we'll get to Vegas around 8 tonight and then we'll get up early and if James is awake we'll take him to breakfast, then load up the cats and get back on the road. We'll have to make any stops on the way home very quick stops with one of us staying in the car with the air conditioner running so that we don't accidentally fry any cats in the desert heat.

And here is an update on Gimpy The Three Legged Cat, who did indeed have his leg amputated. He is recuperating at home and of course having to wear the Collar That Cats Hate so he won't lick the wounds. Poor Baby!


My Etsy shops started out this month with some good sales and I was hoping that things were looking up and the sales would keep coming but after yesterday's economic news now I'm fearing the worst, so we'll see how it goes.

And that is about it, I'm going to do the laundry so we have clean clothes to sweat in on our trip, and I'm going to get the lawn mowed and house cleaned so that we can come home to no chores tomorrow afternoon.

Colds and Sniffling and The Economy

Well, all day yesterday I was sucking on zinc tablets because Keith's cold decided to infect me, too. It's kind of inevitable to catch a cold from someone that lives in the same tiny house as you and sleeps in the same bed, so...the only good thing is that he says I don't have to go to the company Christmas party on Saturday if I'm not feeling good. I'm sure I'll be completely recovered by then, though, because that's just how things go with me. I remember as a kid trying to make my cough sound worse than it was so I could stay home from school but it never worked.

We've been watching the news about the hundreds of thousands of people that will lose their unemployment benefits just in time for Christmas if Congress doesn't do something like real soon. Ho, ho, ho and Merry Christmas! We also might be letting tax cuts expire so you'll all be paying higher taxes next year, too! Happy New Year!

Oh, and if you are on Medicare, better go to the doctor now because we'll be cutting your benefits and if you were thinking about retiring and collecting your social security any time soon, check that off your list because we're going to make you work until you die so that we don't have to pay you anything.

Hey, Congress people, how about taking a pay cut and helping the old economy out that way? No? I didn't think so. And all of you who work for the government and won't be getting a pay raise next year? Quit your whining about it, most of the people in the private sector haven't seen pay raises in a long long time. If they still have a job, that is.

Last night we had pork chops and scrambled eggs for dinner. I'm getting real uninspired trying to think of what to fix and we've had salad twice this week already and I'm getting really tired of cottage cheese and turkey burgers for breakfast and lunch. What I really wanted for dinner was pizza.

Saving Money

As I'm sure everyone knows by now we have been on a rather tight budget ever since the Great Economy Crash of '08 and we have learned many ways to stretch that buck. Although it still seems that the money trickles away sometimes and I'm not quite sure where it all goes. I do know that this weekend some of it went for assorted herbicides for the grass to get rid of the bad grass that is making our yard look all funky and making our homeowner's association put us on the 'Bad Homeowners and Let's Harass Them Because Their Yard Looks Like Crap' list. That was about $30.00 right there, and then there was the two trips to Walmart to get a new watchband for Keith's watch, the first watchband not fitting right resulting in having to return it and get another one which still doesn't fit right, and then there was having to put gas in the car so he could get to work this week.

Anyway, this morning I had to go to Walmart to get a big mailing envelope for a big order of sale stuff from my shop, a trip that I didn't mind in the least because IT WAS A BIG ORDER-YAY! and as I was walking to the checkouts I glanced at the magazine rack and was drawn to the drama that was on the cover of this week's People magazine. I used to buy People every single week, not so much for the celebrity gossip, because, really, who gives a crap about that stupid Bachelorette anyway, but for the movie and book reviews and the stories about real people. Although it is fun to read about things like Lindsay Lohan going to jail. But, anyway, I stopped buying People magazine after The Great Economy Crash because we were trying to save money and People magazine just no longer fit into our budget. And thinking about how I no longer buy People magazine made me wonder just how much money I've saved by not buying it every week.

So, let's see. Not spending $3.99 a week is a total savings of $207.48 over the course of one year. That's a couple of weeks worth of groceries right there. I probably should have put the actual cash saved in a jar somewhere though. Because I'm thinking that $3.99 a week got frittered away on something else.

Cutting Back?

Every day more and more people are losing their jobs. Companies that seemed to be strong are laying off thousands. People are even cutting out that morning cup of starbucks coffee so now they are laying off baristas and closing shops. Is anyone safe?

Or is everyone who still has a job afraid to spend any money on anything but the essentials 'just in case'?

We're feeling the effects of this failing economy with my sales on etsy having dropped dramatically these past few months. This January my shop is doing about 1/3 of the normal January business of the past two years. What to do? I'm used to listing a lot of new things each day in an effort to stay ahead of the game here, but I'm starting to feel like it's a losing battle. My fees add up but the sales aren't coming in at the normal speed, so listing seems like a waste of money. But, if I don't list new things, my shop will quickly slide into oblivion and be lost amongst the thousands of other etsy sellers trying to make a buck there. I'm listing more on shophandmade-no fees for listing, but also no buyers buying. I've got my artfire shop up for a flat fee of 7.00 a month, but also, no buyers buying. Sigh...

Do I go get a part time job (within walking distance since we only have one car now?) or do I just ride it out and hope things turn around within the next few months. Are there any part time jobs to be had? Don't think so, but maybe McDonalds is hiring? Ick.

I guess we'll just ride it out and pinch those pennies even tighter. There are no bills that we can cut back on, we don't have cable that we could cancel, or cell phones that we could turn off. I kind of need the internet connection to try and run my business, so that can't be turned off. We are trying to buy smarter at the grocery store, but you know what? No matter how cheap Hamburger Helper gets, it still tastes like crap.

It's the 'always something we need to buy each week' that really cuts into the old budget. Toilet paper (an absolute necessity, no Cheryl Crowing using only one sheet for me!) A cheaper brand of toilet paper? No, sorry, my tender bottom needs its Charmin, thank you very much. Cheaper cat food? Already been there. Make the cats go outside to go poop instead of buying cat litter? No, if they go outside, they get fleas, which gives them worms, which means bigger vet bills in the long run. Have Keith take lunch to work instead of eating out? Already there, he's always brought his own lunch, and we even pack the sandwich in tupperware instead of a plastic bag.

So, we'll just have to hang in there for now, doing our best to not get too discouraged. Keith's job seems pretty recession proof and the company appears to be strong, so we're not too worried about that. We've got a few dollars set aside for emergencies, so it's not like we'll be standing in a soup line anytime soon, and we're not living in a cardboard box yet, so we'll just ride it out and see what happens.