triviageek

Economic Tip#
5. Avoid Debt

This is perhaps the most important economic tip of all -- AVOID DEBT. If you owe money now that you cannot pay off, it may already be too late for you. I honestly think that in these troubling economic times for most people, the difference between skating thru the problems and sinking into a hopeless mess, could well be whether or not they owed money to anyone.

Sometimes I just wonder WHAT were they thinking. I got the following "message" by email from a spammer who was trying to sell me SOMETHING.

But what?!?!?

Someone should tell them that not only must their spam get thru all the spam filters, but it also MUST delineate what it is they are trying to induce the recipients to buy.

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Economic Tip#
4. Lower Expectations

By this I mean you need to lower the expectations of your standard of living. I read once that well over half of the USA population viewed themselves as members of the upper middle class. Even though by definition more than half of the population CANNOT all be members of the upper middle class.

Once you are more realistic about just what class/position you're in, you're going to be better able to realistically live within your income.

Or to put it another way, if you're middle class, lower middle class, or even a member of the lower class, then you have no business expecting to live in a so-called McMansion, sending your kids to be most expensive private schools (unless they qualify for full scholerships), wearing designer clothes, etc.

And trying to maintain that standard of living by going further into debt is a sure-fire recipe for personal economic disaster.

I said yesterday that I would try to post info on some free recipes and cookbooks. Here is a sample of several cookbooks which happen to be free as ebook downloads that are available from lulu.com. (You can also purchase the printed version of the cookbooks at Lulu's print-on-demand costs.) And Lulu has many other books and cookbooks which are available for purchase.

The McGrogan Family Cook Book


Roane Family and Friends Cookbook


Tomee & Jon Family and Friends' Recipes


Eating at Airfield Court**Slow download due to being in color**


From My Grandmother's Kitchen


Heavenly Delight


A Man's Place Is In The Kitchen - An Anthology of Recipes by Howard Gordon


Free Wild Berry Minnesota Cookbook

The site, lulu.com, just happens to be a favorite of mine since I was first introduced to them thru Nanowrimo a couple of years ago. Lulu has been very kind to Nanowrimo winners in the past (including myself) by offering to print one copy of our Nano novels.

Economic Tip#
3. Cook and eat your meals at home


This money saving tip is a bit harder to do than the previous two tips.

Everyone should learn to cook from basic ingredients (not mixes or just heating up pre-packaged meals) and then eat at home; ie. you should stop eating out. Even so called fast food places are expensive these days. You can learn to cook your own food for less money.

If you don't know how to cook there are several online sites that provide recipes and/or cookbooks for free. I'll try to post some of their web addresses in the near future.

Economic Tip#
2. Switch to cfc light bulbs


Probably everyone has heard of them by now, but just in case you haven't --- there are NEW light bulbs that will save you money!!!

Called cfc's or compact fluorescents, they are basically fluorescent light bulbs made to fit where an ordinary light bulb world go. They cost slightly more money to purchase than a regular light bulb, but they more than make up for it by using only about 1/4 the electricity that a regular light bulb uses. Plus the cfc light bulb lasts far longer than an ordinary light bulb.

Have you joined Freecycle yet? [Taps foot impatiently.]

Remember.

Maybe NOW people will begin to take this problem seriously.

Please!!! Oh Please!!!!!

CNBC talking heads just CANNOT seem to accept the reality of a long term economic downturn or that the stock market is NOT going to be always going upward. Sheesh!!! Among the worst offenders seem to be thirtysomething year olds who have NEVER in their entire life accepted that the stock market is not the be all end all of finances. They've either never heard of the Great Depression or view it as something that happened dimly in the far distant past of their great-great-granfathers era and which, of course, could NEVER, EVER happen again -- especially in their lifetimes.

*Sigh*

Well I'm slightly older than a thirtysomething AND happened to be the youngest child born to older parents. So to me, the Great Depression was something that my parents endured as a young married couple. I regularly heard stories about the hardships of those times. And unsurprisingly my parents were thrifty, frugal (not to say cheap) individuals as has often been reported of those that lived thru that period of time.

During my young adulthood my parents probably viewed me as being the exact opposite of themselves moneywise, however, outsiders would have probably classified me as more like my parents than either they or myself would have admitted. Later, this limited frugality within myself was enhanced during a period of serious medical problems that lasted nearly a decade and which left me avoiding bankruptcy only by the skin of my teeth.

All of which is to say that I may be more qualified than most middle class adults living in a prosperous suburban area to offer tips for getting by during the present (and imo even worse pending economic problems).

(Well my vanity says I am anyway.)

So here goes.

Economic Tip#

1. Join Freecycle.

If you don't know what Freecycle is, you should. It's ostensibly a way to recycle posessions that you no longer want -- without actually increasing the amount of garbage heading for the dump.

What is ACTUALLY is, is a great way to obtain items that you might find useful for FREE. Absolutely FREE!!!! It is against the rules for a freecycler (that's what they call themselves) to ask for money for anything that they've offered thru freecycle.

It free to join. (It's a mailing list of people who live in your community.) When someone offers something you want, you email them and request it. Depending on what it is (and how many other people may want it too), you may get an email telling you to pick it up at such and such a location.

And don't knock the idea, so far I've gotten empty CD cases (I never seem to have enough of those), a toaster, several books, etc. And I've given away such items as Jigsaw puzzles (which I had already solved once), leftover Christmas cards, an audiobook (after I had listened to it once) etc.