Are you feeling the economic crunch?

[davestlouis]

The economy is just beating me to bits...I'm in the funeral biz, preneed funerals specifically. Between bad economic news and never-ending newspaper reports on a scandal involving National Prearranged Services, whose management apparently walked off with over $900 million dollars, things are not good.

Unfortunately I have lots of fixed expenses...7 kids, 4 dogs, 2 kids in college, 3 who need braces this year, 5 of the kids wear glasses, and even with vision insurance, that's a large expense. One child has autism, and incurs large medical bills, 2 of the dogs have seizure disorders, so they are on meds and need regular bloodwork done. 3 of the kids drive, which means more cars, and more car insurance...

Anyway, I try to laugh at the adversity. The good news is, I'm still vertical, and if I should happen to become horizontal, I get a large discount at the funeral home.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've never not been dealing with an economic crunch of one kind or another, so it's all standard procedure as far as I'm concerned. But locally, we had a better summer at the theatre than expected -- likely because we had eight straight weeks of rain in June and July, and people were forced to seek indoor entertainment. But the weather's meant a brutal summer for the art galleries and the twee little shoppees along Main Street which depend on summertime cone-eater foot traffic for their main business, and the fishing business has been in even worse shape: the bottom's fallen out of the lobster market, and lobstermen have spent most of the summer in an island-versus-mainland war, complete with trap-cutting, boat-sinking, and rifle shots. Not the sort of thing that puts money in the bank.

So all in all, i'm surviving, but for a lot of other people around here it's going to be a very rough winter.

 

[High Pockets]

Absolutely not, no problems here, no change in lifestyle what so ever.
The markets looking good,.........many opportunities out there.

From the people I talk to everyday, the opinion seems to be same;
The sky is not falling,....which is contrary to what the media blows way out of proportion every night with the sole purpose of enticing you to either watch their sponsor's commercials or support their political candidate.

The drop in value of stocks has hurt a lot of people, including me and my wife who have a LOT of money invested,......but it hasn't caused us to change a thing in our daily lives. Those of you who have been hit hard are in our prayers.

 

[Paisley]

Through luck and skill, I've avoided the pain. Before I joined the accounting field almost eight years ago, I was in engineering and was almost always in an financial bind.

Our vice president of wealth advisors said some months ago that the stock market was beginning to pick up, and that usually precedes the rest of the economy.

 

[Diamondback]

This is one of the advantages of moonlighting as live-in "residential administrator" for a workaholic employed with a major defense/aerospace contractor that would doubtless be labeled "too big to fail"... lol (Actually, my wallet's better off than normal through exploiting a lot of "fire sales" on the stuff I usually buy. Not enough to pay my way back to finish my BA, but enough to at least let me stay comfortable even while tightening the belt and still make progress acquiring components for ongoing projects...)

Yes, I'm darn lucky to be in the position I'm in, I admit it and I'm profoundly grateful for it.
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Now playing: James Horner - Into The LEM
via FoxyTunes

 

[Spitfire]

Can't say I do. Like Paisley - through luck and skill - I have business as usual. Or even more. Working as a freelance Art Director/Copywriter in advertising, there is a lot of business comming my way:

1. Clients tend to go to smaller units/agencies in crisis - they get the same quality and smaller bills.

2. The big agencies has to save money - so they (unfortunately) has to sack people. But they also have to get the job done, so they use the freelancers, that's better economy for the time being. (They only pay for what they get and the time spent)

3. Besides freelancing I do a lot of teaching at the university - and teaching is not under the laws of crisis. Not up till now at least.

So everything is OK. (Knock on wood and keeping my fingers crossed!)

 

[koopkooper]

well Australia is the place to be. We officially managed to dodge the bullet, just avoiding a technical recession and now the market is on the up and up.

This has all been due to the stimulus package that our PM Kevin Rudd introduced.

 

[duggap]

As a CPA, I did not notice a significant downturn in my own business. But some of my clients have experienced some economic problems. For example, the physicians I have in my practice have all dropped at least thirty percent in the last year. Construction is at a standstill and used car sells have really dropped. In retail sales, cosmetics and jewelry have remained steady. What all that means I am not sure... Wish I did.[huh]

 

[Doctor Strange]

I'm definitely feeling it.

The software firm I work for has had us on mandatory four-day work weeks since February (to avoid extensive layoffs), with no end in sight. My take-home pay is back to where it was around 12 years ago... but everything's more expensive now, and since my divorce I'm essentially supporting two households, I've got a kid in college, and my parents - long a source of additional funds when needed - are in steep decline, and we're running through their life savings at lightspeed paying for their assorted, complex medical needs.

This was the first summer that I couldn't afford to take my kids anywhere for a vacation - during my time off, we just did day-trips into NYC, visited friends, shopped, went to the movies, etc. And just figuring out how to pay for common stuff like car repairs before my credit cards run up to the danger zone is a struggle... And it goes without saying that luxury items, like hats and flight jackets, are off the agenda!

Hey, I know this isn't so bad: I'm still employed, insured, taking care of the family, and more or less managing to pay the bills. But it's definitely distressing to feel like a peasant in my mid-50s!

 

[The Shirt]

Definitely feeling it. Not as a result of any media hype but just my everyday existence. I've been very good at paying my way and living within my means most of my adult life. These days I am scraping by. Cut hours/pay. Cut 401. Cut dental. Paying more for healthcare all as a result of my office downsizing. I'm lucky I'm one of the few still hanging on with a job. Some of my friends in the trades are on union waiting lists for 3 years before the hope of a trade job. Most have to give it up and take a minimum wage sort of thing. Those in the design field who have been laid off are for the most part taking a hiatus and seeking work elsewhere. I am praying I'm not next and every Friday (for nearly a year) I hold my breath.

I've cut cell phones, cable and all extravagances. I barely go out anymore. I make gifts. I fix everything I can myself or I go without. I bought a reconditioned appliance as I couldn't afford new. As for buying vintage - well it just isn't happening. I cannot justify it. I refuse to put things on my credit card as I had just paid it off. I may still look, but there isn't any extra few bucks to do it anymore.

 

[Helysoune]

We're definitely feeling the pinch. My mister is a mechanic, so his pay depends entirely on people bringing in their cars to be serviced. Since people are strapped for cash, they are hanging onto their cars which should be a good thing. However, they are bringing them in and once they find out what the car needs, they take it home and try to do it themselves rather than pay him to do the work. So he ends up wasting a lot of potentially productive time diagnosing problems for free that people have no intention of letting him fix. It's horribly frustrating and disheartening to him, and to me as well since I can't clobber people in the parking lot and make them go through with the service. lol So we've had to scrimp and trim our budget quite a lot over the last months, but because the government is now saying the worst is over, people are again paying for their maintenance. We're able to go out to dinner tonight, in honor of his birthday - first date we've had in ages!!!

 

[ThesFlishThngs]

That's a shame, Helysoune, about people taking advantage. Perhaps your husband should start charging a fee for diagnosis. If folks choose to have him do the repairs, the fee could be applied toward to total cost; if they want to do it themselves, at least he will have earned a little something for his expertise and time.

 

[Paisley]

Maybe he and some of the other mechanics in your area could charge for a diagnostic service, and waive it if the customer gets the repairs done at the shop.

 

[Helysoune]

Sadly, that's unlikely to happen. He works for one of the chains and upper management's theory is that people will come in for the free stuff they offer and end up spending more money in the long run because they got freebies. What they seem to be overlooking is that people see the word "FREE!" and only want the free stuff. He actually had a guy come in for an oil change and wanted the free tire rotation that comes with. When told the tires were very worn and ought to be replaced, the guy replied, "Yeah, I'm getting them done somewhere cheaper tomorrow, but go ahead and do it anyway, 'cause it's free." So my mister had to waste his time fiddling with rotating those bald tires since, of course, the customer is always right. Another guy came into the shop with a relatively new car and asked for every free service they offer, whether it was necessary or not, just because it's free. I swear, some people...

 

[ThesFlishThngs]

Ah, the joys of working for dimmer bulbs at the top.

 

[Paisley]

He works for one of the chains and upper management's theory is that people will come in for the free stuff they offer and end up spending more money in the long run because they got freebies. What they seem to be overlooking is that people see the word "FREE!" and only want the free stuff.

I guess the brass has never heard the saying about free milk and cows.

 

[Inusuit]

Not so much...

House, land, vehicles all owned outright. No credit cards. Solar panels and wind turbine (most months the electric company owes us money.) Chickens. Large garden with asparagus, strawberries, raspberries plus annuals. A year or more of non-perishable food in storage. Wood heat. Sufficient firearms and ammunition to keep what we have.

 

[Paisley]

Ah, the joys of working for dimmer bulbs at the top.

It's the Peter Principle: people promoted to their level of incompetence.

My employer (a CPA firm) has been doing a few things to help us through the recession. We've begun to charge 10% for late payments (we used to write it off, I think) and we've terminated some clients who are losing money. Management has also stressed to us to charge all the time we spend working for a client. We've gone from snail mail to e-mail where possible.

In the city where I live, employees have taken a pay cut, and fortunately, there haven't been any layoffs.

 

[ThesFlishThngs]

It's the Peter Principle: people promoted to their level of incompetence.

My employer (a CPA firm) has been doing a few things to help us through the recession. We've begun to charge 10% for late payments (we used to write it off, I think) and we've terminated some clients who are losing money. Management has also stressed to us to charge all the time we spend working for a client. We've gone from snail mail to e-mail where possible.

In the city where I live, employees have taken a pay cut, and fortunately, there haven't been any layoffs.

Yep, my husband had that at the post office. People couldn't be fired, so if they screwed up the works badly enough, they were removed to a higher position.

 

[chanteuseCarey]

Yeah, we are certainly feeling it here. I've been blessed to have been a full time stay at home mom for the last 16 years, and I'm now actively seeking part time or full time work. With being out of the job market so long I cannot even get a retail job or clerical. The job search has been very frustrating especially with my having two Bachelor degrees! My husband was/is a hardware engineer here in Silicon Valley/Bay Area. He was laid off in Jan 08, and was able to find contract work for 5 months in 08. He's been out of work after the last contract ended and been actively looking for work in his field since Dec 08. We've run through any savings, the kids small amount of college money that they inherited from their grandfather, and all of Chuck's 401k. We struggling to hang in there now on his extended EDD checks. We're hoping to avoid foreclosure someway somehow and not lose our sweet little house which is now worth a 1/3 less than 5 years ago. We've been trying to get a loan modification worked out somehow from our mortgage company since Feb, and it just is not happening. Fortunately we did get a better payment modified for our long tapped out equity loan.

But in spite of all this, God is good! My husband was able to sell something on Craigs List today and it brought in a little cash. Just this morning Chuck had replied to an email sent late last night from a person at church who asked about what to pray for specifically for us, and he told him how little was left in the checkbook. And that the next EDD check would not be here until this weekend. Later today today this man (an elder at our church and the head of the church's Tech Team that Chuck volunteers on every weekend) shows up at our door with $100.00. I was out getting copies of my college transcripts when he came. I would have cried if I'd been there. Later this evening when I was at exercise class (the YMCA has deferred my membership fees for 3 months due to a Hardship), another elder from our church knocked on our door saying he was "God's Delivery Service" and handed Chuck an envelope containing another $100.00.

We are all okay here, even though I've put on some stress weight (obvious in my posted pics of late on FL) -which is very frustrating of course. I'd been very concerned that it would cause my high blood pressure to come back (we have no medical insurance for my husband and myself to pay for an RX for me), but amazingly my BP was okay when I checked it last week on my bday.

We are all healthy and we are still in our home. We are not hungry, and have clothes and shoes to wear. The kids are doing well even without any new school clothes or new backpacks or shoes. We cook and eat at home, we watch movies we already own and read books we own or borrow from the local library or church library. My favorite phrase right now, is "make do and mend". We are grateful and thank God for what we do have, and that we have each other. We are still praying for God to bless my husband with a job, and for God to bless me with one now too.