Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Recession or Depression?!

Is anyone else out there getting a little worried that we are NOT in a recession...rather we are going into a depression? I like to keep my posts on the upbeat side, but I listened to NPR yesterday all about the Indymac bank closing and everyone lined up outside to try to get their money out, and then on the news last night and even on Nightline. And I have to say it worried me.

I do fairly well, as I am in the numbers business, and as my father said to me when I was trying to decide what to study in school "Whether people have a lot of money or a little, they don't want the government to have it, so they are always looking for a good accountant!" So I don't really worry about not having enough clients or not having work do to. But if my clients businesses aren't doing well...and if they could not get their money out of a bank...you do the math!

I have been saying that I think we were going into a depression since January, right about the time our government was trying to figure out whether we might be going into a recession. So I have been working on living more frugally. This was way before gas prices started going out of control. I have been working on little things that can save our family money, like recycling boxes and food containers so my girls can use them for art projects rather than buying all new things to paint and tape and create with. My older daughter just loves Petshop animals, she has quite a few (from last year when I was still spending freely...) and so she is creating a "Petshop World" for them using cereal boxes, formula cans, egg cartons, etc. It is really fun for her and the littler girls are doing the same thing. It keeps them busy for hours and the only thing new is the scotch tape and staples and the paint if they use that. I get a lot of catalogs, so they cut up the catalogs for "wall paper" for the little apartments and houses for the animals.

That is just one thing. I also try to save on my grocery bills by shopping at Aldi's, sticking to my list, cooking basic food, and not using pre-prepared stuff as much as possible. You know I used to buy Walmart brand pancakes. They are only $1.50 for 12 pancakes, that is just 12 cents per pancake. My girls eat 2 each on Saturday mornings, so that means it costs us only .75 cents for their breakfast. BUT...I found that by making my own pancakes from scratch (I have a great easy recipe from Martha Stewart Living) I can save even more! I double her recipe and get 24 pancakes for only .50 cents, which means each pancake only costs me .02 cents!! Now thats the way to save money!

Of course you may be saying to yourself, "I'd rather spend the 10 cents for convenience." But then I have to say, look at the bigger picture...if you had pancakes every Saturday morning for the whole year, then you would save $32.76 [(.75 X 52 = 39.00) -(.12 X 52 = 6.24)] Well, I warned you I am an accountant. I think of things like that. And since my daughters are very active in sports and theater and dance, and that costs a LOT! I can use the savings to put toward their classes.

Just a little something to think about.

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