Friday, February 27, 2009

Don't beat yourself up

With all the news headlines talking about the latest budget proposals, stimulus updates, and bank nationalization scenarios, it's hard not to think about what should or should not be done to help get our country out of this nasty recession. Many people who have seen losses to their paychecks and retirement accounts have been working on their own family budgets to see how to stretch their shrinking dollars. For the vast majority of people, you've done nothing wrong. As Curly from the Three Stooges used to say, "I'm a victim of circumstance!" So is it smart to find ways to trim expenses from your budget? Yes! But you do not need to go from one extreme to another. For example, you don't need to go from eating lunch at a restaurant to packing your lunch with PB J's every day. If you normally eat lunch out every day, consider brown bagging it once or twice a week instead. If your family likes to go out to dinner twice a week, cut it down to once a week. If you stop by Starbucks every morning for a Latte, maybe skip a couple of days or check out the coffee at Dun kin Donuts or McDonald's. Small savings add up over time. Just write down what you spend in a week on lunches, coffees, and restaurants and multiply that by 52. You'll get a pretty big number. Even if you cut out something like sodas, it will add up. I have not had a soda now for 58 straight days. I probably averaged 2 sodas a day, so I have saved probably close to $100 so far! My oldest son hasn't had a haircut since last August so he's probably saved me at least $50. Get creative and have fun saving money, but don't make it into something that it doesn't have to be.

1 comment:

Dennis said...

This whole tax and spend methodology is ludicrous. People should cut back and they are. Savings are up and demand for goods and services is down. Although I hate all the people out of work, this country has got to switch from borrow/credit card living to saving and spending only what you can afford.