How has the economy affected your life?

[WebLady]

With the up and down econimic situation lately, have you done anything different than you would normally?

What about planning for the holidays coming up?

*poll coming

[WebLady]

Darn, I guess I should have made the poll multiple choice :p

I voted that we are trying to limit unnecessary spending and just be more cautious of what we spend. We are working on trying not to spend as much for the holidays as well.

[Katie-ryn]

It hasn't effected me much. Same as wedding planning, I am already a frugal person. The new economic situation hasn't made me change anything, I was already like this before. I already limit unnecessary spending, try to stick to our eating out budget, and we limit holidays presents to immediate family, at $30 max a person.

[mitch]

We are cutting back on what We spend. Normally We wouldn't think twice about a take-away or going out for a Drink / Meal. We have cut right back on seeing Our Friends do their Live Gigs. We used to go every weekend. But now it's once a month if We're lucky.

Christmas is minimal. One main gift for each Daughter and maybe a little extra for Our Grandson. It's still "Magical" for Him being only Two Years Old. The Girls are grown up and understand the value of ££.
I still have some Stocking Fillers from last year. So that has saved some cash.

DH is back working Seven Days a week, Twelve Hour Days. I'm doing Six Days a week but only 4-6 Hours. DH wont let Me work anymore hours. He says i spend X amount of hours a week running the home. So in His eyes that's enough. His Overtime will go on till Christmas and will pay off all the bills etc. I'm just thankful We don't have to pay for the Fuel for His Van. With the Milage He does a day that would cripple Us. :huh:

[arlene]

We're already frugal as it is, but we are still trying to cut out unneccessary spending. (Like me going to the thrift store a lot) We also have a huge family, so we're trying to figure out the best way to give gifts this year. So Christmas might be a bit of a strain this year.

[amisteratwisterandme]

That was hard for me to answer because so far the economy hasn't damaged us. We have a very reasonable house payment, one car payment and just a few other odd bills. Both of our companies seem to be doing relatively well, so there's not much worry about our jobs either.

However, we won't be spending alot on Christmas this year. When you get into shopping for so many people, it takes away the fun and spirit of Christmas I think. So we will shop for the neices and nephews, one big present each, and we are going to do a treasure hunt with the family, with each of us purchasing a $30.00 gift card for somewhere fun or yummy and that's it!

We are trying to be careful with money though, because we tend to spend spend spend for no apparent reason.

[acidcookie]

Again, just like with the wedding, the answer is "not much" because I always strive to live frugally.

[MBS353]

Hasn't affected me much. Have meal card at school and have "all I can eat" buffet everyday. Night time snacks not all that expensive. Don't drive home every weekend anymore is about all, but even gas has gone down again now.

I always knit mittens hats and scarves for Xmas gifts anyway.

[Jacklynn]

Although Matt and I certainly aren't rolling in any money it hasn't really affected us any. We don't have a house payment right now, and we only have to drive when we want to (I work from home and DH works down the street). Granted we should be spending less money of course, it doesn't really have anything to do with the econ. more about us needing to save money because we have to start paying off our 100k in student loans in under a month.

[tootsie]

I can't go shopping anymore, we only eat out once a week now, and for Christmas, we are only buying presents for each other and our parents. It's been nice that gas prices have gone down, but we are still struggling financially. I'm the bread winner right now. Hubby is in school for at least another two years and he doesn't make much as a research assistant. Sometimes I get down because I can't go shopping, but I need to realize that there are more important things than clothes, like having a nice apartment, a nice SUV, food in the fridge...

[vicky_vicky]

Yes, it has affected mostly on fuel. So we try to limit driving. Also the products that we buy are so expensive but when we sell they are rediculoulsy cheap.

[Nekochanpurr]

Not buying any pricey Christmas gifts. We don't eat out much anymore (tonight might be our last time in a while..), Steve is trying not to drive much right now... Seeing as the economy is part of the reason he doesn't have a job right now. We were planning on house hunting, so thats REALLY changed as well. As far as thing like loans for said someday house, it'll at least take us 2 years now to even be able to get one.

Yeah. Its affected us.

[ChristineLS]

My fiance and I both finished our undergraduate degrees last May. He was unable to find a graduate assistantship because my university froze all hirings, nor a full time job because the economy sucks. So he works two part time jobs, neither which pay too well. Fortunately I was offered funding before the economy went kaputz. We're comfortable, but we make ends meet and aren't really able to save as much as we thought we would be able to for the wedding.

[MrsDM]

We've tried to limit our spending a bit. In a good way though, because we've actually been saving a lot of money lately. So, in a way the bad economy has helped us be a little bit more wise spending.