I am in full blown depression (mentally) My health insurance premiums are going up to 15k per year. I can't work and SS says it will be well over 2 years to get a hearing.
Then if I get SS I have a 2 year wait til medicare kicks in! All I can say is the government telling people to spend, spend, spend aint going to happen in this house.
It has been a wake-up call yes. Dh and I used to be what I would classify as average Americans before all of this. We sort of made a half-concerted effort to save and pay the debt down but we never let that get in the way of buying what we wanted when we wanted to. Now we have set plans and goals on paper. We have a strict budget that we actually find fun to see going successfully. We are now much more seriously planning our future and where we want to be. Just having a 401k and letting it go on autopilot is not sufficient in itself for retirement we see that now! Losing sleep? No. I have been having headaches and stomach issues that I suspect were from an overdose of news now that I have been limiting my news intake I am doing much better.
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Doin' the baby step thing!
BS1. EF fully funded
BS2. cc PIF
van $3,900 (pay-off goal is 7/09)
truck $7,000 (pay-off goal is 1/10)
The only thing standing between me and being out of consumer debt is: $10,900
I don't know if I'm just beating myself up that we should be in better shape. DH should stay employed and thus we will be fine. It is stressing me out though. We don't have the cash cushion we should. And as I speak there is a crane, dump truck and chipper in my yard and all I see is dollars going into that chipper.
Concerned, yes, losing sleep, no. I have definitely stepped up the savings efforts, and I'm trying to place a pretty tight lid on discretionary spending. Fortunately I paid off my debt, never really very high, a couple of years ago, or thereabouts. Don't remember exactly. I'm also working consciously at really seriously building up my stockpile. A co-worker said yesterday, kind of jokingly, that she'd bought some bags of beans to have on hand. I just said, "Me too." I've mentioned to several in the course of conversation that I'm stockingpiling, or, uh, pantry stocking against harder times and rising inflation.
But the real issue for me right now is building up the EF to a comfortable level. The retirement account, of course, has tanked, and I can't do anything about that. But I am going to see to it, if at all possible, that at least a few months are covered in a crisis.
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Donna
Book Challenge: 33/100
March: 9
Last edited by dcompton; 10-16-2008 at 12:54 PM.
Reason: Grammar garble
Somewhat....we are fortunate that our mortgage is stable, as is our income- but this whole thing has really made me see how bad cc debt is. I had a little over $2k on mine, but recently maxed it out to $5k to pay for our dog's necessary surgery. We still have our baby emergency fund in tact and are still working our debt snowball- only $1475 left on our van, if we pay it off by March (we will) we will have killed the loan 2+ years early, and then we'll attack my credit card.
I do not care that I'm sure my FICO took a hit from maxing out that card, I don't need it anytime soon and it was previous to this a good/great #.
I do, however, get REALLY nervous about the cc. my rate right now is about 7%, I know they can jack that up for no reason anytime- it doesn't keep me up at night, but it does weigh heavy on my mind I don't like having this 'open' debt that can change rates significantly at any time.
Also am a little irritated oil has gone way down- we pre-bought our oil this summer, after working hard to save the $2.5k , for $4.599 a gallon- of course now it's down $1.30 a gallon! We are going to buy from another company at the current rate when the tank gets low enough, if we can swing it, as our pre-buy balance carries over to a cash balance with the company after 5/1.
Happy to pay less for gas, to be sure, but it seems like if we do or don't 'pre-buy' our oil, we get royally screwed each year!
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March 2010 Goals:
~Keep on adding to 'new car' savings!
It has absolutely made me rethink where I am financially! I'm not stressed about it as I feel like it hasn't touched me...... yet. Though I do want to be prepared. My desire to become frugal was based more on desperately wanting to buy a condo than the economy, but I have been re-evaluating my priorities as far as where my money goes.
This crisis has also made me extremely grateful for my job. I'm definitely coming to work with a better attitude! I know there are others who aren't as lucky. My mom called yesterday to tell me that my brother is getting laid off. He has five kids and a stay-at-home wife. They were barely making it before, I don't know how they're going to make it now.
__________________ You always pass failure on your way to success.
I'm somewhat concerned over the recent crisis, but I'm not clear on what it really means for me. The gas & grocery prices are causing me the most stress & I'm rethinking the extras, but I'm not losing sleep. Honestly, I haven't felt as financial confident for several years. I've felt things have been shifting toward this some time. It doesn't seem to be a wake up call in my area yet. I think it should be a definite sign to save for rainy days ahead.
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March Groceries $154/225 Pet Supplies $59/70
Coupons $29.55
February Groceries $217/225 Pet Supplies $71/70
Coupons $21.60
We saw this coming about 3 years ago and made the changes at that time, so no, we are not freaked out at all now. If we had not seen the writing on the wall back then, we would be in the same place as many are today with panic and unease.
We are now debt free and just keep saving money. My biggest concern now is a collapse of the federal reserve. Since our money supply is just paper printed by a privatly owned bank it doesn't give me a lot of security. Since European countries are talking more and more about going back to the gold standard as fiat money has failed every single time in history. That's what I worry about....
I'm not too worried. Fortunately I have years for the stock market to recover before I'll need the money. Right now there are actually some great investing opportunities available.
It has been a wakeup call as a reminder to diversify my investments and look at other investments outside of wall street.
Well it hasn't really changed for us much... I mean I am frugal to begin with and now my high class family is paying the price, while my family is doing just fine.
Am I nervous? A little bit but we have money saved, no debt besides mortgage and DH has a steady job. Times may get harder but since I am strict with money I am sure we will do ok, or at least I hope so.
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~TRACY~*
Wife to Roberto since 5/2/98
Mom of 3 - DS: 19, DS: 18 & DD: 13
2 dogs: Jack (Jack Rusell) and Murphy (Shipoo -Shi*zu/Poodle mix)
DEBTS:
$505.68 Home Depot
$1468 - Citi Cards
EF: $300/$1000
MY BLOG oneprimgirl.blogspot.com MY SITE handmadenetwork.com
Last edited by FrugalMomof3; 10-16-2008 at 03:55 PM.
Absolutely! I saw this coming, to some extent, and was trying to get our EF built up more. It wasn't happening fast enough, so I am making every effort now to get more money into savings and not spend anything extra. My dh has a stable job (teacher) and our mortgage is reasonable and stable, but still things make me nervous. We need more money in the bank right now and I am working hard to get it there.
Oh yes, we are definitely rethinking what we have done and trying to do our best to make the best changes now.
We only have mortgage debt, but we have a lot of it.
We recently put ourselves on a very strict budget and are doing well at staying on it. My goal is to pay down as much of our debt as possilble, while building up our EF to as much as we can.
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Is the economic crisis making you rethink where you are financially?
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