Questions..Recession/Depression??

[momof42003]

Starting this from the Recession/Depression thread...

We know how we would fair, but how about your extended family? Have any of you talked to them about it??

I look at my inlaws and think WOW they have so much debt, and all they are looking at this year is to spend even more money on "frivolous" spending..

Brother in law and sister in law are planning to finish their backyard for a total of over 5000 dollars, they also intend to swap out their hotwater heater for an instant hot hot water heater. They do intend to pay down their debt, but are creating just as much. They don't can, or preserve, garden, or want to learn. She does have a sewing machine, but rarely uses it.

My mother in law has a 600,000 (estimated value) home on 2 acres. She is having a garden barn built (25,000), and she has no income except for retirement moneys... She next to her mom is one of the most frugal people I know. She has a garden, cans, and shops only at rock bottom prices, can sew like a professional seamstress, and she cooks all meals from scratch. But she too is just spending soooooo much money.

On the other side, my one sister and her DH would do fine, they always have a huge garden, and eat off that for months. They have a pantry that is stocked well. They have some debt, but are paying it off. No big renovations, or additions for them.

My other sister and her DH also have a garden and they preserve almost everything they grow.. One good thing about sisters DH he has learned to can. They just bought a house, but I think that was a good move. They forage for berries and apples and make jellies/jams, and applesauce with them.

My family can hunt and fish, if we needed to.

Over all I think my siblings would be better off than the inlaws... How about all of your family members??

[sunshine]

Yeah-- my son and his wife will do fine, as long as they can hold on to their jobs. They have no debts, just day to day expenses. They are frugal to the bone, garden, yard sale, etc.

My other son and his wife -- just bought a house with a mortgage that scares me, have cc bills, student loans, car loans, etc. I worry for them, but he's military so I think his job is secure for a bit.

My mom and MIL - although frugal, aren't in good health and both live on fixed incomes. I fear we'll have to pitch in to bail them out, when we are already strapped.

[freyadog]

We are the only frugal ones in our family. Everybody else has a morgage, cc's etc.
No matter how hard and loud we talk to them no one seems to notice. Like they have their heads in the sand. If I cant it, IT cant see me.

So we have pretty much given up with trying to make them see the light.

[mom2matty]

My Mom will do well........I hope! She is going to be 80 this year, has no debt other than her mortgage. Although she lives on a very fixed income she has learned to manage it. I am however very concerned for my SIL and my youngest sister and her family. Neither of them have ever given a second thought about money and live in the moment.........both heavily in debt!!!!

[brenda67]

I think about my brother and my Dad everyday...My Dad is a spender..has filed Bankruptcy twice and still doesn't learn to control his spending..although he just married a woman he only knew for a few months back in July turns out she (we) are on the same page with being frugal,paying bills on time, not spending beyond our needs, even preserving food..everything my father is not! She is trying to change his ways and is seeing first hand how he wants and wants on her credit..I'm glad she stood up and told him nobody is going to ruin my credit..every woman in his past has always wanted the best of everything and got the best of everything..

Then there's my brother (my baby..we have always been close) he has a home among tons of other material items that he and my sil bought when both were working all on credit..they pulled in $125.000 a yr..well then she got pregnant and had complications w/her pregnancy and couldn't work..she decided it wasn't worth going to back to work and trying to find someone they could trust to babysit their precious little baby girl..(I don't trust anyone either..only a few ppl in my family thats it) so minus xxxx amount of dollars which boils down to lots of dept on one income...I know my brother is really stressed out and I know that my sil feels the same way..they have alot to lose..nothing to sell other then their home and with the market being the way it is nobody is buying right now..so they just go with the flow..sil has applied for jobs that she would qualify..but no bites yet..I just pray they can hold on to everything they worked so hard for..

[Marie78]

I am thankful I am working full time right now and my fiance is in grad school. We should both be fine. I worry about my mom and step-father. My mom works for gov't. she should be fine, my step-father works for GM (a little worried for his job) Grandma lives with them and she's on a fixed income, but hopefully they would be able to make it, if anything came up. My sister's in a good, stable job making 3x or more than I do take home pay. I'm not worried for her at all .

I'm not worried for my dad anymore. He just retired from a factory job that has been laying people off for over a decade and he made the cut each time, but really worried he wouldn't this year because his hip needs replacement surgery. He took early retirement (good $ package) and now he's working part time as a bus driver. He's getting married to someone who works in the school system, they should fair well.

I worry to some extent, both my parents have more debt than me, mortgages, and higher bills. I know that my family would help each other out if need be though. I am thankful that my fiance and I work at being frugal and I'm very thankful that I just finished my college and car loan in Aug '07. It's been a huge weight off of my shoulders.

[AmeliaM]

I hear you there on the GM layoffs. I was just laid off from a company that made carseats for GM. They were downsizing(again) and I was cut this time. The good news is though that they are putting people through school for 2 years w unemployment(bad news it doesn't pay what your salary was,but better than nothing) in this state if you were an Autoworker and were laid off. Apparently there have been so many in the state of Ohio that they have set this up so people can get into a new job field and maybe not have this issue again. There has been so much unemployment in this state and they are trying to stop it as much as possible.

[powerfm1]

Yep, I'm in Ohio also. We used to be the steel belt, then we were the rust belt, now the belt is so small it doesn't even have a name.

My family will do fine though my cousins won't. My brother will have a problem also. Nothing I can do about it, I'll take care of mine.

My friend and I were talking about this a while ago. The conclusion that we came to is that we have survived so many financial hard times and have never been well off, we have survival skills that not a lot of people do.

It's a shame, so many people throw their money out the window on junk and don't understand why they are unhappy and don't have anything.

Buckle your seat belts because it's going to be a bumpy ride.

[Jeanna]

I really am not worried about any of my family on either side. We have all been raised to know how to survive hard times. Yes it will be hard and a car or two may be lost but that is really all I see. I guess I really never thought about it but we are really pretty lucky.

[Daisygirl]

I still have some debt that worries me. Aside from, as long as I stay employed we will be okay.

My mom and dad will be fine too. They have no mortgage and are completely debt-free. My dad has invested well and cautiously and they could go a long time on what they already have.

[frugalfarmwife]

We'll be fine, my side of the family will be just fine, mom's a smart cookie, older brothers are well invested, educated and employed with no worry about job loss, younger brother is also going to be fine, mom and I oversee all there (he's handicapped).

Hubbies family? OYVEY DUCK AND RUN! It's going to hit hard there but that's just to bad, they'll have to sink or swim on their own. After all, they look down their noses at us and don't want "advice" from "dumb farmers" sooooooooooo, we'll just watch from afar

kj

[Holly]

Not to worried about my family
or Fiance's or DS's family.
We are harty country stock and we'll live off the land. Big gardens, hunt fish,
pick berries.
Will be getting another 20 hens for eggs, 2 BIL's are farmers s so milk is no problem. Can make our own butter, cottage cheese etc.