Feeling the economic pinch.

The prices of things are getting out of hand.

Gasoline.
Food.
Electricity/Natural Gas.
Health care costs.
Prescriptions.
Taxes.
Taxes.
Taxes.

We are fortunate enough to make decent wages. And our family is even more fortunate to be seemingly healthy... But, the increased prices have driven us to make some changes.

Almost all of my past years salary increase went DIRECTLY back to my employer to cover the monthly co-pay increase we were also given (I'm not kidding). And, that is their plan for the next few years. Meanwhile, other costs continue to rise sharply.

So, in reality - WE ARE MAKING A LOT LESS EACH YEAR.

Although we make decent wages - We aren't swimming in money - In fact, we were always generally careful with what and how we spend our money. We're not expensive foods like steak every week, nor do we buy expensive toys or clothes. We generally eat dinner at home, and brown bag our lunches about 4 days a week. Our television signal & ISP costs are at the lower end of the spectrum; We have the cheap DSL ISP package (768k @ $17/month) and have the $50/month satellite dish for television.

With all the rising costs - We decided to start cutting some of our costs.

These are some of the things that we did to reduce some of our living costs:

First of all... We don't buy the high-priced foods. When blueberries are $2.50 for a small pkg - we're not getting blueberries. Grapes @ 2.99/lb = no grapes.

Some of the brand named items are going away too... I don't NEED to buy Colgate toothpaste, nor Charmin toilet paper. If the price isn't right - we've just been getting some other brand of product. I finally gave up on my "Dry Idea" deodorant from $3.27 for 2.5 ounces to the much cheaper Mennen speed stick (It cost a little over $1 and lasts just as long).

The Satellite dish - we just knocked it down to the $30/month package. The kids still have their stations - My wife and I lost some of the channels we would have watched if we had time time.

I still cut my own grass, and if the weeds need spraying - I'm the one doing it. Around here, that's usually a task that some lawn care place is doing for the home owners.

Phone - We're considering just having my wife's cell phone and losing the land line (we'll see).

Next, we're also considering a smaller house... We're currently not in a large house, but neither one of us think that things are going to get better anytime soon. So, we're trying to READY ourselves for even worse financial and economic conditions.

I know other's have it worse... I'm not trying to complain that I only have 100 channels of crap on my TV. But, I think you see my point... And, NO I dont' have a widescreen LCD TV. It's an old 27" CRT.

- Wak