I've been unemployed for about 8 months now. No paychecks, no unemployment.
So in the last 8 months I've bought 4 firearms,over 2 thousand rounds of ammo,
a bedroom set for visitors have a bed to sleep in, and the roofers are on top
of my house replacing my shingles right now. I must be crazy!

For my wife and I yes,and no.

I am retired, again. I am hopping later this year or early next year to find something part time just to get out of the house.

My wife still works full time. She has been lucky, she has a good job she likes and has done well. This year between her raise and bonuses we have kept just above inflation.

With that said, I used to run errands 3 to 4 time a week. I try to combine my trips when I can. I drive a car that has to use premium gas and it is still more expensive the regular.

When I food shop I tend to try to reduce cost as much as I can. We shop at Bjs wholesale club and buy some things in bulk. I try to buy what is on sale when ever possible. These are thing we have been doing long before all this started.

I used to visit a friend that I used to work for once or twice a week at his gun store. I stopped doing that as much at one point last year and he had retired the end of January 2022 and sold his business.

My wife and I live near Disney and own a Disney time share(we have owned it since 1997 from when we lived in N.J.). We gave up our annual park pass when they got to expensive back in 2019/2020 however we still stay at the time share hotels.

We used to eat at Disney restaurants one to two times a month however we have stopped that and when we do go out it is more the local restaurants. We find we can eat out at local restaurants for a lot less money and there are more of them closer to us now.
My wife always finds deals or coupons for the local places.

We still go out to the local brewery's three to four time a month on the weekend.

So in some areas we have tightened our belt and in others areas, for right now, we have not changed our spending habits.

We live out in the country at least 20 miles from everything. I used to meet shooting buddies twice a week for lunch but now due to fuel costs it is once every couple of weeks. Mrs Greener and I plan our trips to town to minimize the number of trips. I no longer actively farm and have a tenant but the cost of things has prevented me from buying a badly needed bush hog for maintaining the property. The cost of fertilizer and diesel is killing local farmers. I closed my once profitable firearms training business which stopped being profitable due to COVID and materials costs. It stopped being fun when I started losing money doing something I really enjoyed. I used to shoot several times a week but now I am down to once a month due to the exorbitant cost of handgun and rifle ammo. I have two Big Green Eggs and cook on them a couple times a week. I love to do briskets but have not done one for months due to the crazy price on briskets, so I am down to burgers and chickens for the foreseeable future. I am a woodworker but the cost of materials even for shoddy quality lumber has become cost prohibitive. We are getting by but the quality of our lives has been negatively impacted. We still have a pretty good income but I feel badly for people who are squeaking by hand to mouth. But we shall endeavor to persevere.

I am preparing. I would suggest that people who have the means to stock up on necessities. I just ordered a half a cow from my rancher, prices are going to be skyrocketing do to feed costs. Grass fed, no hormones and I support a local business. This will last me about a year and a half (even considering I give about a 1/4 of it away).

If I had a bigger yard I would grow a garden, my friend has chickens so I get free range eggs from him.

I also told the spousal unit to stock up on other stuff every time she goes to Costco. I think the next two years may get tough for many.

Fortunately my job is secure but I could survive even if I lost it. I have enough experience in a job with few experienced people so the job outlook does not worry me. I am actually hoping things will slow down and I can start working part time. If my employer took me up on that it would be ideal for me as I transition into retirement.

Being from Alaska, I've always been a prepper as is Mrs. Flash, so we're stocked up.

Having said that, we've made no changes at all in our lifestyle.

Just got new flooring for the house, though. They finished up yesterday.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by scratchy:

I get it. I work for Comcast. My employees are in Philly. The economy is interdependent. Enough people dump Comcast, Comcast has layoffs, that taxes unemployment, etc, and the thing is a snowball. Your "free tv" will end. Our biggest expense, after employees, is content. Free TV really isn't. And, further, some of those Comcast employees that you just terminated employment for, may have been your customer.

$100 is dinner for 2, in a mid market restaurant, with 2 beers

Inflation hits the whole economy. It is an obscenely hidden tax.

LOL are you serious?

How about YOU tell YOUR company to stop making bills that are FULL of bullshit “fees” and playing games with their pricing structure.

Nope, I’m glad we FINALLY got some actual competition where I live in the form of fiber, Comcast has been the only game in town for years and they knew it.

But go ahead and blame me…

My goodness, no kidding. There is no other company on the planet who I despise more than Comcast. I simply cannot put into words the level of contempt I have for that organization. If the entirety of it evaporated tomorrow, I'd likely weep tears of joy.

Hmmm... Not yet. Not appreciably, anyway. I would say more "Do I really need/want this right now?" more than anything else.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
My goodness, no kidding. There is no other company on the planet who I despise more than Comcast. I simply cannot put into words the level of contempt I have for that organization. If the entirety of it evaporated tomorrow, I'd likely weep tears of joy.

Yeah, my next door neighbor to one side is not fond of Comcast for the same reasons PASig noted. But, as I told him when he moved in: There are currently no other choices in our neighborhood, so he grins and bears it.

We've been with Comcast Business for 12-1/2 years. Through negotiation I've kept our bill down to only a $10/mo. increase over that time. Service has been reliable. Tech support has been excellent. So we're happy with them.

We're probably more the exception than the rule. And, again: It's Comcast Business, which is an entirely different animal from residential service.

Yes and no. Trips are combined, trying not to waste food, delaying large purchases, and defining things needed versus wanted. We’re fortunate that our ability to absorb higher costs was available in our budget. That said, we are feeling the pressure or “underemployment” and inflation in our household. It makes me angry because all of these things were purposefully done in the name of the green environmental religious zealots. They’re either incredibly stupid or evil and maybe both. They can’t connect the dots of cause and effect because their religious climate dogma is infallible in their mind. I truly believe a reckoning is coming and everything will go one way or the other.

I’m still shooting and training a bunch, and have another load of ammo arriving today.

Yes and no here, too. I've been tightening the belt in terms of discretionary and recreational spending, and at the same time increasing spending on more essential things. This is mainly in preparation for retiring sometime in the next few months and moving to a considerably lower income level (and to a different home in a much redder state).

We aren’t doing many things different but then again, we never lived it up much. We stay debt free, we take care of our stuff, use phones, cars, etc until they’ve run their useful course, etc. Do I know people that are cutting back? Yes, quite a few.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Leemur,

Yes, we are being more careful with money. We retired at the end of last year when the stock market was at a high, so our nest egg has shrunk just when we left the workforce.

We are selling one of the cars. We don't drive much, and certainly don't need 2 cars, but the cost of keeping a second car is an unnecessary expense.

We're looking at a lot of ways to reduce expenses, like cell phone plans, cable tv (probably going to drop it entirely), and groceries. We definitely do not eat as luxuriously as we did a year ago to include hardly ever eating at restaurants.

We are pretty much living our life, except things that heretofore would have been spent with little question are on the back burner for awhile. We are not on our last dime, but being on a fixed income, inflation has a devastating affect, and since we really don't have a means to generate more income (I'm not going to stand at the entrance of Walmart.) it's an aggressive tax on us no matter what sleepy Joe says.

yes, definitely. We had three home improvement projects on tap for the year. One was scheduled to start early in the year and we proceeded, the other two were postponed by the contractors, one for at least four months for available material, and the other guy needed to revise his estimate due to prices. The first one we finished. the other two we cancelled.

Neither were life changing just life enhancing and we'll see what happens. Honestly, the decking postpone stayed affordable but nt knowing when or if was more grief than I wanted to wander around swearing about.

Don’t get me started.

Prices went up 50% in less than a month. Not stopping there.

0-0

quote:

Originally posted by NavyGuy:
(I'm not going to stand at the entrance of Walmart.)

"Welcome to WalMart. Get your shit and get the fuck out!"

Working more spending less. Doing a better job with my Receivables.

I've also been wondering how far, and for how long, it will get worse "before it get's better". If you watch some people on the internet who (may or may not) know what they are talking about, there may be some financial structural movements and stupid changes that could take a longer than normal time to grow out of, assuming or course more adults will get eventually get to capital hill. In other words, how possible could it be that things get twice, thrice, or four time worse than is is now, that sort of thing. I've never been good with predicting the economy since I don't have the mental horsepower to understand it as it affects my wallet. Hearing things like the money supply growing faster than production, causing improper inflation, though its understandable, it's hard to put it into context with all the other factors that affect day to day living, not to mention geo-political-economic trends.

Eating out for lunch has gotten nuts around here. Simple lunches that used to be less than $10 are now $16 to $20 - Salad and a tea, sandwich and a tea, tacos and tea, etc. Therefore, I've been eating lunch more and more at salad bar at cafeteria at work. Good quality and a pile of food for $10 including a tea.

I don't typically eat out for dinner very often this time of year as the garden is in full swing. Okra is a new to me crop, and I've been enjoying it oven roasted or made into chicken & sausage gumbo. A couple dinners a week is marinara from garden tomatoes and some 85% lean ground chuck with healthier pasta (e.g. red lentil).

I don't have kids so I rarely travel anywhere Memorial Day to Labor Day as it's stupid crowded, prices are high, and too damn hot in Texas. My travel will kick-up when it cools off. I've been sitting on a mountain of frequent flyer miles for years, and airline tickets are so high that I'm finally using the ff miles.

We rarely eat out anymore. Drive much less. I quit looking for a new pickup ...I'll just keep driving this one. We are much more careful about buying any large ticket items.
Has the economy affected us? Yes, and we have affected the economy.
This is not good all the way around ....

We have changed our shopping pattern. We used to make one monthly trip to Costco for the major grocery shopping. Then, take care of the more specific shopping needs in the same town where Costco is located. This we no longer do as our truck gets about 18 mpg and the round trip is a bit over 180 miles. So, we shop local. The total cost is probably close to about the same but we save time and it keeps money local.

The cost to heat our home this coming winter is a concern. We are in the midst of cutting more firewood then what we would have done if Trump was the president. We are fortunate in that the wood comes from our property.

I really am concerned about the young families and those living month to month in our area. Farming and logging are the big employers round here. Folks who work in the small cities near us are looking at daily round trip drives of from 50 to 100 miles.

We are by no means wealthy but we feel very blessed. It’s those folks who’ve tightened their belt to the last notch that worry us.

Silent