Hi ppl,
Through out all this time on which our bingo blog has been live, we have featured posts of all the nice stuff that you send us and info on our site’s competitions and promos. But I think it’s time for us to make a little turn on this and maybe talk about something that is affecting all us… the economic situation.
The truth is, we watch the news on tv, we read the newspapers and some hear it on radio… the companies are cutting up their expenses and for that reason many individuals are losing their jobs. The banks include new restrictions to the requirements to get loans and the prices for most of the products you need for your basic needs are being raised constantly.
Experts recommend you what to do and reporters are always looking for people, out in the streets, to ask them about the issue. But it would be interesting to know what real people are doing towards this situation. It would be nice to know what you guys have done, what you stopped doing because of this and what your plans are for this year that just begun some days ago.
Post a comment here, let’s start a debate around this topic… I will give you my opinion as soon as you guys start sending your comments!
Waiting for your thoughts,
 Esteban
Horaayy..there are 7 comment(s) for me so far ;)
Here is what I have done for years, and being a stay at home mom, this has helped alot! I take all the grocery flyers, scour over them for items I need, write down on a piece of paper: the store name, the item and the price. Then I head off to my Walmart, who honors competitors ads, and price match the items from the other stores. I also clip coupons faithfully! I went grocery shopping today and spent 162.36 and that is for a family of three including our dog and that will last us OVER 2 weeks. Today I saved over 75.00 with the matching ads and coupons. Example: I got a box of Cookie Crisp cereal for 99 cents and Walmarts price was 2.19, with a competitors ad! And then add the 50 cent off coupon and only spent 49 cents!! Not too shabby!!!
Well, for one thing I sure wouldn’t b able 2 continue 2 deposit big here anymore, especially not winning anything, lol. However, I will b cutting back my spending on a lot of things because I know before things get any better, they have got to get worser.
I have already turned radiators down and heat up a hot water bottle for my feet which get really cold when I,m sitting at my computer. Because of the £1 being so low against the $, I will also have to cut back on my spending at BH which I am just gonna hate. When I can,t play, I will remember my warm hearted roomies to keep me going. I have also started making more home made meals and cut back on convenience foods.
We are a somewhat offbeat blended family to begin with, so some of the changes are rather drastic, but with a bit of cooperation and creativity it’s been managable. My husband and I purchased a “retirement home” in another state where real estate is far more reasonable than where we were living. In the meantime, both daughters (in their 40s) live in the home, along with son-in-law, two grandchildren, daughter’s SO. We negtiate chores according to interest/ability. I cook a lot of “scratch” meals, which saves on the grocery money (when I am at the new home), and most other shopping such as clothing, housewares, gifts is done at a thrift store or on Craig’s List. My “retirement fund” from when I was working lost about 1/3 of it’s value, but we’re hoping to not tap into that for a few years down the road. Meanwhile, hubby, who has the most stable (civil service) job in this environment has opted to work past his 70th birthday (next month) while waiting for the economy to turn around so that the kids are making more. It’s an adventure, for sure.
It’s pretty tricky for us this last year. Last year, both my husband and I lost our jobs. I am now working again and hubby is working out of the house trying to put together a business. Our kids go to private school for various reasons and bills went through the roof. We have consolidated by eating at home more and only have the occasional dinner out. We all try to take lunches and have cut way back on just driving. Which we liked to do a lot. We have cut down on the the electric bill but packing everything into the small freezer and turning off out big one. Use our fireplace more to heat our house.
we here a lot about this crisis and it has reached beyond america.we live in australia and lots of peps here are suffering our unemployment rate is at its highest ever companies are shutting their doors on a daily basis.
however being that we were always on the poverty line it hasnt affected us very much at all.
apart from the exchange rate killing the amount of deposits i can now make eg: if i deposit $100 it actually costs me $164 so i just wait for mondays to try and get back some of my losses.
we moved from the city to a small town 4 yrs ago to get off the poverty line we brought a cheap house renovated it then sold it we are now building our a new house doing all the work ourselves to keep costs down which we plan on selling.
it has been a massive lifestyle change being we are city folk but i have no doubt had we stayed in the city we would more then likely be homeless now.
i have no doubt within 5 yrs we will be known as rich people and no longer living at the bottom of the economic status.
we have sacrificed our lifestyle in the hope of giving our kids are more stable and secure future. property has been our way out of our finacial woes.
bingohall has been my way to keep my sanity and realise that although we struggle finacially we have a healthy loving family.i hear the woes of my fellow roomies and think i have no buisness complaining others are doing it so much harder then us.
life only throws at you what you can handle and our bingohall is filled with lots of strong peps some just dont realise how strong and courageous they really are.
no matter how bad things get i think of the kids in africa having to walk all day just to fetch water for their families, kids starving watching their families die before their eyes.thats when it hits home how bad do we really have it here.
i have to say everything is a struggle some how someway for everyone….i feel the government should stop spending the money bailing out the big companys who will continue to make things that we cant afford to buy and focus on providing jobs for everyone and lowering living cost for alot of people so the rich stop getting richer and the poor stop getting poorer. but i dont see that happing anytime soon…so i continue cutting coupons, shopping for what evers cheaper, and just buying what we have to have not what we want to have …. one day we will be out of this rut that everyone is in and be able to breath
as far as my deposits here…just have to make few and make them streach far..continue getting bbs (thank you esteban and everyone that makes that possable) becasue many know tthey get us through the day…
keep your chins up and always look at the glass as half full rather than half empty…as hard as that is at the end of the day u will sleep better…love everyone here
Jenn