daily life? What measures are you taking to avoid or manage the financial constraint ?
e.g spending more time at work in order to draw more money etc etc.



Good Morning.

Have a winning day

It has made getting to work easier, by carpooling I get to nap on my off drive days. Traffic is also greatly reduced and with more police writing up tickets to creat revenue for struggling townships people are driving slower and safer. All this makes for a relaxing commute.
By making attempts to be moneywise and more frugal, the recession has only made more opportunities to get bargains and purchases that before were only dreams and whims.

Work has actually increased in the last year by 20%, and prospects for this year is another 15-20%. Therefore, my hours have increased as well..

My commute is only 3 minutes long, so...lol

i cant work i messed up my wrists so, they might cut my medical cauze the doctors can "guess" whats wrong with me but iam still getting worse. so normal for me. i pay what i have to and make sure the lights and heat is on for my kids.

Michigan has one of the highest unemployment rates of 10.2% (could be higher by now). I am thankful to HAVE a job! I try to work as many hours as possible and I don't really get out that much any more

I have worked two jobs for the past 2 years. I don't put in anymore hours and I haven't really cut back on my spending. I did however pay off all of my credit cards and am paying more on my car payment to get it paid of sooner. That way all I have are utilities and rent and insurance.

I consider myself very lucky in that I am retired with a good pension and insurance (thanks to my late husband). I do try to help my friends that have lost their jobs, etc. I do travel but have lots of family and friends everywhere so it usually only cost me airfare or gas, always have a place to stay. I do volunteer work several places too that help the needy and at the VA.. I have also paid off 3 credit cards (2 of which were my husbands) and recently bought an 05 Honda( my other car was 10 yrs old)CRV with only 38,000 miles. It gets better gas milage and will be lasting me a long time.

Wisconsin isn't a whole lot better -- 8.8% (up from 5.1% from a year ago at this same time), and it's only getting worse. Companies are laying off and closing their doors left and right around here. Gotta make a dollar stretch as far as you can. Whatever job you can get ahold of, take it. I don't care if it's shoveling sh!t, do it! Even if only pays you $5, it's still $5 more than you had when you started.

Thanks all for sharing.

Do you think twice before buying anything? is it that bad ? or cutting your grocerry items ?

Agreed. It's only getting worse here too.

I haven't bought anything other than groceries in awhile..and even then, I'm finding ways to make that stretch (meals).

considering the responses..don't you think this is an malapropos question?

Well it's affected me big time! I was living in Chicago, had an awesome job that I LOVED, everything was great! Now...I've lost it all because of the economy. The company I was working for cut back hours for everyone big time, fired/laid off thousands of employees. Now I'm back at home in Central IL making not even a third of what I was making, but it's more money than nothing at all.

I probably should be watching it more but as of yet I haven't cut back on anything. I do make my car trips with a route in mind to get it done without backtracking or missing someplace that I have to get out of the house and go back to.

It's had a good affect for me seems people go out and drink more in the ecomonic times

no. Not at all. There are many members who may wish to share lot of things. Who knows they may get an idea to generate more income to fight economic setback.

So far it hasn't affected me. I am retired and live on a pension with medical coverage.. So I guess I can count my blessings.. I haven't really cut back yet.

Thats great.

I tend not to go shopping a lot anyway, so I always think twice before buying something I might not need.

lol i buy groceries for a 6 month old, a 7 year old and myself on $250 a month. His formula is 7$ a bottle and he drinks 30 to 42 oz a day thats about one Bottle of formula a day and yes hes eatting regular food too