We periodically discuss this, but it's been a couple of months and I was wondering if things were getting better? worse? staying the same? for people here on the boards. I'm just curious? We are doing the same, both of us still have our jobs (DH full time, me part time), the unemployment rate here in Oklahoma is one of the lowest in the country. Houses are still being built, bought and sold. I don't know anyone personally that has been laid off from a job. Economically our state is making some cutbacks, like my DH and his agency have to go to a training over an hour away for 3 days next month, normally they stay in hotels, but this year the state agency they work for is saying they have to drive back and forth everyday in vans, instead of staying in the hotels, which would also save them the per diem on food. So the state agencies are starting to make some cutbacks, but no mention of job freezes or layoffs. Personally things have gotten a little easier since gas prices have dropped. The state let people go to 4 day, 10 hour days when the gas went so high, but now that is is under $2 again they are back to the regul 5 day work week. Food prices have not dropped, but at least the gas prices have, so that has helped. What about anyone else?

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visit my homepage http://penny.mycoupons.com/

We haven't really been affected *yet*. Big change is that DH feels like he has to put in overtime and extras just to keep his job in case of more layoffs. They talk about "work life balance" but when it comes down to it, they want you to work all the time. He's salary so it doesn't mean extra $$$ for us. So, instead of 40 hours he used to work, it's now like 45-50 and those extra hours are at home a lot. Last week was 60+. In my business, I've actually seen growth. I think more people are making their coffee drinks and smoothies at home instead of Starbucking it. So, that's good for me. My sales are up 20% from the same time last year although my holiday season was disappointing compared to the last years.

We have cut back on some things like eating out and buying things like clothes unless it's really needed. We are working on getting our "emergency account" set up so if DH gets laid off, we'll be okay for at least 6 months. Previously, we thought we would just sell our stock but since stock prices are in the crapper, we want the cash on hand. So far we have about 5 months and hope to have the 6 months in the next few months.

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

Things are going okay for us. The fact that gas prices have gone down is helping some, and heating oil prices are also down a little. We heat mostly with a pellet stove and the price of pellets is still high. Winter is always a rough time for people in my area. Just trying to keep your house heated is very difficult for many.
Grocery prices are still high. I am spending at least $25 more a week than last year at this time. I am still working part time at a local school. DH is still working his usual 45-50 hours a week. I am more worried than I was a few months ago. My dh has been employeed with his company for 22 years and they found out last week that they lost two of their major jobs slated to start next year. They were also told to expect layoffs by the end of this year. This company is the largest employeer in our area (almost 500 people). He has been worried for a while, but most of the other employees thought he was nuts, they are sure the plant will be there forever. He has his doubts. I cannot imagine what would happen in our area if the worse case scenerio happens..
So, although we are doing okay, keeping the bills paid and our kids fed, I would have to say we are feeling the effects of the recession.

I'm afraid to answer this question for fear of being jinxed. Definitely feeling the pinch in the workplace though with many, many reductions and controls on discretionary spending and no annual salary increases this year.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

Other than my husband's factory closing and a general sense of uneasiness we are okay. We did not have stocks or retirement accounts and we don't use credit. We had no problem refinancing to a lower rate and we have plenty of food and stuff. Christmas was all cash so no bills.
We are fine. My big problem is not saying so in front of people who are having a hard time.
If gas goes up again that will be a problem. To be honest we were having a hard time then. All our food and "stuff" money went to gas.

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

We both still have our jobs, and I am back to work now (with a cast on, but I am doing it..just slowly!), but we are starting to feel pinched (probably just from careless spending, though). .

Dh work had a meeting and they are on a wage freeze with no new hires. They only made 4 Bil this year (yes, they only MADE 4 Bil..). No loses, but they are still going to tie in the reins on spending. I guess that is good, hopefully no lay offs in store.. I mean, if they break even I would hate to see how they react!

We've lost more on our stocks than we did before..and it is going down faster than I expected. But we are just holding onto what we have, no trading..and will wait until they hopefully regain in the next few years.

I am going to stay optimistic, but will have a very guarded optimism.

We are still making it, but certainly don't have the disposable income that we used to have. DH had been at his job at American Eagle for 14 years and was told that layoffs were coming and was told to expect his area to be hit hard in the next 6-12 months. So, his old boss called around the same time and told him they would love to hire him at Pinnacle Airlines. Great, right? The only problem is that the job he took is in Memphis and we live in Fort Worth. I can't move because of my son, whose dad lives here. My court papers say that I can't move and son's dad makes LOTS of money so he could easily keep us tied up in court for years and definitely outspend us.

Anyway, DH took a small paycut for the new job, but also has additional living expenses. He's staying with a guy he knows in Memphis, but we figure it costs about $800.00 for him to be there each month.

We're not sinking, but we're not really swimming - maybe just floating...

We've made a lot of changes, though. We are rarely eating out (compared to 4 dinners and 5 lunches out every week about 1 1/2 years ago) and definitely aren't buying the clothes we used to buy. We are taking vacations still, but just a little smaller. We used to go to 5 star resorts in Mexico and the Smoky Mountains each year. This year, we are just going to the Smoky Mountains and will definitely be cooking meals in our cabin - rather than eating out every meal there. We'll also be hiking in the park for a day and spending another day just playing video games, pool, air hockey, etc. at our cabin. We'll only have 3 days of spending money at attractions. Who knows, we might spend a day fishing, too, instead of going to the shows and stuff.

Anyway, we feel it, but certainly not nearly as bad as many.

Oh, we also put our house up for sale and, if it ever sells, will be buying something cheaper. We want to use the equity that we have in this house to pay off credit cards, our boat, and 4-wheelers. Then, after a few years in the cheaper house, we can move into something a little bigger again and turn that into a rental. We already have another rental property and think of it as a great investment.

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Kim

Up until this month, I would have said that the economy was not affecting us at all. Unfortunately, just this week I have heard that my sister and friend are getting laid off from jobs they have had for almost 10 years. What's worse, my neighbor is getting laid off next month and her husband has been out of work since Sept. I don't know what they will do. My DH's company is laying off and mine is not filling any new positions and we can no longer travel out of state. I am worried about our college savings (529) and our 401K accounts continuing their downward spiral and for that reason, we are trying very hard to cut back, but we don't have alot of discretionary spending anyhow. My heart goes out to those who are really struggling.

I have been laid off since Nov. I had a good severance package, so we are ok financially and I think I will get unemployment. BF's job has been slow....he is in construction so they are hard hit all over. We are cutting back on entertainment, household expenses, clothing, just about anything we can. Luckily, I have always been frugal, this is just additional tightening.

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"It's not about how much baggage you have, it's about whether or not you can carry your own baggage with grace and dignity."

For those of you who have gotten laid off please contact the State Employment Office ASAP!!! There are special programs available right now for training and help finding jobs. And for some of the companies that have completely closed down there are Federal Trade Act packages available.

And even if you think you don't qualify contact the Unemployment Insurance People. If your hours have been cut you may qualify for a weekly stipend as an underemployed person.

And check your county and state public works and highway departments as there are special federal and state funds to create jobs to fix and add to the infrastructure. And believe me if the other states are like Oregon they need it! It seems to me like the things built in the late 60s throughout the 70s were not built to last!

Anyway check with your Employment Office, Unemployment Insurance (and State Vocational Rehabilitation if you are no longer able to do your former type of work due to illness, injury, or the such).

And look for job training programs they are popping up everywhere!

Good luck--keep a positive attitude and it will work out fine!

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

My sweetie was laid off the first of Oct and finding work in our area is really difficult right now. A small plant is opening and had 80 employment opportunities, they had 3000+ applications. So he has started doing some selling on eBay and at the local swapmeet. Also taking care of the honeydo list. He is getting quite good at bartering skills for skills. There was some guy up on our garage roof the other day replacing the turbine and I asked what it was costing and SO said a portrait session. Good deal if you ask me.
As far as how it's affecting us, I may be way off base here but I think this is a wakeup call that we kind of needed. We are going back to our "old school" ways to save money and still have fun. We are really thinking through any purchases and recycling things for new purposes.
We took a road trip the other day for a mini vacation. We were able to get an inexpensive lakeside motel that takes pets and we packed the cooler and picnic basket and had a blast.
I'm am starting to like "simpler" things.

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

We are doing OK, hubby works for one of he Big 3 car companies. He just went back to work after the holiday layoff, so right now money is tight because unemployment is very slow too pay. We have enough to pay the bills, we just don't have a lot of disposable income anymore.

Renee

This is the first year DH has been laid off, even though it's always a possibility every winter. We always plan for it, but this year it actually happened.

We can get by with unemployment, so it's ok, but we aren't raking in the bucks we are used to.

We want desperatly to go on vacation this year, but don't know if we can afford it, so that might be something that takes a back seat. We did manage to pay off a TON of stuff before the lay off so we are actually doing fine without car payments, and credit cards.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

I totally agree with you that this is a wake up call for everyone. I think it is time to go back to the old school ways and cut back. I think this is bringing people closer

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When you don`t know what to do-Walk fast and look worried.

Postmaster General wants to cut back delivery to 5 days per week. This will result in the first layoffs ever in the history of the Post Office. This idea has been kicked around for a long time.
I will keep my job as I have 21 years in. I may lose my route in a re-bid if that happens ( No biggy- my route is just about the biggest in the office) I will have a fixed day off rather than a rotating day off. I do not work overtime on my day off, but many in the PO rely on that overtime money. I do work daily overtime and I don't really see that changing as we will be fitting the same volume into 5 days of delivery instead of 6. I think that to have the day off be Tuesday rather than Saturday is not a good idea for businesses. The PO just has to figure out how to spread our volume of delivery out better to maximize profitability. For example, some days we have 3 x our normal volume which results in huge overtime expenses. Then two days that same week, we may have 2/3 of our normal volume. DH is a lieutenant for a local fire dept. They already operate on a very minimal staffing level. There are big cuts coming to that city. DH has enough seniority to keep his position, but I worry so much about safety.

I read in our newspaper about cutting mail delivery days. They mentioned "Tuesday" since it's a slow delivery day. I don't know if that's what is being talked about or if that is what our local PO's would prefer.

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

401K has tanked.

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If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it.

- Stephen Colbert.

This week Hubby was told no raises, No bonuses. No Overtime for the entire year. It is going to be tight! The worst part for me is No vacation for us this year.

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Mary

We will probably just do mainly camping vacations. Getting a site is pretty cheap and we already have a pop up camper and all the camping acc.
They have had lay offs at DH's job, but knock on wood, we missed them sofar.
Hopefully that doesnt change!

I'm doing OK right now. I work on the team that's responsible for taking down/setting up new displays in the store so this is a very busy time for us. I probably won't feel a pinch until after Easter but I'm prepared just in case.

I've always kept a "Take this job and shove it" fund just in case I decided I couldn't take my job anymore. It was always 3 months bill money but I've moved it up to 6 months worth. Now that I have that I'm concentrating on paying down the bit of debt I do have and haven't been spending near as much on non-necessities.

I'm just glad I've never had a lavish lifestyle. I've been poor before so I know I can get by on just about nothing.

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Jesus SAVES by shopping smartly and using double coupons!

Nice job on upping the emergency fund, targetgirl!

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

Thanks CJ for the encouragement.

I admit I've been tempted by the shiny, new lcd tvs we got in at work at really great prices but I have to keep reminding myself that no matter how I look at it it is NOT an emergency that I do not have one. My old tube tv works just fine and I got one of those converter boxes for $5 after the $40 coupon so I'm good.

Sending good vibes to everyone who has been really hard hit in all this mess.

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Jesus SAVES by shopping smartly and using double coupons!

Thank God we are not suffering (The recession in the early 90s kicked our butt!), DH's job is pretty safe, we have more SPED kids in school than ever. My second job is going not so great; I am a massage therapist at a chiropractor's office and I have lost all but one privat patient. All the others are insurance patients from accidents and it takes forever to get paid. But - like I said, nothing to complain about.

Getting tighter by the day here.I no longer work(due to health )Hubby;s job has already had a lot of lay offs and more in the future.(Not sure how long he'll get to stay.His 401k really lost a lot this past year.We will owe taxes for the first time in 32 years(because I got my federal disability) and I then got a letter from federal disabililty (OPM) saying I had been overpaid!!!!!!!
My electric bill is thru the roof and yep I'm depressed.LOL

I will be getting a 1.5 raise instead of a step ( I am a teacher). The teachers without a license will not get raises. My dh is on disability for TBI.

DH's job is secure. He works at a community college and says that enrollment is up. A lot of people have gone back to school and it is affordable. I'm a substitute teacher and I am not lacking for work. Our investments have tanked for the most part but maybe they will be up to what we originally put into them by the time that we retire in 20 years!

I also work for a nonprofit and even though we won a huge grant, it barely scrapes the surface of what we need in order to buy a new place after our old place sold to developers and their scheme tanked. What a mess there. That has been very depressing and stressful for me but I'm trying to let it go...

I see a lot of people in trouble around us... several friends' homes have foreclosed or been bank sold. It really makes me sad; especially when it hits retired folks.

My brother and BIL have both lost their jobs.
Dh's job is up in the air. He has worked at Wachovia for 12 years. His bonus was cut $11,000 this year which is a large % of his yearly salary. Fortunately, we did not do any major improvements this year so we have nothing to pay off with the bonus he did receive. We are eating out less and building our savings account in case DH is laid off.

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Shelley
blue5203@aol.com

~Mom to Andy-11/3/05 and Ryan-7/31/08~

According to our W-2's, our personal income went up enough to place us in to the next category of income status in the US (6 figs) which isn't much to really screech about anymore, quite honestly.
We didn't attain that income level last year (almost did), but our income did go up last year, even with job cut backs.

The only difference now is, that we are spending more on gas/electricity, food, etc.

So that income that looks bigger is actually still the same or less now.

So, my guess is that we will be taxed next year like crazy, AND still have to be paying more for these day to day items as we have been. Which means we are not getting ahead.

I hope Obama can turn it around.. but I hope our income continues to go up like it did when Reagan and Clinton (the beginning of his admin) were in office. Towards the end of Clinton's last term (or beginning of second) was when we started losing a LOT of income from employers. That was when private companies started going to the wayside and were being bought out by big corps or mergers. That is how income and benefits become less, and that is what happened to us.

I am realistic though. I live in Illinois. I am positive my taxes will go up on all accounts.