Every day when I work out at the gym CNN is on the TVs blaring away with report after report about the dire economic crisis. Last night Obama took to the airwaves to try and reassure Americans. People are being laid off, factories are closing, pension funds are losing money. People are scared. I get that.
One Toronto paper has been running a series on how people survived in the 1930's with firsthand reports from folks who lived in shanties and suffered through the Great Depression. No one has had a second for them in years, but as soon as the economy tanks in a way it hasn't in many of our lives, they get wheeled out of the retirement homes to share their words of wisdom.
Another paper has been running a series about cooking for your family in tough economic times. One of the recipes was 'mock filet mignon'. Dear lord - the inhumanity. The day someone serves me a hunk of meatloaf wrapped in bacon and calls it filet mignon is that day I give up food forever. There isn't a bloody thing wrong with meatloaf but let's call it what it is.
Another American news channel is featuring a reporter who is living a month on a 'food stamp diet'. The end of the month is near and he is discovering what poverty experts have been saying for years - our social network just isn't enough. People are starving (although the folks interviewed all looked as if they were rather well fed, but I shan't comment on that for fear of offending someone. Too late? hmmm) out there. Soon the reporter will be reduced to eating his lawn (no - don't flame me - I am NOT mocking the impoverished at all, rather our feeble attempts to support them).
Dear lord, my head may explode.
In any event, I'm sick of talking about the economy. YES, it SUCKS. I get that. I get it that so many people are feeling the pain. People have become used to a certain lifestyle and they are finally coming to grips with the fact that their lifestyle may have to change - this won't be easy.
The Toronto Star had a great article on the weekend designed to assist folks in making some sort of transition in their lifestyles in order to better cope with the economic meltdown.
25 Ways to Beat the Recession
Brett Popplewell
1. Switch to a credit card with a lower interest rate. There's no sense collecting air miles or other such points if you can't even pay off your monthly bills. Equally, there's not much point in paying 20 per cent interest when you don't have to. You might try shopping around then ask your credit card provider to lower your rate, especially if you've received a better offer from a different provider.
2. Go retro and clip coupons. A 50 per cent coupon for a sandwich at your local McDonald's is the next best thing to a food stamp. (poor example - stay away from McDonald's - it will make you fat!)
3. Be sure to pick up the sales flyer at your local grocer whenever you shop. You never know what savings you might find tucked in the corner of the meats or frozen foods sections. On that note, you might want to reacquaint yourself with the age-old tradition of marinating stewing beef and turning it into filet mignon. A $3 cut of veal shoulder, if marinated for 12 hours can taste hauntingly similar to a $15 sirloin steak but at a fraction the cost.
4. Do your food shopping at discount stores. No Frills and Food Basics might be more crowded and offer less selection than your local Loblaws or Metro and you'll have to pay a quarter for the cart and bag your own groceries, but you'll see a payoff at the cash register. If you're shopping for a larger family try buying in bulk from stores like Costco. (Stay away from Bristol Farms and Trader Joes folks!)
5. Give the office cafeteria a wide berth and get into the habit of packing your own lunch. You'll save money and calories, even if you are just eating peanut butter sandwiches. (What is a cafeteria? For me it will be stay away from restaurants - most of my colleagues head out to a restaurant every day)
6. Throw away your bank card and leave your credit card at home. ATM charges can add up and it's hard to live on a budget if you keep paying for things on credit. Or, try only using your bank card once between pay cheques. That will help you budget your money accordingly.
7. Join your local Freecycle network, where people pass on baby gear, furniture, electronics, clothing and craft supplies, among other stuff, for free.
8. Cancel your gym membership. Go for a walk or run around your neighbourhood instead. If it's muscle you're trying to amass then start doing push ups in your bedroom, invest in a chin-up bar and start walking up and down multiple flights of stairs. You don't need to spend $50-$150 a month to stay active.
9. Having a baby? Ask around for hand-me-downs. Most parents are eager to get rid of the mounds of kids' gear cluttering up their basements.
10. Got kids? Forget shopping at Baby Gap. Buy children's clothes at discount retailers or department stores. Your two-year-old won't know the difference, and if they do they won't remember it for too long anyway as their brains are still evolving. Better yet, phone up everyone you know with young kids, bring them all together and swap anything from shoes to strollers to clothes and toys.
11. Find free or low-cost activities for your kids. Ontario Early Years Centres, school board parenting centres and city recreation programs are good places to start.
12. If you're getting $100 a month from the government for child care, try your best to keep banking it in a high interest savings account for your child's future. Saving can be hard, especially in these times, but a few dollars a month can go a long way over the course of 20 years.
13. Switch to Skype for long-distance calls. After the initial hardware investment, it's free or practically free to call friends around the world.
14. Itemize your monthly expenses and allocate money for each by placing it in marked envelopes. If you only want to spend $50 this month on entertainment, then put $50 in an envelope marked "Entertainment" and use it to entertain yourself. Once the money's spent, that's it. No more fun. It's shrewd and effective.
15. Don't ignore inflation. Many economists predict that, with so much money being pumped into the global financial system in bailouts and stimulus packages, inflation is destined to rise. So make sure the interest on your savings keeps up with the level of inflation from here on in. If, for example, inflation hits 5% and you're still only getting 3% in your savings account you're going to come out the loser.
16. Instead of an expensive vacation to the Bahamas this year, why not try a "staycation" — a trip to the CN tower, the theatre or a local maple sugar bush is infinitely less expensive than a sunburn and you'll be infinitely less depressed when you return to work the next day.
17. Make an appointment with your financial adviser to review your portfolio. It's too late to protect yourself from recent carnage in the markets, but you can at least position yourself for the recovery – if and when it comes.
18. If you and your friends have young kids, consider setting up a babysitting co-operative with another family. You look after their kids for an evening in exchange for a night out at a later date.
19. Bring a coffee maker or kettle to work. With coffee ranging anywhere from $1 to $5 a cup (depending on size of cup, exoticness of brew and franchise from which it is purchased) some people are dropping anywhere from $20 to $200 a month just to stay caffeinated. Don't believe it? Try this: bring your own coffee to work, make it yourself and put the money you would have spent in a jar on your desk. At the end of the month, empty the jar and see how much you saved.
20. Fast food restaurants have long been regarded as recession-proof – the benefactors to the demise of high cost dining in times of economic turmoil. It's one thing to take the family to McDonald's instead of Red Lobster just to save a few pennies, but there are some of us out there who should really cut the fast food bit out altogether. The constant inhalation of cheeseburgers, pizza and Chinese food isn't just ripping through your lower intestine. It's blowing a hole through your wallet as well.
21. Review your monthly plans for phone, wireless, Internet and television services. Often households are paying significant sums for features that aren't even being used. That includes everything from digital TV channel packages to wireless voice and data plans. Paying $30 a month for 6 gigabytes of data for your iPhone might seem like a good deal, but not if you're only using 50 megabytes to check your email and surf the Web occasionally. Also, don't be afraid to ask for a better deal from your current provider if they want to keep you as a customer – particularly if you subscribe to multiple services and have done some comparison shopping. If long distance phone calls are costing you a fortune, you might want to think about signing up for one of those $5 a month zero-cent per minute long distance plans, especially if you're currently paying 25 cents a minute on your cell phone.
22. When purchasing household items that are only used occasionally – gardening equipment, ladders, snowblowers, for example – consider sharing with a neighbour. Store the stuff in a mutually accessible shed or garage, and split the cost.
23. Start an entertainment-sharing club with like-minded friends. Meet monthly to pass around books, magazines, movies and music.
24. Try your best to keep yourself employed. Though it goes without saying, it's the best advice anyone can give you. But with layoffs adding up and unemployment on the rise, there's no way for everyone to come out of this with their careers still intact. Career counsellors advise that the best way to keep from getting a pink slip in times of economic turmoil is to make yourself indispensable at work. Take on extra projects, preferably high-profile ones your boss cares deeply about.
25. The same career counsellors however advise you to keep up your networks, just in case you do join the growing ranks of the unemployed.
There you go - don't you feel happy now?
I need some wine.
Come on Jerry~ I want to hear your top 25 ways to improve this recession.
They will be much better!
Posted by: sandi @ the whistlestop cafe | February 25, 2009 at 08:57 PM
I need some wine too! Same talk here every day, places are either closing or wages/salaries cut. benefits cut, office space cut, cut, cut cut.....hide the damn scissors!
Posted by: Rose | February 25, 2009 at 09:41 PM
Jerry, I'm going to make a post especially for you and Rose tomorrow. It can be number 26 on your list. Your post today had some good ideas for a difficult period.
Posted by: Barb Cabot | February 25, 2009 at 11:37 PM
It is very depressing, all right. It is very scary times, but I believe it will pass, and we will be okay. Some prices will be paid, and it will be hard on many. So for that, I am sad.
Posted by: Candi | February 26, 2009 at 12:19 AM
Econocalypse - I like that!
I have a friend who is 93 years old and he told me that this is nothing compared to the Great Depression. Maybe someone needs to put him on TV.
Thanks for the list. I'm going to print it out.
Posted by: Annie | February 26, 2009 at 10:22 AM
I shall share your list at my training.
Thank God we will never call meatloaf filet mignon!
Posted by: Palma | February 26, 2009 at 12:33 PM
I am finding wine is a very good remedy; teachick and I are meeting this afternoon for a glass of that very stuff. Actually, I am getting even tired of reading about hard times; at the moment we are fine, but I look at my 3 20-something children and wonder how it will turn out for them. More wine is needed.
Posted by: Marcia | February 26, 2009 at 04:34 PM
I am surprised that casinos and playing the lottery weren't suggested! LOL
I think that you're right Marcia - most of us are in places in our lives where we will be fine. It is different for young people just starting out . . . (because I am just so ancient! *smile*)
Posted by: JDeQ | February 26, 2009 at 06:21 PM