Fun Monday # 106

Sayre who is our host today wants to know:

What we and our family are doing to deal with the current economic situation on a personal level? Obama's got a plan for the nation, but how do you/will you deal with your own economic stress?

I know that whatever plans Obama has is bound to affect us somehow, but at the moment I'm not impressed with what Gordon Brown is doing for the UK. I happen to think he is digging us into an even bigger hole and that printing more money is not the answer. So while he and the government dither and refuse to acknowledge any responsibility for the plight we are in, I as a pensioner on a fixed income have seen interest on savings plummet and have been trying to make economies. I am luckier than many as my husband who will be 72 later this year is still working full time which actually allows us maintain a reasonable standard of living, but this is coming to an end soon and we will then notice a big difference.

Since I retired we have tried to plan for the future and, although, we don't have a very large garden we have tried to grow a few things in tubs and the planters and this year we plan to expand on this. We're going to try carrots and beans as well as potatoes, salad leaves and tomatoes. The rhubarb is growing well and we have blueberries and loganberries and blackberries. I also grow some herbs and peppers. If we are successful you will certainly be reading about it later in the year

I try to waste as little as possible and make soup from vegetables that once might have been thrown out. My worm works are fed on lots of the other food bits including coffee grounds and this in the long term will provide nutrients for the garden to save us buying.

In recent months I've shopped differently and now buy more of the supermarket *basics* and less of the more expensive organics. I no longer buy the out of season fruit that I love and is so expensive.

I no longer buy things like sandwich bags and Embee uses the bread bags to take his sandwiches to work.

I save and reuse envelopes, rubber bands and packaging, I make notelets and gift tags from old cards.

I use my car as little as possible and I know I should be thinking of getting rid of it, but this will probably not happen until Embee finally retires.

I spend very little on clothes for myself, I did buy a winter coat this year but it was half price in the sale.

I try to reduce the power we use around the house, we use long life lamps and we try to turn lights off. I sometimes manage to turn the heating down but this is difficult as my mother feels the cold. I rarely have heat in the upstairs bedrooms even in the middle of winter (it's like going into a freezer when you walk upstairs).

We have cut out one of our daily newspapers-you can always read the news online or catch it on TV.

I know these are only miniscule savings but the way I look at it every little helps and I'm hoping to pick up some more ideas from your posts.

Archives:
2008: Pu-Moon Bed
2007: Costa-del-sol here I come