Posted on 11/15/2008 9:26:50 AM PST by RKBA Democrat
Most of this is common sense. The ones I don’t do are mostly those that aren’t applicable or can’t be done when you live in a townhome or condo.
Carpooling doesn’t work for us - my wife and I work opposite directions, at different times, and none of our neighbors work where we do!
I guess all of these make sense if you live in a big city or in the ‘burbs.
If you already live a simple life, most of these make no sense because you don’t do any of it in the first place, or have been doing the alternate - like a big garden for your own good food, for years.
The thrift shop point is a good one, esp if you have children. Store brand vs brand name will save a few pennies as well.
I agree with the earlier poster - if you are unemployed, have massive credit card debt & a large morgugage - your’re pretty much screwed anyway. Get ready to enjoy life in the welfare lane....
Regarding credit cards, it’s a personal choice. If you can be responsible with them, go for the rewards. If you know you will overspend, cut them up.
Most people know the truth about this issue about themselves!
Like it or not, consumerism floated everyone's boat. The $4 latte not only kept Starbucks employees going, but also those of cup manufacturers, coffee distributors, flavor and additive manufacturers, advertising companies-you get the picture.
Every Oct. 1 my in-laws dutifully don their long johns for the next 6 months and shiver in the cold as they turn their thermostats down to uncomfortably cold levels.
These are people who have never had a house payment (they inherited a home) and could afford to turn up the thermostat. That is their choice. We, on the other hand are admittedly over-extended, but manage to pay our bills nonetheless. Our thermostat is kept at a moderate temperature so that our family is comfortable and I prefer to have the choice to keep it that way. That is what freedom and capitalism should provide--the desire for comfort and convenience creates jobs.
Flame away-maybe it will generate some heat so I can turn mine off.
We do have a fireplace. For the phone thing, I did reduce my cell minutes when I discovered I wasn’t using them all.
We have a landline phone w/unlimited long distance bundled w/our TV and Internet, and it’s cheaper to keep all three than two of three, so we leave it alone.
Right now we aren’t looking at that, but if budget requires it, we do get about 8 or 9 high-def local channels w/rabbit ears.
There's a lot of us Americans who already live like this.
Hanging clothes to dry? I put, maybe, two loads out of ten in the dryer. We have clotheslines strung in the basement and hang wet clothes on plastic hangers at 3" intervals and so long as the furnace or AC is running, the clothes dry pretty quickly.
Opening the oven once the baking is finished - been doing this for years.
In an effort to lose weight, I ditched the junk food and went to natural and potatoes and apples in the bags and it makes a difference all the way around.
Don't belong to a gym, but walk an hour a day and do a non-zen pilates class and spend $60/mo rather than $1,000/year.
It's all doable, you just have to be willing.
“How about voting in fiscal consvatives that will reduce taxes so you have more money to spend?”
Good idea. Unfortunately, it looks like we’re pretty much stuck with what was elected for the next couple of years.
My in-laws keep their house so damn cold you could hang meat in their living room.
Do you really want that for our country? The American ideal is to bring modernization to the third world, not the other way around.
Don't have a library in my little town and the nearby city that has one charges an exhorbitant fee for out of towners. When I checked about 5 years ago it was $150 per person per year.
I buy books and I always have the internet.
By the way, my town has voted two different times on whether to join that library system and each time it was soundly defeated, it seems that people didn't want their property taxes raised an average of $25 per year.
And when I was a teen, it was $0.17 a gallon in the Los Angeles area. It's low compared to a month or so ago, but still high.
Works as a facial too....just don’t stand to close!!
Will take under advisement. Thanks.
I burn junk mail in my fireplace. I use talcum powder instead of tinted cosmetic on my face, and dollar store lotions. Do my own nails, cut my own hair. I don't use air conditioner, or the heat unless I'm truly desperate (of course, L.A. weather is pretty mild.) I have no TV or landline, just a cell... I use candles a lot... shop at thrift stores, dollar stores, yard sales... this isn't even in response to the recession; I've always been like this. Eating out is my only vice.
This is one of those situations where you must be reasonable.
If you can afford to live a certain way, fine, do so, but be smart about it and know that if you do have to cut corners, here’s how to do it.
“I want to live like an American.”
You might want to define that. I live frugally. Not because I particularly need to, but because it’s a rewarding lifestyle. I don’t like to waste things.
Conserving is part of being a conservative.
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