Welcome to life in the Second Republican Depression.
I work as a self-employed consultant in the boating industry; Mrs.labradog is in health care (not the highly paid part of health care).
Mrs. labradog is doing OK, but my business was flat last year, and is markedly down this year - by 30-50%. Mrs.labradog has a modest 401k; my retirement plan is to work until I drop dead.
In the last few years, we've seen gas prices double, and our groceries have gone up by 30%. We've gotten by pretty well on ingenuity and a good attitude (usually), but now analysts are looking at food prices rising by 50% or more, and gas at $9-10 a gallon. What can we do adjust to life in the Second Republican Depression?
We are now at the point where we are making some major fiscal changes. My point is not to garner anyone's pity, but to open a discussion on how we are all each dealing.
Transportation
Mrs. labradog continues to drive the 21 year old Corolla that we bought from Mom labradog when we got her to quit driving. It's not as bad as it could be, as that little 'Yota ratbox gets 32 mpg! But I have stopped asking Mrs.l if she'd like to consider a newer car for herself.
I gave up our '89 Toyota Supra sport coupe, and my '88 Toyota 4WD truck. We didn't need the extra vehicle, and we don't need the hauling capacity, as we've finished most of the renovation of our 100 year old farmhouse. I bought a '99 Outback, and then got a small trailer at a local auction and rebuilt it. While the Outback gets 25mpg, I realize that that will not be enough as fuel costs rise. I hope we can replace it in 5-6 years with something getting 35+ mpg.
Now I only go to town one time, or less, per day, and we are very much more aware of combining trips. When I go to the lumberyard or Home Depot, I always check to see if a friend needs to go, too. And when I'm driving, it's always with the cruise control on.
Home
I've done nearly all of our house renovations myself, while being self-employed. When slow times come, I try to spend as much effort on the house as I can. That way, I feel like we are "getting ahead" a bit, even when I don't have as many paying jobs. Still, due to the money crunch, some things, such as trimming the porch, remain undone for now.
I buy used when I can. We have a friend who is a scrapper/junkman, and I buy from him - interior doors, window glass, and this week an old metal overhead lamp, which I painted red, rewired, and will install as our backdoor light.
Utilities
For practical reasons, Mom's part of the house is heated with gas (she's 93, and an invalid); ours is wood heated. We've stopped buying firewood, and now try to cut our own or buy logs to cut and split myself. In winter the stove is cut way down in the daytime, opened a bit for the evening, and cut back at bedtime. In warm weather, we ventilate the utility room to the outdoors; in winter, we let that heat into the rest of the house. THis year, the air conditioning, when needed, will be set at ten degrees below the outside temperature.
Except for a few fixtures that can't accomodate them, I've replaced all of our incandescent lights with compact fluorescents. We have redoubled our efforts to turn off what we are not using.
We use heavy full length curtains to enhance our insulation values.
I'm changing our long distance to a reseller, which will cut those bills by at least a third.
I'm cancelling our Waste Management trash service next month, and getting a county sticker that will let me drop trash at a collection point about four minutes from home.
Clothes
Me: Faded Glory jeans and shirts from Wal-Mart. My only "luxury" is mail ordered shoes, due to my triple-E clodhoppers.
Mrs.labradog: Thrift stores for the khakis and polo shirts she wears to work, leaving only her lab coats to be bought new. Plus, her mom works at a hospital thrift shop, so we can get a heads up on new items.
Food
I have never been a gardener. A garden has gone in this year.
We are omnivores, but I'm now cooking what I call "almost vegetarian" dinners, two or three days a week. For "almost vegetarian", cooking, the meat, if any, is used as a condiment, or in a supporting role. Like the salad we had one day last week - it fed us a big dinner, and the rest I packed for Mrs. labradog's lunch. The whole thing had about three ounces of cheeses, and two ounces of meat (consisting of razor thin slices of prosciutto and soprassetta - you can literally read through them, they were sliced so thin!) That, plus sweet cherry peppers, anchovies, locatelli, 'shrooms, spinach, lettuce, and onions, a few green grapes, some calmata olives. Yeah, buddy!
Otherwise, I'm reducing meat portions, to about 4-5 ounces, and heavying up on the veggies. When I go grocery shopping, I buy one vegetable that I've never cooked before. Last week it was mustard greens (braised in bacon fat, vinegar, and bit of sugar - good!); this week it's collards. I do not buy meat unless it is on sale. For non-meat items, I buy on sale unless it's staple and we are dead out of it. I buy local seafood at the dock, from watermen, when I can. I meditate over the unit price labels like a Rabbi with the Torah, so we usually get store brand unless something else is on a better sale.
I almost never make dessert except as an occasional treat. Mrs.labradog bakes cookies when we have them (oatmeal-ginger-raisin!). If the AM coffee doesn't get finished, it goes into an iced coffee pitcher. Most sauces, I make rather than buy - teriyaki, BBQ, and with the advent of our garden, tomato sauce. I do a lot of stir frying - less energy usage.
Mrs. labradog has researched, and found some nice, inexpensive wine that she enjoys (Delicato cab and shiraz),and we forego wines north of $15 a bottle except for special meals.
Miscellaneous
I cut the local rag from our daily newspaper purchases, now we are down to just the WaPo. Sundays, we dropped the local, and cut back to the Sunday NYT and one metro paper, alternating between the WaPo and the Baltimore Sun. Going from 12 papers during the week and four on Sundays, to one and two, respectively, saves almost $30 a month (that'll pay for turning on the air conditiner for a month!). The other 90% of my reading is online; Mrs.labradog just can't get into online reading, charming little antiquarian beatnik that she is.
I've clamped down on cell phone usage - no more idle chatter while driving between cities. I stay in touch by email where possible.
I buy veterinary meds online, now, from a good U.S pet pharmacy.
Dinner out for our anniversary has become a special dinner in. Christmas and birthday shopping is thoughtful, not extravagant. In fact, for my birthday today, she's baking me some of those oatmeal ginger raisin cookies!
Vacations were spent at home this spring, taking local daytrips for kayaking, playing in the kitchen, puttering around the property with our Lab, Maybelline.
Honestly, making these changes hasn't been too unpleasant, and in many cases it will be good for us in non-economic ways, too. It's the little things that can really piss me off.
We live near two of my oldest friends. Well, it used to seem nearby - it's 77 miles, roundtrip, or about $38, of which $10.50 is gas. Some years ago I made coconut shrimp, and the gal in that couple, Allison (Alli's the original hardass with a soft, sweet center!), really liked it. So, every year on her birthday they've come here or we've gone there, and I've made her coconut shrimp. Her hub would make the cake (yes, the men are the cooks in my crowd); we'd hang out and get loaded and have the kind of good time we've had for the (Jesus!) thirty-five years we've been friends. Now, I read the news, trying to deal with life in the Second Republican Depression, trying to make thoughtful adjustments to our lives. And I find myself wondering: Should we do it again this year? It's a lot of money for them and us to spend in times like these (they are in the same industry as I am, and he's been unemployed for six months). Even without the shrimp, she knows I love her (and she'd never admit it!). But goddamnit, Alli's birthday with no shrimp? Just goddamnit.
Like I said at the outset, I'm not trolling for sympathy - least of all because we don't eat shrimp one day; if that's my biggest woe, I need a smack in the head. I know I've slipped into wasteful ways, sometimes. I want to change. But what I'm also feeling is that in America, a lot of our troubles have come from people who do not lead their business and political lives with honor and compassion. Corporations uber alles. I got mine, tough shit for you losers. They've brought us the Second Republican Depression, and now they're fucking with Alli's shrimp.
Even with Bush and Cheney relegated to the dungheap of history, we'll have a lot of adjustments to make. So, fellow Kossacks, have you got some tips? How are you? What changes are you making? We'd love to hear you are doing, how you are dealing with life in Bushville.