Things are really tough; I need to tighten my belt again

March 29th, 2011

I have to cut the household budget yet again
Since the first days of the recession I have been trimming the family budget. I stopped going to the gym, then I stopped my wife as well. I cancelled my membership at the art group and I didn’t renew our subscription to the philharmonic orchestra. The when the price of gas went up I traded in my wife’s SUV for a compact, but I’m losing on this deal. I can’t keep pace with the rise in gas prices. It’s time for another major budget ‘trim’ or perhaps ‘slash’ is more accurate. These are the things I’m thinking about and hesitating to do. They will mean changing our lifestyle.

Credit Cards
Theses are really convenient and helpful on a daily basis, but I’m trying to control spending. I’m going to switch to a debit card. That way, if we don’t have money to spend, we won’t spend it. The credit cards will be locked in the safe at home and we will use them only when there is a true emergency.

The telephone
This one is actually painless. I’m going to give up the landline, an easy way to cut spending. Everyone in the family will be told not to spend too much time talking on the phone and racking up big cellular bills. I’m going to get a Skype Out account and for $30 for the year, we can talk to anyone in the US for free for as long as we like. Adding another $30 and we’ll get an incoming phone number as well.

We pay essentials first
When we have tough months and are trying to control spending, we will decide which bills get paid first and which ones don’t. Food bills, the heating bill and the electric bill come first. Then comes the rent and only after that come the credit card bills. Non essential utilities such as the cable bill and other things like local newspaper delivery have to come last. We’re fighting to stay in the game and we have to get our priorities right.

The bill collectors
When bill collectors inevitably call, we will be polite but firm and explain our situation. We have to remain strong when the inevitable phone calls come from creditors. If we can only afford to pay to keep the lights on this month, then we need to be firm when the credit card company calls and tell them we are in dire straits and we’ll pay them when we can. No more paying off the creditor that shouts the loudest!

Last resort
If things get to ‘critical’, we will need to control spending and preserve as much cash as possible. I will even consider declaring bankruptcy if our debts are large and we don’t have enough for our creditors to take from us. And even though it’s hard, we will keep our spirits up. We know from experience that things turn around, even when it seems like the situation is really bad.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 at 3:13 am and is filed under Credit Cards, Economy, Employment, Finance, Money, Personal / Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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