So it's been almost 6 months since I posted our
family's recession-weathering strategies. These were
"non-sacrifices" for the most part and we were grateful for the fact that our cuts were mostly painless. We weren't cutting basic necessities, just upper middle class luxuries. Now it's time for a reality check to see how well we've stuck to our proposed cuts and changes:
1)
Cancel the newspaper (San Antonio Express News)Update: We did indeed cancel it but have still received a newspaper every single Friday, Saturday and Sunday since then! We can't stop them from coming! So of course, we sometimes read it. And I still cut out the Michaels coupon when there is one. Amazingly, no one has billed us for the past 6 months. I've supplemented my local paper needs by reading excellent articles in the FREE
San Antonio Current too. So, total savings since October = $78
2)
Do not renew current magazine subscriptions
As I mentioned before, this was a hard one. We still get the following magazines, thanks to lovely friends and relatives who've gifted us with subscription renewals:
Texas Monthly, Consumer Reports, National Geographic Little Kids, Sports Illustrated, Cookie. We also still receive
Time and
Entertainment Weekly because our subscriptions haven't run out yet and
National Geographic Kids because we just mysteriously started receiving it one month! Total savings over 12 months = Approximately $12 per year for each magazine. I broke down and subscribed to one magazine in the last 6 months,
Wondertime, a wonderful magazine for parents. And this was after receiving about a half-year's free subscription from them. Altogether, with all the gifting going on, we've saved at least $50 in magazine subscriptions and only spent $12 on one.
3)
Cancel our Blockbuster Video Total Access PlanWe did it and really don't miss it at all! Not like there isn't anything showing on the gazillion cable channels we currently have. Total savings over 16 months = $78
4)
Give up haircuts & hair color
This applied only to Thalia, Carys and Melissa. We did fairly well in sticking to the plan, but as is often the case, plans need to be tweaked! Thalia has had 2 haircuts since October (approximately $38 total). Carys has had 1 haircut, and possibly 1 bang trim (approximately $26 total). Their hair did grow fairly long until I just got tired of having to style it (ponytails, etc.) Hopefully we can go another few months without major hair expenditure for them! I have had 1 excellent haircut since our recession plan began ($60). And NO hair color/highlights! *Sigh!* I think I need some color though. The gray and white hairs are significantly more noticeable this year . . . !
By this point, if we hadn't made an effort to reduce "hair spending", we would probably have spent about $188; we actually spent about $124. So total savings so far: $64. Other hair-related potential savings: stop buying Aveda hair products for Dylan and myself. Even if they smell really great!
5)
Cancel XM Satellite RadioDone that, and now I'm lobbying to just get rid of the Sirius Radio subscription as well, which costs approximately $20 per month. Total savings since October: $78.
6)
Give up school cafeteria lunches (beginning in August 2008)This has probably been the most significant change for us, interestingly enough. I now pack 2 lunches every single school day, with an occasional break when Thalia enjoys the occasional treat of a cafeteria lunch once in a while. This has brought about some really thoughtful discussions at our house about "healthy" v. "junk" foods. I think our kids have really benefited from helping pack their own lunchboxes. I think so far, we've paid for about $30 of school lunches/breakfasts, when normally at this point, we've would probably have paid about $160 to the school cafeteria already.
7)
Raise our home temperature by 1 degreeYes, we did this, from 78 degrees to 79 during the "Indian Summer" in Texas that is it's own season. But we don't really know how much we saved by doing that because we haven't compared 2008 bills to 2009 yet. However, we also successfully survived the entire (mild) winter by only turning on the heater once! And we even had some near freezing (below 35 degrees) temperatures! See my
earlier post about how we did this without hardly noticing the cold at all. Again, we don't know how that translated into actual utility savings, but we were rather proud of ourselves! ha!
8)
Cancel Showtime, a "premium" cable channelDid this too and still don't miss
The Tudors. However, HBO is a whole other story and would be greatly missed if we had to go without that channel. Total savings since October: $60.
9)
Do not renew season passes to area amusement parksDo we really miss not going to Sea World on a whim? A little bit. Our passes didn't expire until December 31st, and we were able to use them until the very last day. So we've only been without passes for a few months, and they officially just reopened a few weeks ago. Will we really miss them this summer? Possibly. Total savings over 12 months = $300.
So those were essentially our "non-sacrifices" these past few months, things that had little or no impact on us, with the possible exception of Thalia's school lunches.
But in other everyday areas of our lives, we've made some changes as well:
1) Food at Home: I've probably cooked dinner more times in the past 5 months than I have in the past 5 years! It's too easy to get lazy and rely on eating out in this country. And when you eat out, it's usually not the healthy stuff. I've changed the way I plan meals and shop for them. I've gone back to planning a menu (really hadn't done this since the late 90s), even if it's just in my head. We've always had alot of food in the pantry too, but very often forget it's there. One of my new rules is to use up everything in the fridge and pantry before I stock up again. So we experience the ebb and flow of full/nearly empty fridge. Also, I'm buying as much in bulk as possible, forcing us to eat at home more to make sure we finish it all! Cheap eats are all the rage now it seems. I can't tell you how many articles and blog posts I've read about feeding your family on $10 or less per meal. Some ideas are intriguing, some are just gross and unhealthy to me. So I've gone back to cooking some of the foods I grew up with, Filipino/Asian dishes, that are tasty and inexpensive. Asians always eat like kings, but for very little money! We are also eating more pasta, rice and potatoes. We might also be getting really sick of pasta, rice and potatoes! Interestingly, we spend the most money on fresh fruits, which I pack daily in the girls' lunches.
2) Eating Out: I think we eat out less frequently overall, at least at real restaurants. I have consciously tried to stock the freezer with meals that can be heated up quickly so we aren't tempted to go out for pizza or burgers and fries. When we do go out, we no longer choose restaurants where you have to wait very long for your food or have to tip the waiter. My kids' new favorite places to eat locally are Subway, which I think is basically healthy for fast-food, and Bill Miller BBQ (I love the Chicken De-Lite plate myself which I just discovered last month after 20 years!). Neither place has waiters nor do you have to wait hardly at all for your food.
3) Loving the Library: At any given moment, our family probably has over 20 items checked out from the
San Antonio Public Library! We love the Library! There is a brand new branch 5 minutes from our house, and another one near Carys's school. I adore the place on hold feature, where I can request anything be held for me at any location for pick-up. I can go into a Barnes & Noble and NOT buy anything now, and feel just fine about it, because I can get the same book/CD/DVD at the Library! I grew up going to the Library frequently, and then went through a period of about 10 years when I never went, and now I am a devoted fan all over again. The girls love going there too, they think it's such a treat, because everything is FREE! They still can't believe it sometimes.
4) Vacations: Since I wrote the blog post about beating the recession, we've had 3 major holiday/vacation periods (Thanksgiving, Winter Break and Spring Break). We had originally planned to spend Christmas in NYC, but canceled the plans when the economy started to really tank. That made me really sad. I love to go on trips, and wanted my kids to experience the holidays in a city that loves Christmas like NYC. So Christmas was a "stay-cation" at home. Thus far, our only vacation has been Spring Break in Austin and Dallas, to visit family and good friends. The weather sucked, but we had a great time anyway, and thanks to the generosity of my parents and our friends, we spent very, very little! And it reminded us that the best things in life aren't
things (or even places to visit) anyway, they are our friends and family who we never see enough of.
5) Spending Money in General: I have really tried to curb my shopping habit in the past few months! (Although it may not seem so!) I love to stock up when things I know we'll need or use go on sale, but haven't done as much stocking up as I used to. It's more like a "buy as we go" kind of shopping these days. This has had an interesting effect on our kids. They are very aware that things cost money and are keenly interested in the relative cost of things (is this expensive? is it a good deal/buy?) I like that they know at their young ages that everything cost
something and that we can't afford to have everything, nor would we want to.
6) Driving Down the Debt: We did something that has never been done in the history of the Tarun-Stogsdill family recently--paid off our credit cards! So now the challenge, of course, is to keep them paid of.
There is one thing I think I can and should give up, but haven't gotten around to it: my "fancy" gym club membership. I go rather infrequently to Lifetime Fitness but pay the monthly fee year-round. I will probably cancel pretty soon. At least I think I will, unless I just start loving workouts again!
As I did almost six months ago, I thank God that my family is blessed with fairly good health. And Dylan is blessed with a job he enjoys at a large, stable company, which provides a good income, health insurance and other benefits. And my immediate family are also likewise blessed.
And while we have not had to experience (another) layoff in our family, I can truly see the other side of the coin, because it's all around me. Sadly, I don't have the means to support the entire world. I know for every "luxury" cup of coffee Dylan no longer orders at the Starbucks near his work, down the line there will be someone at a Starbucks who loses his job. And I feel sad when another family I know is really hurting right now.
This is the sad result of an economy where everyone is selling some thing or service to someone else, in which everyone we know participates, myself included. My own business? Who wants a custom cake at times like this? I may likely never grow my business much during this "Great Recession." Are we not all in the same precarious position, only in various stages? But lots more people will be out of jobs, out of their homes, before this thing shakes out, probably 3-4 years from now, from what they're saying. And I also think the world economy will be vastly different after the shake-out and there may not be the same place for everyone in it that there was just last year. Maybe that won't be such a bad thing either.
And when I wrote the earlier post, it was pre-election time and everything was still up in the air. I have new faith in my country's leader and hope that
over time, the economy will turn around. No quick fixes for a problem that grew unchecked over many years. I'm not a naturally patient person, but I really think that patience is key in riding out this storm. We'll just have to see whether or not the storm will continue to be a painless experience or not for our family.
Daddy's Little Girl 
