Are you unemployed, yet still shopping the malls on the weekend, or clicking away online lured by the hot bargain on O.com? What are you thinking?
If you haven't gone through the five stages of grief after losing your job, it's time to get on the fast track, and go from denial to acceptance. You can't live your old life (when you had a job and a paycheck) anymore. Well, not for awhile at least. It's time to take a good look at the narrowing gap between your savings and your bills and get "frankly frugal."
Being frugal, which means not spending money if it isn't absolutely necessary, is an old habit, made into an art by the depression-ear babies. No, not this one. The BIG one. Around 1920's or so. My parents were children of the depression, and even after they got out of it, they kept their frugal habits, which allowed them to acquire a tidy bit of wealth without masters degrees or corporate jobs. They just didn't spend money if it wasn't necessary. To illustrate, my mother, who never had two nickles to rub together when we were growing up, once gave each of us six grown children $10,000 because "the banks will only insure $100,000."
Now, necessary is the pivotal word here. Today, we've been duped into thinking the latest app, or version of the IPhone (one every three months) or a 62" flat screen TV with DVD and 3D (oops, that was last week's model) is a necessity. Or at least the way to escape embarassment because EVERYBODY has one (it, them.) Really, none of those things are necessities. In order to sustain life...that's more a definition of necessity. Not QUALITY of life. Many of people are going broke and broker trying to gain or sustain a completely unnecessary quality of life, even though they no longer have the income to support it. Really, we need very little to sustain life. Food, shelter, clothing, meaningful activity, love, companionship. You can add your own, but there aren't that many more.
Let's look at what costs so darn much these days, and how you can get frankly frugal. You can go down your monthly bills for great examples. First, the electric bill. I'm sure you don't want to go back to conditions during my childhood when we didn't have air conditioning, but it is true that human beings actually did survive without it. Plus, the electronics we feel we can't live without all need to be plugged in or kept charged in order to provide us with entertainment, connections and other comforts we were able to live without somehow. Unplug. Open a window. Go outside and talk to your neighbors. Take a walk. There are plenty of ways to entertain yourself, or keep cool without making your electric meter spin like Disney's teacup ride on meth.
Next is the phone bill. The constant connection to everything that we can't live without comes with a hefty price. In money, and in concentration, distraction and interruption to the point of rudeness. Not to mention the $200 or so phone bill every month. Frankly frugally speaking, do we need to be constantly reminded of where are friends are eating lunch or how they are feeling every minute of the day?
I have been struck lately, driving through Savannah, that there are very few areas that have clotheslines. While we are all running the dryers all day, other people are getting exercise, and slipping into fresh, air-dried clothes and sheets, free of charge. One of the hottest selling air freshener today is "fresh linen." So, for an extra $4.99, you can pay to have your house smell like mine did growing up. If you have ever hung clothes out on a clothesline, you know you had some great exercise, bending to pick the clothes out of the clothes basket, stretch to hang them on the line above your head while squeezing the clothespins to secure the clothes, and doing it over and over again. That was an easy way to get 45 minutes or so of great exercise, fresh air and save a bundle by not running the dryer and then spending $5 on air freshener (which is really a bunch of chemicals that, we'll probably hear on the morning news, are probably going to make you sick some day.) I have strung a clothesline between the queen palm trees in the back courtyard at home and hung sheets and towels to dry, and what a luxury (and trip down memory lane) to slide inbetween those air-dried sheets at night. Things that take forever in the dryer, like rugs or sweatshirts, when hung on the line are a real money saver. Those little wooden dryer stands are great for sweaters. Soak hand washables in the bathtub with a little woolite, roll them between bath towels to get most of the water out and drape over a wooden dryer stand or lay flat on a bed to dry overnight. Takes a bit of planning, but the savings on electricity, dry cleaning and driving to take and pick them up adds up.
Unemployment, or just trying to save a few bucks to pay the bills, can be an adventure. Unplug something tonight before you go to bed. Just because you unplug your laptop from the charger doens't mean you're saving money. Unplug the charger from the outlet as well.
What is your hot to for becoming "frankly frugal?" Leave them in the comments section. More to come on another post.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
Laborless Day
With unemployment stagnant at 9.1%, I suggest we rename this holiday "Labor-less Day." For many people who have been unemployed for over two years, exhausted their unemployment benefits and are struggling to meet their financial obligations and feed the family, this is no day to celebrate the dignity of work. Hey, they just want a shot at working again.
Contrary to the news, there are lots of jobs out there. But the jobs that were lost--middle management and supervisory jobs, manufacturing and production jobs--are probably not coming back, and not at the same pay rates as before. What has happened in the almost three years since the recession (yes, a rose by any other name...) is that companies have learned to live without the extra staff they used to have. They have replaced or eliminated positions with technology or figured out that the people they have weren't working all that hard after all and could do a lot more with a faster computer or better software. They also found they could do a lot virtually on the Web, or could get hungry freelancers to produce quality work for little money. They are sitting on a lot of cash as an emergency fund, and why not?
Everyone is (or should be) socking a little money away for emergencies these days. There is a delicate balancing act going on in most households. There is just so much money coming in, and if some expense goes up, something else has to go down. We're battling the energy bills during this record-breaking heat wave summer because if it goes up another $50, we'll have to cut out something else, like food or gas.
Back to the jobs. There are jobs, but in some cases, not enough qualified individuals to fill them. Many of the unemployed are overqualified for the lower-level jobs that are still available. If you have been off work for awhile, you may be regarded as an employment risk who has lost the drive and discipline of the regulated work day and accountability necessary to work in a business environment. If you are over 50, you may be regarded as a dinosaur, lost in outdated work habits and less likely to adapt to technology and your relaxed "whatever" generation co-workers, one of whom may be your boss.
With so many entitlement extensions, it is difficult for someone on unemployment to give up the weekly "paycheck," freedom, flexibility and hope of a better paying job, to take a low-paying job outside his industry and below his training, education and experience. There are simply so many jobs that we feel are beneath us that we won't take at all. What happened to the notion that all work has dignity?
Many of the unemployed are waking up to the fact that their old jobs are gone and they need to take some action to reinvent, repurpose and retool themselves to fit into today's changing workplace. They are finding exciting ways to use their talents and discovering opportunities to make a living and a satisfying life. Sometimes letting go is the best way to go forward. There are numerous ways to create business opportunities with the world as your marketplace. Washington, Congress, the President and all the cry babies on the news aren't responsible for employment or lack thereof. We are. Make this a real Labor Day and find what you want to do and, as Nike says, "Just Do It."
Contrary to the news, there are lots of jobs out there. But the jobs that were lost--middle management and supervisory jobs, manufacturing and production jobs--are probably not coming back, and not at the same pay rates as before. What has happened in the almost three years since the recession (yes, a rose by any other name...) is that companies have learned to live without the extra staff they used to have. They have replaced or eliminated positions with technology or figured out that the people they have weren't working all that hard after all and could do a lot more with a faster computer or better software. They also found they could do a lot virtually on the Web, or could get hungry freelancers to produce quality work for little money. They are sitting on a lot of cash as an emergency fund, and why not?
Everyone is (or should be) socking a little money away for emergencies these days. There is a delicate balancing act going on in most households. There is just so much money coming in, and if some expense goes up, something else has to go down. We're battling the energy bills during this record-breaking heat wave summer because if it goes up another $50, we'll have to cut out something else, like food or gas.
Back to the jobs. There are jobs, but in some cases, not enough qualified individuals to fill them. Many of the unemployed are overqualified for the lower-level jobs that are still available. If you have been off work for awhile, you may be regarded as an employment risk who has lost the drive and discipline of the regulated work day and accountability necessary to work in a business environment. If you are over 50, you may be regarded as a dinosaur, lost in outdated work habits and less likely to adapt to technology and your relaxed "whatever" generation co-workers, one of whom may be your boss.
With so many entitlement extensions, it is difficult for someone on unemployment to give up the weekly "paycheck," freedom, flexibility and hope of a better paying job, to take a low-paying job outside his industry and below his training, education and experience. There are simply so many jobs that we feel are beneath us that we won't take at all. What happened to the notion that all work has dignity?
Many of the unemployed are waking up to the fact that their old jobs are gone and they need to take some action to reinvent, repurpose and retool themselves to fit into today's changing workplace. They are finding exciting ways to use their talents and discovering opportunities to make a living and a satisfying life. Sometimes letting go is the best way to go forward. There are numerous ways to create business opportunities with the world as your marketplace. Washington, Congress, the President and all the cry babies on the news aren't responsible for employment or lack thereof. We are. Make this a real Labor Day and find what you want to do and, as Nike says, "Just Do It."
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