Remembering a REAL Recession

It takes living for awhile to get perspective on the recent wild swings of the Stock Market and the Economy. We had two young children and were living in a trailer when the Recession in the early 70's hit. We were a one income family, with few debts, but it was still a difficult time.

I remember that somewhere along in that time frame we tried to get a mortgage to build a new home on our lot, and although we qualified for the mortgage, we could not get the loan ... because mortgage money had literally dried up. Sound familiar? The big difference between now and then was that we were very good credit risks, but we still could not get financing.

God has a way of watching out for us when we really think He's turned his back on us. We were so disappointed in not getting that house, and now I am so glad we didn't. You see it was one of those split level kind where the front foyer has steps leading up or down to the living areas. I have a Movement Disorder. We would be forced to move out of our home if we were living in one that involved using steps every time you wanted to go just about anywhere in the house. But that's easy to see in hindsight, not so easy to accept at the time. And yes, some years later we did build on our lot, and we're still living in our Dirty Butter Estates on Hard Scrabble Hill.

But I digress. What I do remember very distinctly were a few Christmas shopping sprees where my credit was denied at the cash register, because I had charged over my limit. (Back then even going over a dollar was enough to have a purchase denied.) It was embarrassing, and it didn't happen very often, but it did happen.

When our older daughter started using her first credit card some years later we were mortified to find that if she went over her credit line the card companies would just up her limit, or gleefully charge over the limit fees. But they never stopped her from charging anything. And they never seemed to mind how many cards she applied for and got, either. It was like a bottomless well of credit, and she simply thought we were old fuddy duddies for even suggesting that this was not the way it should be.

She's older and wiser now, but has had some life threatening health problems that have her and her husband watching their money very closely now, after lots of health care expenses ran their bills up again. At least this time it's not from the free spending days of her twenties.

So, some people say we are in a recession, and some are even saying we are in the beginnings of another Great Depression. But hubby and I have seen the Savings and Loan implosion from the 70's, the long lines at gas pumps when we were only allowed to even try to get fuel on certain days of the week, interest rates on home mortgages up in the teens, and we've seen the Health South, Enron, dot com bust, and plenty of other scary events in our adult years. And now the current economic "crisis". This situation seems to be a natural consequence of way too casual a view that far too many people, and companies, have had for way too long about the risk of incurring large debts.

I hear and see on TV so much fear about the current problems, and I'm not saying they are not real problems, but what I am trying to say is that we Americans have dealt with bad economies and scary financial times before, and we have gone on to thrive and prosper. We have been burned before by poor choices, and learned from our mistakes, and been better people because of it.

I hope people will look at history, find some perspective on today's news, and breathe a little easier. I know my hubby and I do.

I Just Discovered Freecycle!!

I have just recently discovered the FreeCycle network, and wanted to pass this information along to all of you. If you check the main site you can look for a FreeCycle group that is close to you. I ended up joining 4, I think. I opted to get individual emails, but you can have it sent as a digest, if you don't want your mailbox filled with all the posts.

And what, you ask, is FreeCycle?? It's a place to post items you want to GIVE away, not sell. And it's a place to ASK for stuff you need. So far, I've only been reading, rather than asking or taking, but I find the whole process fascinating. And I do intend to get involved, once I can get myself off my duff and do some serious house uncluttering. You are expected to offer more to Give than to Ask, as that's what keeps it going.

I did answer a request from a lady looking for a cpap machine, with several links to places that sell them at discount online. But she wrote back that someone had already given her one. Considering how much trouble I'm having getting used to my brand new cpap machine, I can imagine lots of people have one they are not using.

It is heartwarming to see that there are so many people with such a spirit of generosity, and also a desire to keep "things" out of our landfills. This is even better recycling than taking things to the Thrift Store!

Although the stuff is not free on Craigslist, we have just recently gotten one of these for our area, so now I try to check there if I need to buy something. The advantage in this is that there is no advertising cost, and the items will be local. This saves all the shipping/handling cost of buying online, and does provide another opportunity to reuse something that someone else is no longer needing.

I remember as a child that all of my hand me downs went to a distant cousin of mine, who lived out in the country. They still used an outhouse, which meant that they were dirt poor as far as I was concerned, and I always was glad to give her my old toys and books. We didn't have any other children in the family to pass our girl's things along to, so their hand me downs always ended up being given to the Thrift Store. I doubt if that was nearly the lesson in generosity for them, compared to actually seeing or knowing the person who would receive the outgrown lovies, as I had been able to do.

FreeCycle would definitely be an easy way to teach today's children the satisfaction of being generous, plus the importance of using our resources wisely. And buying second hand, either at the Thrift Store or from a place like Craigslist, might be a good way to combat the pervasive materialistic attitude of so many of today's youth. And, if we teach our children how to be good stewards of their possessions, we will be more likely to bring up a generation that values living green.

So why not check out the FreeCycle network in your neck of the woods. You might be surprised to find one nearby. Then get busy sending all that stuff you don't use any longer to someone who can make good use of it. It's a Win-Win-Win situation. Win for you - less junk at your house. Win for them - getting something they need for free. And Win for the environment - one less item ending up in a landfill.

How Can a Teen AFFORD to Date???

When we were dating, way back in the 60's, we often went to a movie in downtown Birmingham. We always got the biggest popcorn bucket they had and ate out of it together. At the time, that seemed so romantic. We still go to movies from time to time, but now we go during the day and get the Senior discount. LOL And we do NOT buy anything from the concession stand!

We went to the movies today at a Rave Theater and really had a good time. It was just too hot to go Estate Sale hunting on our Date Day, so seeing a movie seemed like a "great date" idea. I laughed and laughed, even cried a little, thoroughly enjoying Hairspray.

DH stopped in the restroom before we left, so while I was waiting for him, I started looking at the prices of the concession stand snacks. When we were dating, the boy paid for everything. I don't know if boys do that anymore or not, but I can certainly understand where the change to going Dutch came from. Not only are the tickets to the movie very expensive, but treating a date to popcorn, a large drink, and maybe a candy bar, is downright expensive.

I noticed that the three largest Combo suggestions did NOT have a price on them. After DH listened to my outrage, we started consciously looking to see if the prices were shown anywhere at all. They were not.

By now, the floor manager noticed that we were obviously discussing something in a very upset way, and came to ask if there were a problem. We let him know that we were not at all happy with the lack of prices. The very idea of having a young fellow, eager to impress his date, and she picks one of these combos, without either of them knowing how much it is going to cost? Can't you just see that fellow telling the cashier that he can't afford it, after his date has picked it out? How embarrassing!!

By now, the big boss had come to see what we were all hot and bothered about, and his "reason" for not posting prices on those most expensive choices (he said the most expensive was in the neighborhood of $18.00!) was that they had promotions with different candy companies, so the price varied from time to time. I pointed out to him that the price marquee was electronic, and could be changed at the touch of a button. He then changed the reason to it was a company policy that he had no control over. That's when we asked how to contact the company.

I've complained before to Krystal's headquarters for not having handicap accessible bathrooms in a Birmingham location, and to a large local Realtor, Engel Realty, for not having handicap accessible outside doors on a medical building of all things, so I'm quite willing to complain to the Rave Theaters!

I've written an email to them, offering to post their reply. That should be interesting!

In the meantime, I think our grandson better start saving his money, as he is 13. We were planning to encourage him to start saving some money for his first car. Now, I'm thinking we had better be telling him to save money so he can take a girl to the movies!!

Taking Care of Business

I'm an only child.

That statement has defined me all my life. It's meant being the center of attention, the object of way too much hovering, being accused of being spoiled whether I was or not, and the one to deal with everything as my parents aged, became ill, and finally died.

I never liked being an only child. I don't think my parents planned it that way, as they had already put in for adoption, before they had me as a "late in life" baby. But like it or not, that's just the way it was.

My parents were wise, in that they saw that things would be tough on me when they got older. After retirement, they pulled up their roots from the home they had lived in since before I was born, and they moved within a block of me in a little rural town that was sooooooo different from the big cities of Birmingham or Chicago that they had always lived in. They made out Wills, leaving everything to me, and making me the executor of their estate. They added me to all their bank accounts, and such, so I could deal with their bills when they could no longer take care of it themselves. They added me to their safety deposit box owners list. And when it became clear that the time was right, they gave me Power of Attorney over all their affairs.

In short, they trusted me, and entrusted me with taking care of them, just as they had always taken care of me. And I did.

Now it's my turn to do the same with our children. We went to the lawyers yesterday, and we started the process of getting our Wills updated to reflect the status of our grown children. Our Wills were so out of date that we still had a guardian listed for them, and an executor who has long since died, plus our lawyer discovered that our Wills had not been notarized, and really needed to be done again, anyway. We made out Power of Attorney's on each other, and named our executor, plus an alternate. We filled out a Living Will and a Health Care Proxy for each of us. We discussed our financial situation with the lawyer, so our children would know what funds to look for when we passed. Just as my parents planned ahead, and made everything as easy on me as they possibly could, my DH and I have tried to make things as easy on our DD's as we can.

It made me very nervous to discuss all this stuff and talk about our financial affairs, but it made me feel good, too. We took care of business.

Doing all this wasn't free, that's for sure, but we've dealt with one set of parent's estate where little of this was done in advance, and I can tell you from personal experience that this is money well spent.

I challenge you to take a serious look at what you have done to make things easier on your children.

Living Below Our Means

I'm not saying we were always able to do it, what with two growing children, but our intent all through our married lives has always been to live below our means. This general attitude toward money has stood us in good stead through some pretty tough times financially over the years.

We lived in a trailer for a total of 11 years on the property we bought when we moved to this lovely rural area we live in, before we built a house on the land next to it. We were the only people in our church who lived in a trailer, even though DH had an executive job at the time. When he lost that job after several years, we were glad we had been frugal, as we paid off the trailer and lived there without payments or interest. That made a big difference in surviving that time of unemployment.

Our children grew up with everything they needed, but not with everything they wanted. Knowing how present giving tends to escalate over a period of time, we started out with very limited Christmas presents when the girls were little. Grandparents were more than willing to be the ones that did the gift showering, anyway. The girls always ended up with more than enough toys, so I usually boxed up some of them and put them away for a few months. Then, when the novelty had worn off of the others, out could come this box of brand new things to be enjoyed. We did the same thing with Birthdays, too. So they never lacked for nice clothes or toys, but they weren't overwhelmed with them, the way so many children seem to be today.

We rarely drove new cars, usually driving used ones for well over 100,000 miles. In fact, now that we're retired, we've bought our first new car since we were carefree young marrieds - a bright blue PT Cruiser!

My DH never liked to travel, so our vacations involved splurging locally on going to movies, buying furniture, shopping for nicer clothing than usual, eating out and just generally being nice to ourselves and enjoying each other's company.

We weren't penny pinchers, or at least I never felt like we were, but thanks to our efforts, we managed to send both girls to college and pay off the mortgage on our home by the time we retired, plus reward ourselves with that PT! I wish I could say we had tithed all that time. We did through most of those years. In fact, we tithed through some of the roughest years. But there were some, for one reason or another, where we slacked and did not. I'm not at all proud of that. But I do credit the fact that we tithed as being the reason we were able to make the 90% we had left go as far as it did.

I'm not telling all this as a way to brag on us, but as a way to make a point. I don't think people even consider the idea of living below their means anymore. In fact, it seems that quite the opposite is the norm. Everybody wants the best NOW. No waiting, no saving, no doing without. Instant this ... instant that. I'm relieved to see that both of our girls have grown to see the advantage to living at least within their means, if not below it, as we did. That, in this day in time, is an accomplishment!!