Frugal Living Today

We are an economy-driven society.  Need proof?  Look at the news.

Gas prices skyrocket because the refineries are temporarily shut down during Hurricanes Gustav and Ike and here in Birmingham, Alabama (where we’ve barely even had any rain this month) you can’t even find a gas station that has gas at all.

Yesterday Wall Street got b*tch slapped (pardon my french) and Lehman Brothers went down for the count when no one was interested in buying them out.  Merrill Lynch was saved by Bank of America to the tune of $50 Billion.  The stock market is in a frenzy and the media is only making it worse.

I can’t help but to be jealous to a certain degree of people who lived in a simpler time, when the only stress came when there wasn’t enough rain to water the crops or when a coyote was preying on the cattle.  A part of me has always known that I was meant to have lived that way - on a quiet farm where I grew or raised the majority of what I needed to survive.

Don’t get me wrong; I can be motivated by money at times (especially when I don’t have any), but to be so controlled by an economy that is overspending and overtaxing and overworked and underpaid just bewilders me.

I’m starting to understand why my grandparents kept money in coffee cans buried in the yard.  I never really understood why they told me that I should always invest in gold and silver and never sell it.

For what it is worth, I understand them now.

• If you aren’t saving at least 10% of your income, start.  NOW.
• If you can’t buy it with cash, try not to buy it at all.
• If you have to use credit, pay extra on the principal every month.
• If you aren’t using coupons, what the hell are you waiting for?