Economy - How has it effected you?

[Neck]

Originally Posted by Stephen Hoover

Please share how the current economy has effected you and yours.

I know many are hurting and pray God's care on us all.

The sharp drop in fuel prices has been a welcome blessing for me and my business.

Also, I feel very fortunate my small business has flourished in part because of the economic turmoil.

Alternate heat sources, peace of mind and self-sufficiency are all in premium demand in economic uncertainty.

I pray God shields us and keeps us all in His care.

We stopped eating out as much.

I have made some other changes.

But with gas in some weird way is not $1.99 pg.

It now cost $30.00 to fill my tank and not $60.00.

So we fet a chance to go out to each more.

I think China has put pressure on the middle east.

We now all have more money for the holidays.

When American billions worth of toys made in China...

Come Spring watch it will go back up.....

[Hoovie]

I am drinking two shots of espresso instead of four....



NOT!!

[Neck]

Originally Posted by Stephen Hoover

I am drinking two shots of espresso instead of four....



NOT!!

If it is Starbucks that saves you $8.00 a day...

[clgustaveson]

Originally Posted by Stephen Hoover

Please share how the current economy has effected you and yours.

I know many are hurting and pray God's care on us all.

The sharp drop in fuel prices has been a welcome blessing for me and my business.

Also, I feel very fortunate my small business has flourished in part because of the economic turmoil.

Alternate heat sources, peace of mind and self-sufficiency are all in premium demand in economic uncertainty.

I pray God shields us and keeps us all in His care.

I don't think this thread is the right place to be humorous granted it's a sensitive topic but I do have good news:

I saved a bunch of money on car insurance by switching to Geico.

[Digging4Truth]

Originally Posted by Stephen Hoover

Please share how the current economy has effected you and yours.

I know many are hurting and pray God's care on us all.

The sharp drop in fuel prices has been a welcome blessing for me and my business.

Also, I feel very fortunate my small business has flourished in part because of the economic turmoil.

Alternate heat sources, peace of mind and self-sufficiency are all in premium demand in economic uncertainty.

I pray God shields us and keeps us all in His care.

So far all is going pretty well. We felt the Lord leading us to make some serious changes 2 or 3 years ago and we began searching for a house with a little land VERY cheap.

We found a 3 bedroom house on 3 acres for $10000
We refinanced our van and paid cash at closing.
We have recently sold our other house releasing us of about $1000 or so per month.

We are using that to continue to pay down debt headed for debt free as fast as we can.

We have a garden, chickens and are working to make our land ready for goats & sheep.

I have priced having a water well drilled and it is too expensive so I am looking into doing it myself.

So... on a personal level.... we are doing well... but we are still moving at a very fast pace to make ourselves more ready for what is coming.

[tamor]

Originally Posted by A_PoMo

My income is down 90% as our core business is directly tied to consumer spending/confidence and my expenses are up 30% due to higher energy and food costs. I couldn't afford to continue paying my health insurance premiums cuz they went way up too. All my savings is gone. I'm not accountant or math major but I can do that math and know it's not good.

A-PoMo, I can truly say that I feel your pain. My numbers are similiar to yours. Not quite as bad yet, but if God doesn't intervene quickly, it is actually in the works to be a higher percentage than what you have experienced.

I am praying for you!

[Cindy]

Originally Posted by Digging4Truth

So far all is going pretty well. We felt the Lord leading us to make some serious changes 2 or 3 years ago and we began searching for a house with a little land VERY cheap.

We found a 3 bedroom house on 3 acres for $10000
We refinanced our van and paid cash at closing.
We have recently sold our other house releasing us of about $1000 or so per month.

We are using that to continue to pay down debt headed for debt free as fast as we can.

We have a garden, chickens and are working to make our land ready for goats & sheep.

I have priced having a water well drilled and it is too expensive so I am looking into doing it myself.

So... on a personal level.... we are doing well... but we are still moving at a very fast pace to make ourselves more ready for what is coming.

Do you mind me asking how many acres you have? I will tell you that even chicken feed isn't cheap anymore. And the electric pump on our water well went out, it is very expensive to replace. So we are hooked back up to community water. With 3 families together our water bill is about $100 a month.

[Digging4Truth]

Originally Posted by cneasttx

Do you mind me asking how many acres you have? I will tell you that even chicken feed isn't cheap anymore. And the electric pump on our water well went out, it is very expensive to replace. So we are hooked back up to community water. With 3 families together our water bill is about $100 a month.

We have 3 acres.

We do supplement our chickens food supply but they are free range chickens and eat mostly in the field & woods (although they seem to really enjoy my mustard greens of late grrrrrr )

We are hoping to drill a well that will give us water we can use but if we can at least get one with good enough water for the garden & the animals it will help. We would also like to have a solar setup for the pump with a solar cell & battery running a DC powered pump that way we will have water of some sort even if we don't have electricity.

[A_PoMo]

Originally Posted by tamor

A-PoMo, I can truly say that I feel your pain. My numbers are similiar to yours. Not quite as bad yet, but if God doesn't intervene quickly, it is actually in the works to be a higher percentage than what you have experienced.

I am praying for you!

Thanks Tamor, and to all who have expressed concern. I do appreciate it.

Tamor, I will be praying for you too. It's not fun, that's for sure.

At this point my only real option is to do the Chap 7 (I can't afford the payment required for Chap 13) pack up my stuff and move back East and start over, and wiser for it. It's something I've been wanting to do for quite awhile; most of the last 20 years. So, this is an opportunity of sorts in that regard cuz it seemed that something always prevented us from moving before.

On one level though, I am happy this his happening. Like D4T, over the last couple of years I have been feeling a real leading toward living more simply and this is forcing us to do that, which is a good thing. If I am my spirit and my wife is my flesh then in terms of this idea the spirit has been willing but the flesh has been weak. In some respects it's been tougher on her than me. Toward the goal of moving next summer I have been selling stuff on craigslist and getting rid of stuff, which is good.

Anybody want to buy a '74 Jag XJ6 w/the Chevy conversion already done? I'll make you a great deal! I have a Little Tikes Choo Choo bed too if you want!

[Cindy]

Originally Posted by Digging4Truth

We have 3 acres.

We do supplement our chickens food supply but they are free range chickens and eat mostly in the field & woods (although they seem to really enjoy my mustard greens of late grrrrrr )

We are hoping to drill a well that will give us water we can use but if we can at least get one with good enough water for the garden & the animals it will help. We would also like to have a solar setup for the pump with a solar cell & battery running a DC powered pump that way we will have water of some sort even if we don't have electricity.

Sounds great, let me know how the well works out. We use our chickens for eggs, and our goats for lawn mowers right now. This is our second try with goats, we have 3 right now.