Economy Affecting Long Islanders

No cable TV. No minivan. The only upside is all of my money I make selling Avon goes right in the bank to earn what little interest we can.

My husband lost his job back in September 2007 at that time we decided to put everything into the family business, until this past February we didn't have to go into our savings, but it is a struggle. We decided to make a tight budget to keep all the roof over our heads and the food on the table and it has been working. We kept track of our reciepts for the month to see where the spending was going. Thr morning coffee at DD, eating out was all adding up. We cut it all out of our budget and the kids are going with it as well, so eating at home is what is best and taking snacks for the road. We use our bikes now that the weather is getting better. We only use the van when there are more than 5 of us, and my husband drives the Saturn which is great on gas. Using natural sunlight, cutting back on turning on the AC only at night,motion censor lights in the active rooms in the house, changing the bulbs to energy ones. Doing all these little things has decresed the bills in the house and ther are so many other things to do and explore. God Bless us all for this nation is in crisis. Don't forget National Day Of Prayer May 1, where we will all be praying across the nation for our leaders to do the right thing.

Hi C.,
It's very frustrating and depressing. My husband is working two jobs while I raise our two children ages 4 and 2. I'm trying to figure out a way to earn an income as well. In the mean time we've been cutting back in any area possible. Since the gas prices are so high I do activities in my own neighborhood. Unfortunately I have postponed some road trips to vist friends upstate and family in PA. As far as any shopping goes I always look for sales and use coupons and stick to a budget.
Good luck w/ your research.

I've decided to not participate in the recession. A few years ago I was broke and drowning in debt from an overseas move and starting life over again and a failed business to top it off. The thing that saved me was borrowing a credit card to start out with a new network marketing company. Our growth has been unbelievable and that's translated into a very good full time income with part time hours and my checks are getting bigger all the time. Since I homeschool my daughter, working outside the home wasn't an option. We have rent, eat at home because it healthier and I hope to be able to buy a house next year. I think the housing prices will really drop as we see more and more foreclosures taking place. Studying money and how rich people think is quite interesting. A poor person thinks, I need to cut back. A rich person simply does another deal. Changing our mindset is very helpful when dealing with financial issues. This has nothing to do with circumstance or education. Most millionaires don't have a college education. The days of the secure job are over and the quicker people wake up and adapt the better off they will be.

My business fits a huge need so it is very easy to present, people get major life-altering results and my downline is growing without even talking about the business. We simply talk about the products and not in a salesy, pesty way. People want to feel good and our products do that. I got rid of brain fog, my damaged liver is fine now, my daughter's daily migraines are gone and so is my very stubborn cat allergy. I am not an unusual case. This is happening to thousands of people.

Of course a lot of cutting back should be done anyway just to preserve our environment. SUV? How about a propane conversion? Much less pollution. Garden? How about eating foods closer to home? Have a clothing exchange party. Become your own doctor and learn to heal yourself rather than spending money on drugs and harmful remedies. Sometimes sitting down and figuring out the cost of a wife working is a real eye-opener. It's often not worth it to go and work with daycare, gas and extra wardrobe. Apparently something like 90% of bankruptcies could be prevented with an additional $200 (maybe it's $300?)/month per family. That is very, very easy to achieve.

S. Hoehner
www.sharethecause.com/detoxqueen (10 minute video)
www.ncdpro.com/detoxqueen (my marketing site)

*Instead of driving to the gym. I have been riding my bike in the neighborhood to save on gas.
*We have 2 grocery stores next to each other. I get the sale items I really need from one store. Then, I go across the street and purchase the sale items there.
*Growing tomatoes and other veggies in the summer is a wonderful investment! Pesticide- free, too!
*Buying clothes for my kids from a consignment shop is a wonderful thing! Sometimes, the clothes are brand new.
*I hang my clothes outside to dry from April - October to save on the electricity bill.
KRISTEN COLELLO

Even though the political leaders of this country want you to believe that 'all is well' I believe americans are educated enough to know that clearly we are getting closer and closer to being 'in trouble' as a nation.

As someone who has lost their corporate job twice to downsizing I can tell you that it is a scary thing to have to worry about where you will get the money to keep the roof over your kids heads, and the food on the table. Not to mention how to keep your family's well being in check by providing healthcare.

Since being slammed by the corporate america and the economy twice, I decided to take my families future into my own hands. I started my own business in a recession proof industry and have been seeing brighter days ever since! I will not let anyone else control my families income or well being.

If anyone has interest in how to protect your family from corporate america and really build a future for yourselves feel free to contact me and I will be happy to show you how!

My Husband and I have 3 1/2 yr old twins, I work seasonal at the IRS (6-9 months a year) and He runs a Landscaping business. Things have gradually gotten so bad over the last 3 years, me being home with the kids for the first 2 yrs because daycare was too expensive until I found a night job and him trying to run a business with gas prices and utilities so expensive it has become a losing battle. Bad enough that we are probably going to lose our home and move down south (Carolina?) because we will never get back on our feet if we stay here in New York.

For a long while now, we've been trying to drive less and eat @ home more.
I was fortunate enough to buy a Prius just before hurricane Katrina hit ( which is when gas prices started to skyrocket).
Hubby takes the Honda pilot to the train( 1mile away) now and I drive the little Prius. This change made it so that instead of filling up twice a week, I now fill up every other week!
A huge savings.

the price of gas continues to climb. Now it costs $35 to fill up the Prius! I don't understand how/ why people continue to drive big SUVs, a small car is easier to drive. I've got 3 kids, they fit just fine.

Thanks to George Bush's stupid endorsement of Ethanol, food prices continue to skyrocket. My daughter tells me that the cost of a slice of pizza went from $2.25 to $3 at our local Pizza Station. I'm not a huge fan of pizza, my kids are beginning to understand that the best food comes from home.

I'm also involved in growing some of our food with a local garden project. I'm pretty sure that this will be the wave of the future. Food, not lawns! With peak oil and climate change upon us, things will be shifting.

On top of gas and food prices going up, my husband's job was downsized two weeks ago. He was in the financial sector.
My oldest was set to start college next fall, looks like she will likely be delaying for a year and will work to save money instead.

so yup, the economy is impacting all of us who eat, drive and want to send our kids to college. Do any of us have any hope that the next president could actually change things??????

I'm not from Long Island but live in Upstate NY and the economy is effecting everyone. Gas is up to $3.71/gal. Food prices have skyrocketed, milk, eggs, bread, chicken, beef all the essentials have increased 3 fold. Even property taxes are out of this world. NY State is the highest taxed state. Before you know it there will be no middle class, just the rich and the poor. I too have a daughter that will be going to college in 2 years and I personally don't know how my husband and I will afford to send her. With the way the economy is now you can even afford to save any money. I personally don't like any of the canidates that are running. One is just as bad as the other. You can't trust any politician these days. They are all for themselves and not the public who puts them there. The politicians are the ones that put the american public in the position we are in today. Do you think they feel the money crunch. Of course not, they are making hundreds of thousands of dollars. They can afford luxuries while the rest of the american public is just trying to survive.

It's been really hard, especially since my husband got laid off 11 months ago, a year after we bought our home. I've had to take on a second job , luckly doesn't take to much time from my children. I've been paying the minimual on some if not all our bills and only have a buget of 300.00 dollars a months for grocery. We only go out to eat 1or 2 a month 30.00 is our max. Our light bill, water polution, cable increased, The oil is so expensive, we put a wood stove in our house which saved us 2,0oo.oo dollars and now with gas prices going up this year is going to be a breaking point for a lot of famlies with limited resources. I pray that God help us all.

Hi Everyone,

I am 26 and rent and live paycheck to paycheck - it is virtually impossible to save with the cost increases going on.
Job security is a JOKE everyone is out for themselves, so i decided to look into a home-based business that is recession proof and will give me a plan B in case I do lose my job or something else unfortunate happens. I will eventually be able to fire my boss and leverage my time with this amazing business. Network marketing is the wave of the future and was predicted to be so by Paul Zane Pilzer ( predicted dot com boom) It's as easy as sharing products you already use and love with everyone you know - it's a simple duplicatable system. I look forward to buying my own house, driving a white mercedes, traveling and living the life i have alwaysy imagined raising my kids as a stay at home mom.
If anyone wants more info. please email me!

:) A.
www.theskinyourin.myarbonne.com

I'm a single income, single mother of two toddlers. I go to school full time (13 credits) and work full time. The past year or two has been really tough. I had to sell my house and move in with my aunt because I was unable to afford it. 4 years ago I was able to afford my house and have a savings account. As of October 2007, I had to sell my house because I couldn't pay the $300 a month rent plus all my bills, and my savings was depleted. I drive a 20042 Chevy Venture, bought used. I'm a minivan mom. This was no issue till about a year ago when the gas prices REALLY started climbing. On days I have to take the kids to daycare, attend school, then go to work, and vice versa, I'm spending about $15 a day in gas now. About a year and a half ago I was spending $50 a week while doing all this. Last week, I spend $83.50 to fill up. Just in gas alone my weekly spending has increased $30+ a week.
On top of that, I am on public assistance for daycare, Medicare, and food stamps. My income is nowhere near the levels, yet once again, for the third time in a row, the state has cut my assistance. Fall of 2006 I was making the same as I do now and had roughly the same about of expenditures, yet I was receiving $200+ in food stamps. Now, as of last month, they have cut it down to $53 for the whole month.
Times are hard, and I hate to say they are only going to get harder. I'm a Business Major, and the main discussions we have are monitoring the Stock Market and analyzing the DOW. We are in a recession and still declining. Personally it would not surprise me if we had another depression as in the 1930's. Our economy has hit an all-time low since the 1970's. Interest rates are down, trying to save is unheard of, assistance is down, and it’s coming, better be prepared.
I'm trying my hardest to cut back costs. I don't go anywhere unless I can ride my bike (I have a trailer I bought 3 years ago I attached to the back for the kids.) If I do have to get something, I wait till I am already in that area, even if it is a couple days away. I quit smoking back in December, so that saves me another $20-$25 a week. My family has never been to “materialistic”, but my boys have learned they don’t need expensive toys or anything to have fun. I did splurge yesterday and spend .96¢ on each of them for garden tools so they can help me in the garden this year. With the cost of food going up so high, I’m trying my hardest to grow as many vegetables as I can myself. I can’t grow my own wheat and make my own bread, but I can have my own carrots, corn, etc. Plus, thanks to my job, I was given a $50 gift card to Lowes, which purchased all the soil, seeds, etc for my garden. So I’m almost doing the whole thing for free, just a little elbow grease. I do have the internet because of the work I do now, and I’ve used it plenty of times to find kid friendly cheap alternative fun. (2 parts dish soap and 1 part water makes an excellent bubble solution, and a whisk makes and excellent bubble wand.) For the toys they do have which are battery powered, I’ve switched to rechargeable batteries for everything. Last year, and I’ll do it again this year, I cut down on mowing my lawn as much to save on the gas. Even lawn mowers eat the gas right up. I haven’t been to an actual theatre in over a year; my kids only experience non-home-cooked meals about once every 2-3 weeks, and even my lunches at work are leftovers of the dinner before. There are so many things I’ve had to cut back on. Garage sales which have started in the area I have already hit and my oldest is already outfitted for this summer. It only took me under $30. (That’s all I was able to budget and I still had like $2-$3 left over at the end of the day.) My youngest is a victim of hand-me-downs, what can I say.
I know I’ve ranted a little, but these are just a FEW of the things I’ve done and how the economy has affected my family. It’s been hard the past couple years, and I’m slowly realizing and coping that it is only going to get harder. As long as I’m not laid off from my job, we should be able to deal...I hope.

C.,
I started my own Home based Business. i can make my own hours do not need child care and can determine my own income.
S.