Someone recently asked what people were doing to survive the recession.  So the OCD in me made a list.  Some are simple, others maybe a little strange.  

Obviously, I stopped donating money.  I stopped volunteering at my local library to save money on gas.  I stopped eating out.  I stopped unnecessary trips, always trying to combine them, grocery store, library, gas station.  I stopped borrowing movies from the video store.  I sometimes borrow from the library.  I stopped buying books, movies, music etc.  We buy second hand clothes when possible.  I stopped buying facial tissues.  I buy few new clothes and those that I do purchase, I buy on credit.  Food and gas often also go on my credit card. 

I stopped going to the doctor.  It’s been three years since my last pap smear.  Any medical expenses go on my credit card.   There is at least $1000 in doctor expenses on my credit cards.  We go to the dentist only once a year.  There are few dentists in our rural area, and fewer that take our insurance.  We skip the second visit to save on gas and to not have to miss school (or work).  

I am above $10,000 owed now.  I switched car insurance.  I told my 16-year-old daughter that she couldn’t get her license (she has her permit but getting an actual license means I have to carry her on my policy).  It doesn’t really matter since we sold the vehicle that she was going to drive anyways.  

My mother pays my cell phone bill because I told her I could do without one and she insisted that she might want to call me.

I live with family.  I couldn’t find a job as a teacher, so I worked as a sub until I found work as a census taker, then for a research company.  But that too disappeared once the funding was lost.  I have a BA in English Literature, I am certified to teach English and as a school librarian, and I have my MA in Education.  I went back to school last spring part time in a MA of Library Science program.  I put the tuition on my credit card but doubt I will be able to do so next spring.  I have no more money for paper to send out resumes.  I have started emailing them instead.  I send out several a week, for any jobs I find in the paper or online.  I have had only 2 interviews, neither in education.  I live in a rural area and so there are very limited options.  

So now I am on unemployment.  It allows me enough to pay my car payment, student loan, car insurance, and maybe some food.  Christmas will be small this year.  Luxury items like soccer balls, DVDs, art supplies are all purchased for Christmas and at no other times. 

We use reusable bottles.  We even refill water bottles.  I reuse containers like the parmesan cheese shaker for things like craft storage.  

I make foods from scratch.  I stopped shopping, except for food and necessities.  

I grew some of my own food this year and canned it myself.  Family members grow their own food and share it.  During the summer, we often pass around our fresh produce surplus.  Everyone takes food to my grandparents.  I do not buy junk food ever.  We no longer buy cookies or such.  I buy very little meat.  We have always drank raw milk from our own dairy farm.

I buy whole chickens and use them for two or three meals.  Rotisserie chicken on day one, homemade chicken noodle soup on day two, and chicken alfredo on day three.  I make homemade noodles for the soup but boughten pasta and homemade sauce for the last.  I buy in bulk whenever possible.  I watch the price of foods.  I buy things when they are on sale.

I are largely relying on family to purchase food for us.  I can’t keep putting it on my credit card.  This creates a strange dilemma for us.  My mother often buys foods that I wouldn’t buy myself, things like potato chips, pop, white bread, and other junk foods.  But she buys it to help us out.  What do I say?  It seems ungrateful to say anything against such purchases.   

Lots of family and neighbors hunt for their own food.  It is not always hunting season when they do so.  Sometimes they raise pigs, chickens, and cows.  

For money, I have performed tasks for family members, garnering small sums of money.  We do not go on vacation.  I look for local events that are free.  I told my daughter to work hard and earn a scholarship for college.  Otherwise, she will have to attend a public university (which is where I went to school myself).  

My kids still participate in sports, if I cannot afford it then my mother will chip in.  I can write a check or pay in cash for these and then put my car insurance on my credit card.  My daughter plays the clarinet instead of the sax that she wanted because my aunt still had my cousin’s clarinet in her closet.  It cost me $285 to fix it and the occasional new part instead of the $50 a month rental fee (a sax cost about twice that of other instruments and would in all cost a couple thousand dollars or more).

The one luxury I have kept is Netflix.  It is our family’s only entertainment.  Obviously, luxuries like lattes are gone.  But I do still drink tea.  I just reuse the tea bags two or three times.   We dilute 100% juice.  We actually prefer the taste and did this before money was tight.  I do not buy juice cocktails (as they are watered down, sugar laden juice products).  I no longer drink wine.

I cut my own hair.  I alternate between cutting both of girls’ hair and letting them go to the salon.  It is about $20 per salon visit and I can only do this about once a year.

In the winter, I do not shave my legs (saves at least $2 per week).  (That is a whole other blog still forming in the recesses of my brain).  

Our furniture is second hand.  In fact, the only furniture I have purchased otherwise was with money from my student loan (storage containers).  The cool thing is that my kids have slept on the same furniture set as me or my parents.  Our couch used to be my grandmother's, our chairs once belonged to my other grandmother.  I rewired old lamps.  

See my area is sometimes referred to as the Rust Belt.  The bad economy hit us long before the recession hit anyone else.  Many of these things I have been doing for years.  For example, for several years I wore the same set of underwear even though the elasticity was gone and they were only held up by my pants.  That was before recession.  We wash clothes sparingly.  The more you wash them, the faster they wear out.  This also saves on laundry soap (we buy an expensive hypoallergenic brand because of our allergies).

Medicines are tricky.  You can usually buy generic anti-histamines and such for just a few dollars.  I do not purchase the expensive ones that my doctor prescribes.  Antibiotics are free at Giant Eagle, our local grocery store.  My doctor will call one in without having to see me.  I have to make sure that she doesn’t prescribe the more expensive drugs.  When the girls are sick, we first wait it out.  

I have not given up my boycott of Wal-Mart.  This has been difficult.  In a rural area, this may be the ONLY store around.  Before the Giant Eagle arrived a short time ago, I had to drive about 30 miles to find a different store.  In the little town about 8 miles from my house, there had been 2 Dollar stores and a Save-A-Lot.  The dollar stores are MORE expensive than other department or grocery stores.  They can be because the people in town are unable to go anywhere else.  The Save-A-Lot carries few varieties, some of which are low quality.  The clientele do not make me want to shop there.  Again, I consolidate trips, stopping in town on my way home from somewhere else.  

A couple times a year I go to the nearest city, over 60 miles from home.  I can buy a couple of large containers of laundry soap and other necessities.  It’s cheaper there.  This means that if my car needs inspected, I will do a little shopping.  

I have used old blankets as fillers for quilts I’ve made.  It’s a craft thing, not because we need blankets.  We have plenty of those, as I purchased a bunch a few years ago while they were on sale.  We do use this surplus of blankets to cover our windows in the winter.  

Much of this has been a way of life for our family.  When I was a child, I remember the blankets over the doorways in the winter.  We’ve always had gardens.  But now, they means something more.  I watch my neighbors, seeing that they are struggling far more than my family.  I fee lucky.  Most of the time.