My parents bought a steer and had it butchered. Not only are we getting healthier meat(we know the farmer and how he feeds), but the price per pound is so much lower than in the grocery stores. Not something everyone can do, but something to look into if you have the resources available. It's ALOT of meat, so I recommend going in with one or two other people. I imagine a lot more people will be planting home gardens too. My dad does veggies like he's feeding an army, so I don't duplicate that, but I have strawberries and started some blueberries a couple years ago.
You know d, we were talking here at work yesterday and wondering if it's possible for our 401K accounts to go negative?!
CC, good idea starting that thread! I added my two cents, well actually with the declining dollar, it's probably only worth a tenth of a cent......
I'm tracking every dollar. Just spent 287 at the Commissary and will work to try to make more visits for less money. I spent 1400 dollars last month just on groceries. Argh. Doesn't help our retirement investments though. I'm trying not to look and hope things recover in the coming years. Worthless is worthless though. So we'll see what happens.
The biggest thing I did to help myself was that this summer I traded in my gas guzzling car for something much more economical. My timing was lucky. I think if I'd waited much longer the trade-in value wouldn't have been nearly as good.
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same."
"The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory or defeat but in the true perfection of one's character."
Like to know how to stretch the budget at home this year as well.... it's not just at school that is tightening... it's home as well.... thanks Crewchief!!!
I feel for you FoxMom.... I'm curious how groups will stretch their budgets this year. Maybe I'll start a tread about it so groups can chime in with their hints tips and tricks during a tight economy.....
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same."
"The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory or defeat but in the true perfection of one's character."
We have felt the economy for sure here in Michigan... We started off the year with entertainment books-- thought for sure that when over 200 books came back in the first week, we were doomed-- but then a mom came and bought 150 books to give out as Christmas gifts to her employees-- I want to kiss her feet when she came in to ask.... (OK, I was a bit overwhelmed with the thought of only making 150.00 on a budgeted fundraiser of 1,500.00) She saved our event for sure-- now I've got parents complaining about our next 2 fundraisers that came home, no matter that they are time sensitive and 1 is more of a service (spiritwear) than a fundraiser---
Then I had another mom ask me how much PTO was paying me-- since I was at the school everyday this week from the beginning of the day until the afternoon bell rang.
I just smiled and said I volunteer, there's no money involved!!!
Then I get the parent that said if you told parents what PTO was all about and what we were fundraising for, we might get more than 20 people at a meeting....
First off-- I wanted to tell her 20 people was fantastic, since last year they only saw 4-6 parents a month--- Second- we sent home fliers promoting what PTO was about, who was in it and what we did last year with our fundraising and what we were doing this year-- but maybe her child didn't bring it home, since we can only drop off fliers to the office and hope teachers send home the fliers in a timely manner.---
It's only October--- what a crazy year this will be!!!
