When times are good, it’s easy to let things slide a bit. For example, last year was a good year for me — my family was healthy, I had steady work, and things were good financially. I didn’t have to worry too much about the day-to-day details of what I was doing — everything was working well and there weren’t any worries.
This year is a different story. Luckily, my family is still healthy and things are good in terms of business, but I’m feeling much more impacted by our nation’s economic challenges — much more so than I was last year. Gas costs a lot more. Food costs a lot more. And the prices for the rest of the services we consume and products we purchase are going up as well.
The result? Like many people, I’m looking for ways to save money. Carpooling the kids to baseball. Consolidating what would have been multiple individual errands last year into single, better planned excursions this year. Saying no to selected purchasing. Making sure we eat all the leftovers and use all the food in the freezer before purchasing new groceries. When you stop to examine things, there’s usually a fair amount of ways to save money and/or identify new ways to make some additional money (yard sale, anyone?).
