Lifestyle changes?

[Charlotte_native]

With all the economic problems out there right now I've noticed that some of my friends have made some pretty drastic changes in their life (associate I work with and his partner sold one of their cars and now just use one), and others don't seem to have changed at all. Has your life, income, feeling about making purchases changed over the past year or two? Personally my business is down -- not gone by any means, but not at the peak of what it used to be.

We used to go out to eat at least a couple times a week. Though we always enjoyed cooking, now we cook meals almost every night -- and am quite happy about it.

Not just for economic reasons, but to conserve as well, but we consolidate errands far more efficiently to save money and gas.

We used to give a good bit of money to various the arts, a local theatre group, charities, and Human Rights Campaign -- we can now afford to give about half of what we used to. We also used to travel quite a bit, now it is just long weekends with a long trip once a year.

Overall we are just far more careful about our money and what we spend it on and are trying to stretch as much as possible. The concern, obviously, is how long this downturn, recession, whatever, will last and effect us and our businesses.

[sean]

Driving less and thus keeping more of my earned income.

[Rural King]

We clip coupons more aggressively out of the Sunday paper, look to buy more meats and food stuffs in bulk and/or on sales at Krogers, and of course try to drive less.

Buying marked down meat that is about to bad and then freezing it is one of the best ways to save a bunch of money up front, as is buying those huge family packs of meats to sub-divide and freeze -esp. if those family packs are on sale. I am also suprised at the money we save buy using coupons aggressively when we do our big grocery and household goods shopping every two to three weeks - which is bascially solely at Kroger and Target. I am holding out hope for at Costco to come to Jackson, as I haven't broke down to the point to do business with Sam's Club.

[Lowerdeck]

I used to do a lot of random road trips in college. That has mostly stopped with the rise of gas prices. Most of my driving now is to and from work, which is bad enough being 55 miles round trip.

I used to browse CD and DVD stores frequently as time killer, something to do in enjoyment in spare time. Now most of my browsing is online, or combined with another trip, or done on the way home from work.

[kayman]

Really, I made all my drastic adjustments last summer because I was anticipating and was seeing the beginning signs of the current recession. So I had drastic reduced all my driving to essential trips like work or the grocery store. I walk nearly everywhere and including my classes, and I have basically cut out all leisure riding in my car to kill time and sightseeing.

[krazeeboi]

I moved two miles down the road from my job.

[dxartist]

No drastic changes for me as far as money since drive the car much less and ride a scooter or take the lightrail on ocassion to work instead. Eh...why pay $25 a week for gas when you can pay $3.50 a week on a scooter? By switching my transportation habit, I've even ditch shopping at grocery stores and shop at organic stores instead.

[Captain Worley]

No real changes. I have a 24 mile round trip to work, and my car gets 30 mpg, so that really isn't killing me. We live pretty frugaly already, so we really didn't cut back there.

[Raintree21]

Not really any changes here. I still make the same amount of money and will continue to make the same or more cause my services (911) will never decrease in demand. The only thing I do slightly different is try to be a little easier on the gas pedal but that only seems to save me a couple of dollars every 2 or 3 weeks so not really a big savings.

[dimebag1980]

Absolutely. Normally I would drive 70-100 mph on the interstates and freeways, and now I don't exceed 68. I use Cruise Control where I can in order to make this happen. Instead of 2-3 fill-ups every week, I only fill my car up once. I take less "frivolous" drives, and eat dinner at home at least 5 days a week. I also don't buy beer and other tasty alcoholic beverages as often. Oh yeah, lets not forget the biggest godsend of them all: the McDonald's Dollar Menu. Seriously! There is a McD's less than 2 miles from my office and I can take it back to my office and eat for under $2.17 as opposed to the $14/day lunches that I once would eat. I would even walk there if not for the fact that I work in an extremely dangerous neighborhood.

Also we've considered ditching the landline phone and using our cell phones as our "home" phones. Still not sure about that one, though.

But dammit I will not give up my $14.95/month World of Warcraft payment.

We also used to travel quite a bit, now it is just long weekends with a long trip once a year.

[monsoon]

But dammit I will not give up my $14.95/month World of Warcraft payment.

[dimebag1980]

Booty Bay, Darnassus, Orgimmar, Ratchet, Stormwind, Thunder Bluff, and the rest (well except for maybe Area 52) are all built with sustainability in mind. "ishnu--alah"

[Gard]

But dammit I will not give up my $14.95/month World of Warcraft payment.

[runawayjim]

i drive a whole lot less. when i do have to drive distances, i do 60-65, cruise control keeps me there. it takes a little longer to get places, but my mileage increases a whole lot when i do that. i can break 30 mpg when keeping my speed set like that. i also shop at a lower cost grocery store for most of my groceries now (at least those that they carry) and buy stuff more in bulk from them (which still saves me a ton of money). since shopping there, my weekly grocery bill has been cut in half.

[jfmecca]

I see far less evidence of economic trouble that I read about.

While prices have risen, and we've adjusted our spending accordingly, I've noticed that the parking lots of stores are still full, I still have to wait for a table when we go to eat, and business is booming where I work.

[excalibur19]

I see far less evidence of economic trouble that I read about.

While prices have risen, and we've adjusted our spending accordingly, I've noticed that the parking lots of stores are still full, I still have to wait for a table when we go to eat, and business is booming where I work.

[suburban george3]

I work with retail grocers (mainly independant operators or small chains) in the Southeast and my customers have seen changing in spending habits. More private label sales, less sales of high ticket items (gourmet foods, specialty beers, high-end wines) etc. Credit is also harder for these retailers to secure to make any needed improvements to their businesses.

I still think that traffic during 'leisure' hours (say 7pm to 10pm) during the week has decreased. (at least from what I've seen and I drive roughly 1000 miles per week or more)

I have dialed back my spending at home, watching the thermostat more, making sure lights are turned off, and looking for other inefficiencies. I also have cut out almost all luxury spending out of the budget and am trying to bank money in savings at the moment. If oil spiraling upwards doesn't get under control soon, things could get ugly (can we say 'worse than recession?')

[lammius]

I'm trying to cut down on impulse-buys (a good habit to break, in good economic times or bad). Food is getting more expensive, so I'm looking out for those items marked with deep discounts for using my Shop Rite card. I'd say my weekly grocery bill so far has only gone up maybe $5 on average. I used to buy lunch out almost every day. That's expensive, and restaurant menus are starting to reflect the higher food prices. So rather than bringing lunch in one day a week, I'm now bringing it in two to three days a week, depending on my schedule. I don't buy coffee from the guy at the coffee cart on 5th Ave anymore. That saves me $1 a day (which I now invest in Mega Millions tickets. I can dream, cant' I?).

My commute is on a subway, and although fares went up a few months ago, the cost is relatively stable. I own a car, and although I don't use it much (a full tank of gas lasts about 5 weeks for me) I'm afraid to get rid of it. My neighborhood has few grocery stores that I can walk to, and it's tough to procure a zipcar if you don't reserve weeks in advance.

I've kinda been rooting on the housing slump, hoping I'll be able to enter the market for a place soon. Prices haven't fallen here at all, but at least they're sorta stable at the moment. But it's hard to save a ton of money for a down payment when your high-interest savings and CDs are yielding less than 3% APY at the moment.

[sean]

I have two chariots that attach to the rear of my bicycles. I now take my son to daycare via bicylcle. The chariots are also handy in making runs to the grocery store. I have always biked recreationally, but now I'm using my bikes for more and more utilitarian purposes.

[andyfried]

I eat more generic brand foods,and I don't go joy riding anymore.