Sign of the times......hitting hard

So we're in major money save mode. In order to make the bare essentials meet over the next few months, we have to cut back on EVERYTHING, drastically.

This couldn't come at a worse time--as in March, the registration is due on my car, and Mike's truck is due in April-- as well as license renewal fees too, since we've been up here for 5 years now. Thats gonna be an easy $800.... oh fuckin' god, where is that coming from?!

Anyhow....its a sign of the economy....and we've been now been hit. Im, being optimistic and keeping cool....cause, really...it COULD be worse.....we COULD have been laid off......but we arent....we are some of the luckier Americans that STILL have a JOB with health insurance and such.

But both of our work places have cut our pays.

Mike's has cut his hours, by about 10 hours a week. Thats 30 hours some weeks, folks. This time last year...he was working 50 hours a week, 10 of them being over-time pay. You can imagine the pay cut we've taken. They are allowing him to supplement some of his lost time with vacation days, which helps....but he only gets 1 week's vacation a year...so that will dwindle fast.

That also will mean no time-off or family trips this summer, since he will no longer have ANY paid vacation days. No camping, no Mohegan for our 5 year Anniversary. Suck-ass.

Then today, my work issued a note to all staff- effective immediatly, we're all taking a 5% pay reduction. Couple this with Mike's pay decrease....we're gonna be hurting, fast.

Ive already begun itemizing what must be eliminated....first to go i think will be our cell phones. Unsafe, and scary....we'll probably go the Tracphone/Go Phone route for emerency calls only. Currently, we pay about $85 a month for our 2 phones--- so this will save a bunch.

Our Tv service is dirt cheap...we pay a total of $36 a month..... so that would be silly to cut out...considering there is nothing around here to do and no reception w/o a dish, even with the silly digital box.

Im consolidating our freezers (we have a chest freezer downstairs)--- i will shut off/unplug the big one to help save on power...

I am all for going back to dial-up to cut on our home internet bill...but Mike goes APE everytime i consider it. God forbid he cant download tons of shit daily.

So that's it folks, in a nutshell. No matter how hard we try, every time we get our heads above the water....we get pushed right back under!