The Economy...

Today had me thinking pretty hard about how desperate our economy has become. Noel and I started packing our lunches for work in an effort to save some money and after work I went to a local surplus store to do some shopping. First off, I love surplus/thrift/consignment stores or any other place I think I can get a bargain. I would be there regardless of the state of the economy because I'm a penny pincher at heart. But, with everyone I speak to, penny pinching is becoming a need, not a choice.

Yesterday, as I drove home - 17 miles from my office to my home -I saw the following:

10 homes, 2 businesses, 1 car and 2 campers for sale. That is almost one big ticket item every mile! This stretch of road is really quite rural by normal standards and to have that amount of things for sale boggles my mind. I'm especially sad about the businesses and homes.

I'm thankful that gas prices are down ($2.18 per gallon here) and am hoping that the economy bounces back soon. In the mean time, all we can do is work a little harder to make those pennies squeek! We can pull our resources together and do everything we can to help those that were hit especially hard during this upcoming holiday season. By working together, we can all get through these tough times and become closer as human beings in the process.

Here's what we're doing:
Packing lunches, carpooling more, shopping for things we need (not want), using freecycle, gardening, canning, budget-friendly meals, donating to our local homeless shelter, re-using items for other purposes and we bought a thermostat on a timer.

So...how are YOU handling the poor economy?