What are you most proud of doing to survive this economy?

[GinnyEmma]

Oh, this is on that might not be for everyone, but I was going protein hungry when I tried to cut meat/dairy/eggs (all very expensive right now) to save money... so I bit the bullet and tried "variety meat."

Not all of it is my cup of tea, I can't stomach tongue and I wouldn't know what to do with tripe, but some of it is wonderful. We love beef heart, and though the package is pretty off-putting in the store, once it's prepped and trimmed at home (in the kitchen so the kids don't see it and turn their noses up at it), it just looks like very tender matchsticked beef. Now that we've tried it and found it isn't poison, I think it will stay in our diet even when the recession is over.

Lol, thankfully eggs, chicken and hamburger are still reasonable here. I also suplement with an egg protein in the am.

Eta: I can't imagine eating $20 worth of mozzarella a week, even during tomato and basil season! It is fun to make, though.

 

[punkin]

Where does one find Beef Heart? It's not like it's available in the supermarket (at least not around here). I have no trouble with tongue, but I don't find it to be particularly cheap either.

 

[jjsmom]

Since 2006 we've gone from nearly a 6 figure, very comfortable income, to darn near nothing. Long story. We are beginning to rise above the financial trauma of the past few years.
We've incorporated most of the suggestions on this thread; and with all of the penny pinching, frugality, and sacrifice, the number 1 thing I've learned is the collassal difference between "want" and "need".

#2. Paying with cash is liberating; I don't care how many points a Disney card offers. BTW, we've paid off EVERY PENNY of our credit cards.

3. A poker game (with chips of course) with microwave popcorn and boxed wine with my husband is just as much fun as a pricey dinner and a movie.

4. I've learned to be grateful for everything I have that's paid for; everything from a vehicle that runs good, to a little black dress that I've worn several times, to a bowl (3 bowls actually, lots of leftovers of corn and bean soup that I ate last week. Despite my hardship, it's NOTHING compared to the poverty and suffering of some others and I thank God every day.
Ha Ha. There was once upon a time when I thought cleaning houses was "beneath" me. I even paid someone to clean mine. Now, as fate would have it, that's the business I'm in!! Karma is so funny...

 

[lilosurf11]

I'm planning on setting weekly menus, which I've heard is great - I won't need to eat out as much

I also used to shop A LOT at Sephora. However, I started using Neutrogena's cosmetics and found they worked just as well (I still plan on going to Sephora for certain items).

My mom has started me on couponing (nothing extreme like on television).

 

[disneysnowflake]

Now, the things I'm most proud of my family for in this recession...

Well, we always lived modestly because we're still just starting out, but I'm most proud of me for getting baking again. I make all our baked goods with the sole exception of this fancy Italian bread we sometimes get from our favorite pro baker for a picnic, which we do instead of eating out. I used to love baking, but it fell by the wayside when the little ones were born. Now I'm making doughnut muffins, shortbreads, "sunbread" (my daughters' name for Hawaiian sweet bread), sweet potato bread and all our special cakes. I feel so rich every time something homemade comes out of the oven!

Tied in my personal pride department is that I wrote a novel! My husband and I have had so much free fun just from rereading the installments in the story every night before bed (and we're still enjoying it since I'm a chronic reviser). We've made so many dinners inspired by the story and we've made up so many recipes... Even our daughters have started talking about the characters like they're their favorite storybook heroes.

I'm insanely proud of my DH for learning to make cheese at home. Fresh mozzarella has become so expensive and we love it so much, he's shaved upwards of $20 off our weekly budget.

And the girls are proudest of us for saving money by joining the Disney Movie Club...

PS. Phew. Sorry, I'm all for bleeding the credit beast, but not paying your owed debt is despicable.

Wow! You wrote a novel!! That is awesome!

I got my first Kitchenaid mixer for Mother's Day, and I can't wait until it's cool enough out to bake. Right now it's so hot, and I try to use the grill or slow cooker as much as possible so I don't have to run the air conditioner.

We're fortunate that DH has a really good job, but we save about 1/2 of his paycheck. We drive used cars and put away what our truck or car payment would be. It adds up fast. When we decide it's time to buy, we'll have the cash.

We also make sure we know how much each week to save for regular big bills like home heating oil (holy rain, that's expensive) and auto insurance. We paid off our mortgage about 10 years ago, so thank goodness for that.

I've been doing surveys and clicks on My Points, and started cashing in for restaurant gift cards. Since DH works so much, we rarely got to go out to eat. Let me tell you that going to Cracker Barrel for dinner using a free gift card was awesome. It makes it that much more special when you don't get to go out to eat a lot.

We are going to Disney in October, but got free dining and downgraded from the Poly to POFQ (need to change my ticker). We found super cheap airfare with Delta. We've saved like buggers to go though.

We do a lot of free things as a family. We have picnics in the backyard, go to free classic car shows, attend local festivals that don't require admission, have weekly Wii bowling night and stuff like that.

 

[rnorwo1]

We have (thankfully) not had any reductions in pay through all of this, but of course expenses (gas, food, another kid or two!) have increased. We've always been relatively frugal, so we've always done many of these great things that others are posting. However, the past few years have changed my outlook on the future, and therefore our biggest change has been our attitudes!!

We have never paid interest on credit cards in our entire marriage, but we always used that 30 day floating period, paying last month's bills with this month's income, our emergency savings have always been up and down (and sometimes non-existent), and we've had a sense of entitlement for some things like vacations. I would never spend "frivolous" money on excessive eating out or spa treatments (please don't bash, I love them too, I'm just too cheap to pay for them!),but I've always felt like we "needed" to vacaction and explore the world, I've felt that that was part of my responsibility as a parent.

So now we are focused on maintaining ample savings at all times, saving for known future expenses like Christmas, the arrival of which always seemed to surprise me in years past, and we're spending only money that we have in our hand.... if our pantry is empty and there's no money in the food budget left, we make do, even though I could easily put it on the credit card and pay it off in a few days when a paycheck comes in.

And you know what's funny? While my family and friends criticize me ("What difference is a few days going to make, put it on the card and then pay it off!) and think we're being excessive, I have not felt so liberated and stress free financially in a long time! Yes, we missed the big, expensive dinner out with everyone else, but I had so much more fun bowling with my kids and DH, knowing that I only spent $12.50 for the entire evening (love coupons!) and I had that $12.50 to spend!

It may be the economy or that we're getting older, but we now really know that anything can happen in the future, and I'm most proud that we are preparing for it now. We still have some ways to go, but I feel so much better that we have a plan and are making steps toward it.

 

[Disneefun]

Honestly, I'm most proud of the fact that we've always lived well below our means and stayed out of debt. When the good times were rolling along we kept our small house and old cars and didn't upgrade much of anything. We traveled, but only after everything else was taken care of. We don't own many luxuries, and even those are not the "biggest and best" of anything.

We've always been frugal and now we really see the payoff. The recession hasn't really affected us, even when DH had to take a 30% pay cut. We had a little less to save, but our day to day life remained unchanged. I'm proud of us for sticking to our frugal ways all these years when friends and family were telling us to "live it up." Some of those same people are really struggling now while we go rolling along as we always have. (And I get a kick when they ask me, "How is is you're doing so well?" Now they want to know the "secrets" that they mocked several years ago.)

 

[wvjules]

Oh, this is on that might not be for everyone, but I was going protein hungry when I tried to cut meat/dairy/eggs (all very expensive right now) to save money... so I bit the bullet and tried "variety meat."

Not all of it is my cup of tea, I can't stomach tongue and I wouldn't know what to do with tripe, but some of it is wonderful. We love beef heart, and though the package is pretty off-putting in the store, once it's prepped and trimmed at home (in the kitchen so the kids don't see it and turn their noses up at it), it just looks like very tender matchsticked beef. Now that we've tried it and found it isn't poison, I think it will stay in our diet even when the recession is over.

I would give up anything I had to before I resorted to eating tongue, heart, tripe.

 

[punkin]

I would give up anything I had to before I resorted to eating tongue, heart, tripe.

Nahhh, meat is meat.

My girls like tongue probably because they were raised with it like I was, but DH is weirded out by the very idea. He'll eat liver, though.

We went to a very nice restaurant on vacation (out of the country, so that may have something to do with it) and they had "beef lungs" on the menu. The dish was really good. The texture was soft and unusual, but very pleasant.

 

[rnorwo1]

Nahhh, meat is meat.

My girls like tongue probably because they were raised with it like I was, but DH is weirded out by the very idea. He'll eat liver, though.

We went to a very nice restaurant on vacation (out of the country, so that may have something to do with it) and they had "beef lungs" on the menu. The dish was really good. The texture was soft and unusual, but very pleasant.

I'm sure it was "pleasant", my DH is an adventurous eater like that and he usually loves things like this, but I don't think I could make my mouth open up to even try it My inlaws gave us a bunch of deer meat once and I tried really hard to even just cook it for my family, but I couldn't tolerate the smell in our house. Could have saved us alot of money on groceries, but I just couldn't do it.

 

[wvjules]

Nahhh, meat is meat.

My girls like tongue probably because they were raised with it like I was, but DH is weirded out by the very idea. He'll eat liver, though.

We went to a very nice restaurant on vacation (out of the country, so that may have something to do with it) and they had "beef lungs" on the menu. The dish was really good. The texture was soft and unusual, but very pleasant.

I just couldn't do it. I would be gagging the whole time.

 

[disneyismyname]

I don't eat fast food anymore. I don't know if that helps or hinders? I would rather give my money to a locally owned pizza shop. I love pizza!
When our detergent goes on sale I stock it up till the next sale. Walgreens had a sale for Purex this week for 1.99 (then the 50cent coupon) so I went to walmart and did a price match and bought 10 small btls of Purex (no limit on the ad).

 

[punkin]

I just couldn't do it. I would be gagging the whole time.

Then it probably wouldn't be a cost savings to you.

Again, I think it's what you grew up with...and I grew up with some foods that most Americans would NEVER eat.

 

[KennesawNemo]

Nahhh, meat is meat.

My girls like tongue probably because they were raised with it like I was, but DH is weirded out by the very idea. He'll eat liver, though.

We went to a very nice restaurant on vacation (out of the country, so that may have something to do with it) and they had "beef lungs" on the menu. The dish was really good. The texture was soft and unusual, but very pleasant.

Nothing to do with OP's thread, but what you said just brought lots of memories.

DH and I are immigrants from a developing country. Where we grew up, such "delicacies" never got thrown away. Some of the organs are even viewed as nutrious. My mom is still mad at me for not cooking liver for my son at all because liver is considered to be high in iron. I don't blame her because when I was a kid, we never had money to buy dietary supplement. Now I only give DS a gummy bear and he got his iron fix.

I personally hate such things. I'll still eat it if I have to do that for survival, but being a vegetarian has to happen before that. LoL.

DH on the other hand, loves it. He would pay a premium to get ahold of a plate of tongue, liver or lung.......We went to a restaurant once in a while and pay extra so that DH can get his treat. DS inherited this taste as well, but I would just sit aside, looking totally disgusted.

 

[OceanAnnie]

I have gotten better at shopping sales and using coupons. I always did this before, but it was more hit or miss.

Great thread, OP.

 

[Princesca]

No, that's exactly what you were doing, but I don't understand why you are so vehemently defending the reprehensible actions of the PP. Perhaps because you have either done the same thing or are now planning to after hearing how "well it worked out" for the PP?

I agree with the posters who are disgusted by people like the PP who just don't pay their bills when it gets too much to manage but continue to live the high life. People like this are what's wrong with this country.

I am defending her because:

1) We don't know her whole story.
2) She is not here to defend herself.
3) I wanted this thread to be something positive.
4) I think it's crass to criticize someone in a public forum when you could just as well send the poster a PM to express your opinion. "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."
5) Her moral decisions are really not my business. If I don't like that someone can do something like that and have it impact me, I simply stop using credit. There will always be people who default on debt and that affects all of us. The only way you can guarantee that it will stop affecting you is to stop using debt.

I didn't comment on her post before people started in on her because I don't agree with what she did. But, rather than turn this thread into me passing judgment on someone else, who is a stranger to me, I decided to just let it go unremarked upon. I don't think it's right to not pay what you owe. In fact, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, this has been done TO me, and as the creditor, I can tell you I didn't like it one bit. I consider what was done to me theft of $15,000, and I would never do it myself.

But it has been my experience that criticism is best delivered privately, where the person being criticized might have some opportunity to offer an explanation, or even consider changing their ways. Called out like this in a public forum as being shameful, despicable, or any number of other things is unlikely to bring about anything other than a completely defensive reaction.

 

[Princesca]

I am most proud of the work DH and I have done on paying off our credit cards so far this year. We've paid off over $10K and have a plan to eliminate ALL our credit card debt within the next two years. We want to be completely debt free (no car loans, no credit card debt, no student loans, no mortgage) by the time we are 35.

This is awesome! I wish that I had gotten tuned into the whole debt paydown thing earlier in my life. I have always lived fairly frugally, so we never took on a ton of debt in the first place, but reading more of Dave Ramsey's book and listening to his show made me wish I'd made some decisions differently... rented a little longer, maybe go to a less expensive undergrad school... good luck! It sounds like you're well on your way

 

[AntePrincess]

Where does one find Beef Heart? It's not like it's available in the supermarket (at least not around here). I have no trouble with tongue, but I don't find it to be particularly cheap either.

We shop at ethnic grocers a lot, they are almost always cheaper on staples and I end up trying a lot of new things. They often have heart, tongue, and other things for sale. Our Korean grocer has pheasant, rabbit, and goat standard, and you can always get good soup and marrow bones or skin to boot. I can almost always get those cuts from the butcher at a Stop and Shop or Shop Rite just by asking, and often for next to nothing.

Nahhh, meat is meat.

My girls like tongue probably because they were raised with it like I was, but DH is weirded out by the very idea. He'll eat liver, though.

We went to a very nice restaurant on vacation (out of the country, so that may have something to do with it) and they had "beef lungs" on the menu. The dish was really good. The texture was soft and unusual, but very pleasant.

It's not the taste that gets me with tongue, it's peeling it.

Nothing to do with OP's thread, but what you said just brought lots of memories.

DH and I are immigrants from a developing country. Where we grew up, such "delicacies" never got thrown away. Some of the organs are even viewed as nutrious. My mom is still mad at me for not cooking liver for my son at all because liver is considered to be high in iron. I don't blame her because when I was a kid, we never had money to buy dietary supplement. Now I only give DS a gummy bear and he got his iron fix.

We cook pretty old world around here, that's where I got the idea, I wasn't raised on it.

 

[The Pluto People]

I am defending her because:

1) We don't know her whole story.
2) She is not here to defend herself.
3) I wanted this thread to be something positive.
4) I think it's crass to criticize someone in a public forum when you could just as well send the poster a PM to express your opinion. "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."
5) Her moral decisions are really not my business. If I don't like that someone can do something like that and have it impact me, I simply stop using credit. There will always be people who default on debt and that affects all of us. The only way you can guarantee that it will stop affecting you is to stop using debt.

I didn't comment on her post before people started in on her because I don't agree with what she did. But, rather than turn this thread into me passing judgment on someone else, who is a stranger to me, I decided to just let it go unremarked upon. I don't think it's right to not pay what you owe. In fact, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, this has been done TO me, and as the creditor, I can tell you I didn't like it one bit. I consider what was done to me theft of $15,000, and I would never do it myself.

But it has been my experience that criticism is best delivered privately, where the person being criticized might have some opportunity to offer an explanation, or even consider changing their ways. Called out like this in a public forum as being shameful, despicable, or any number of other things is unlikely to bring about anything other than a completely defensive reaction.

I think it's CRASS to pat yourself on the back for spending money that is not yours and then reneging on your promise to pay that money back. And who cares if someone that DISGUSTING gets defensive?! I understand you wanted this to be a positive thread but by defending her actions you invited another negative response.

 

[Princesca]

yeah I know, gift trip. Right.

You never know, so I chose to withhold judgment. I take a week vacation every summer with my in-laws. They pay for everything. If I put those trips on my sig, then mentioned that I am on unemployment because my company went out of business, I shudder to think of the things that would have been said about me, even though I would have been doing nothing wrong. I even phone interviewed and continued to job hunt while I was away.