It’s unavoidable, today’s economy has touched everyone in some way or another. You turn on the news and the signs of the times is evident. While I walk my dogs I see so many houses empty and for sale. I all I can think is how scary it all is. Me and my husband have decided to cut costs along with the many others affected by this recession.
At the beginning of April he was told his hours would be cut drastically. He was supposed to go down from a full week to about two days. We have been very blessed that as of now we have only had one or two three day work weeks. It’s unnerving though, to have such instability.
Feeling that crunch has caused us to seek out cheaper options. We have limited our use of air conditioning. We originally decided not to use it at all but the first couple of 90 degree days caused us to cave. Our entertainment has taken a big turn to things that are free or nearly free. We have stopped most of our frivolous purchases, boy do I miss that. We are also seeking out cheaper recipes every day. It has been a challenge but it is worth it.
One of our luxuries that we have chosen to eliminate is our satellite tv. We have all the things needed for digital tv but in order to get any channels we need a much better (and more expensive) antenna. For now, we are without tv entirely, but we did find a way to watch some of our shows plus shows we had never heard through a site online. It is called hulu. It is completely free. We are also able to hook up our computer to our tv and watch it through our television screen. I am beginning to wonder why we were even paying for tv when this is so easy.
Hope this helps some of you. I will be back with more cheap short cuts soon.
Posted by pamela on July 12, 2009 at 7:42 pm
totally with you on this! this one is obvious, but luke and i are pretty much strictly library on entertainment. our library lets you place holds on the stuff you want online, and when it is ready they have it waiting for you. we have been watching a ton of new release movies and new music and books this way.
Posted by Jenny on July 12, 2009 at 9:12 pm
I couldn’t agree more! We love the library! Are you part of the prarie cat system (for your library)? We are able to use that system and have items shipped to us from all over. Another thing we like to do, as far as music, is listen to pandora for new music and check it out at the library. It’s amazing how much free stuff is actually out there.
Posted by Simone on July 22, 2009 at 7:46 am
I’m a total hulu addict. Not allowed to start on any more new shows. I also like LaLa for almost free music http://www.lala.com/
Posted by Jenny on July 22, 2009 at 9:11 am
Thanks for the heads up on lala.com I will have to try that.!