Monday, October 20, 2008
I have 2 accounts right now and I'm constantly looking at them to make sure everything's on the up and up because when the economy is in a massive state of flux like this one is right now, financial institutions find ways to compensate.
Nickel and diming everything in sight. And anyone who knows me, knows I'm not one to take a magnifying glass to my account. Making small numbers into big numbers by examining the placement of every single decimal point does nothing for me unless those big numbers are synonymous with showing more green in the black on my bank statements.
But after Wall st. became a farmer's market a few weeks ago, one thing is for sure. NOTHING is certain and folks are scrambling. People who I never thought would consider working 2 jobs are trying to work 2 jobs. Even though when I accepted a night position that had nothing to do with my day time job about a year ago, folks thought I was putting more pressure on myself than I needed to.
Truth was, without the supplemental income that I had coming in from my art ventures to pad my bank accounts, I had to rely on my actual paycheck to pay for things. Imagine that! Not a big deal because my art money was for luxuries. That was my play money so nothing "important" was being choked off.
But once the play money began to thin out and I looked back at the assignments I did last year, 2007 had become the worst year I had drawing for income. The only good thing I can offer in this is that with less than 90 days to go in 2008, THIS year will unfortunately take that crown.
Unless of course, I have a deluge of assignments between now and December 31st, this will make the third in as many years of a downward spiral in commission work. You'd best believe true believers. Things are getting serious.
So I've begun tapping into my lil luxuries cutting things down or off altogether to compensate for the storm that's coming. I don't have my car detailed that much but I do it enough that when you add up the receipts, ooo-weee. What a shot in the pocket that is. Maybe it was my washing my car last week in front of my house that drew the attention of Ms. Parker 2 huh? -lol
My house phone, the one I barely use has far too many additions in it for me to keep them. I don't need 3-way calling, call-forwarding, caller ID, and whatever useless functions on there. Besides, with me using my cellie nearly 99% of the time, most of those features became expendable quickly.
Aside from long distance, out the door with them. And I've also downgraded my Blockbuster membership from the 3 movies out at any given time with unlimited store exchanges, to the option that offers a one for one for a great price of $5.99.
I drove Mimi's car to work a couple of times per week to save on gas. I've got a large SUV, and Ingrid consumes a nice sizeable amount of gas even when the prices are at $2.89 a gallon. Saving is saving. And I'm sure there's more to come in the upcoming months, but this is a start. oneSo faithful reader.
What are you doing to compensate for the financial tsunami that is going on out there? Are you making it, surviving or just trying to get over the hump on a slippery slope? Let me hear you. Cage from the bunker, out.
