living within our means

because it reminds me of my mother who grew up during the depression.
My mom would say things like: A penny saved is a penny earned. Waste not want not. Save for a rainy day. Early to bed early to raise makes a person healthy wealthy and wise. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
etc. There are many good suggestions here but everyone needs to evaluate their own situations. The best time to prepare for bad times is before they hit
so if you still have a job take time and devise a plan. Look around you where do you live can you put in a garden, could you can what you grow. Do you have people you trust or could work with bartering. Will you be able to stay in your home? When my dad went to war in 1942 he built a chicken shed in my moms backyard so she would have eggs and meat while he was gone. Our ancestors had challenges and so will we. Peace

can this thread get?

I live beneath my means but I get very pissed when the government comes up with schemes to debase the currency or bail out idiots at the expense of tax payers. Prudent people are the ones who get plundered the hardest.

I am saving money and buying some precious metals. Trying to be smart, keep my cash out of troubled banking institutions, trying to get the right amount of supplies in case of more serious dislocations and generally just trying to educate myself.

Check out my website for some of my perspective (dating back to 2005) on the economy, politics, etc.:

www.ponderthis.net

...ordering heritage seeds, and I have my composter up and running. Put all non-meat and non-dairy scraps in there, small branches, leaves. I can't wait to start growing all of my own produce in the raised beds I'm building for the spring. Also going to buy some rain water catch barrels to put under the downspouts. I'd love to go solar, but that would cost about 75k. Ugh.

The Retrocon
Hope for America, Ron Paul for President in 2008!

Living within our means is one of the things Paul is so adamant about. So many of his votes in congress center on that core fiscally responsible discipline. The debt that can cause so much grief in our personal life can cause grief on a national scale as well. This is something the average person can relate to very well.

For me personally, we shop craigslist and ebay alot. No credit card debt which a huge one. Reasonable and affordable transportation since cars so often are a huge waste of money. Reasonable housing, which means we didn't buy more house than we could afford. These combined have left us very comfortable but certainly not rich either. To see how these simple cost savings add up, see my youtube video under Sandelie. Yes, that's 200 one hundred dollar bills with my custom Ron Paul stamp on them. You don't have to make very much to make a comfortable living IF you avoid wasteful spending. The money we save on credit card interest, buying stuff new, lower mortgage payments, and affordable transportation REALLY adds up fast.

You can find just about anything
you need.I have never been to a beautyshop,cut my own hair,never had my nails done.We eat whatever is on sale
and fill our pantry with those items.We built our own house,don't use our credit cards,don't eat out.If something breaks down,we fix it.We drive used cars,help our neighbors
and they help us.

This is a good topic. :)

If you have paid around 15% of your mortgage, you might be able to get rid of your mortgage insurance. Look at your contract. It only protects the loan company. Expect a fight. They love those free dollars rolling in. They will let you pay for it forever if you never figure it out.

Insurance - if you have no intention of filing a claim for small damage because your rates might go up, you might want to increase your deductible and lower the rate. You'll have to pay for small things, but if something big happens you're still covered. We did this with health insurance too. I pay out of pocket for a lot of stuff, but save money in the long run.

Look up different insurance companies and see what they are rated. If they are rated high in customer satisfaction, see what kinds of rates they can give you.

Every now and then we sit down and think of things we can cut back on. We check out a lot of books from the library instead of buying them. We watch movies from the library too. They are only $1 there.

that is our new goal. Any extra money my wife and i get goes towards paying down debt. Suddenly the only things that seem important are our home and food/necessities. I cannot fathom all the money people waste on worthless crap. Cable, expensive vehicles, video games, giant tv's are just a waste.

you are out of debt and can pay cash for it. Go for a lower than average mileage car that is 5 - 7 years old and pay cash for it. We did this for our family car (a 1993 Buick) in 1999 and am still driving it today. The other car we have is a 1981 Toyota that I bought used in 1982 - it still runs great, why replace it. I took a loan out to buy my Toyota, paid it off early in 1984 - haven't had a car payment since. We don't buy anything on a credit card that we can't pay off entirely at the end of the each month - the interest saved is substantial. We bought an adequate house in 1999 with the largest down payment that we could come up with and got a 15-year mortgage, then paid it off ahead of time. Keeping the monthly payment to a minimum allowed us to pay more than the monthly payment every month and pay off the mortgage in 3+ years. Taking mortgage payments as a tax deduction helps with the mortgage, but you can save even more if you don't have a mortgage. Once we were debt free, our basic monthly living expenses are quite low and allowed me to explore my options when I was laid off in 2003. I had a decent salary before being laid off, but many people I know make a higher salary than I ever did. Living debt-free is highly recommended, I would suggest that you do whatever you can do get debt-free as soon as practical.

Ron Paul's approach to the economy makes sense to me - our Federal government also needs to work towards getting debt-free as soon as practical. States should be taking care of much of what is now being paid for and controlled by the Federal government because each state has to balance their budget every year - they can't print money like the Federal government is currently doing via the Federal reserve, nor can the States run up deficits and debts as easily.

Without my cell phone I could also not have voted in debate polls for Dr Paul..is there a better reason to have one ?? Actually there is but I'm just saying !!