The company gives me my own truck which I get to use as both a work/personal vehicle. . . .plus, the fuel to go with it.

Money is in banks. If those fail then I’m guessing China couldn’t collect on the debt the U.S. owes and nuked us.

I think we have about a 5 year emergency fund if both of us were laid off or fired. We are striving for the 30 year emergency fund btw.

$600 dress? Probably not, but should live life more. It’s a tough balancing act to play and to save for our 30 year emergency fund :)

I don’t trust Facebook. I only got on it to claim my name. As much as I love the internet, I feel it’s becoming too invasive these days. I like my privacy.

I actually miss the high gas prices, less traffic and obnoxious SUV’s. However, it sickened me because I never realized how dependent we are on gas. Just think if all the gas in the world just disappeared! What would you do?

My hubby and I dealt with the unemployment thing at the beginning of this year, when I got laid off (he’s a full-time student, only doing occasional freelance work). It was scary, but we discovered we could live on much, MUCH less money than we normally do. A good lesson to learn!

I lived in Atlanta in 96′ and could fill up the 79 Oldsmobile (I have very fond memories of my ‘Ghetto Sled’) for .93 cents a gallon at the QuikTrip in Vinings.

Now I’m gassing up 3 vehicles & a Lawn tractor for 2-3 bucks a gallon but gas is actually cheaper now then it was then.

It’s all a matter of perspective.

We aren’t buying gas for gas’ sake, we are buying the utility that the gas gives us. Gas means distance. How far can I go on a gallon of gas?

My Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale got about 12 MPG (less when the A/C worked). A Gallon of gas had little utility.
My friends Toyota Prius goes 50 miles on a gallon of petrol.

It costs my friend a nickel to travel a mile today to his office at $2.60 per gallon, It cost me 7 cents back in 1996 when I paid 93 cents.

I’m pretty flexible now. If gas went to $20.00 a gallon, I would ‘drive’ my mountain bike and have taller grass. It would not hurt me one bit to burn a few more calories.

I think we are in a state of equilibrium right now. Gas companies cannot raise prices without hurting their bottom-line. Don’t want to sound too pessimistic here but in a few years when 100 mpg cars are the norm, gas prices will rise considerably in order to preserve profits.

It’s not how much it costs, its how far you can go.

-WR

To answer the questions though:

We have a tax free savings account up here, max we can put in each year is 5k so I try and max that out every year. I’m getting 1.25% interest, not much, but it helps diversify my investments.

Being single, it wouldn’t be as hard since there would only be one of me unemployed. I’m still working on my ER fund. I’d say I’m about 75% there with an extra paycheck coming in October which will really help.

No $600 dress, but my weakness is clothes and electronics. Once I get a hard budget, I’d be able to cut or there wouldn’t be enough for me to get by the rest of the month.

I deleted my Facebook in August some time, haven’t looked back yet!

To be honest, it wasn’t so bad, and actually a bit of a relief! It was nice to disconnect a bit and of course I still had email and skype and such so I could keep in contact with my close friends and family.

But after 6 months we got tired of the limited internet access in general and got a VPN so now I can connect again on Facebook. Because I didn’t miss it as much as I thought I check it only once a day for a few minutes but it is nice to feel “in the loop” again.

And don’t forget gas fill-ups have always been that expensive in other countries. We like to cry about things in the US but people in other countries, such as Japan, have been paying $100 for a fill-up for YEARS! Of course the benefit is better public transportation which the US does not have now, but it is something to think about.