My Contribution to the Recession

The government just lowered interest rates to save the market from it’s downward spiral. Economists say that the housing market slump will not be helped much by it, and that more reductions are expected. I can’t help but think they are going about this all wrong. Does it help the homeowner (who knowingly took a home loan that was way above what they should have paid) to give them a break on their interest? Maybe it keeps some from defaulting on their loan, but then it is really the banks that loaned them the money in the first place that are at risk right? Not really, because they can foreclose on the homes to recover the money they lost. But it seems that it is in the best interest of “the economy” that consumers spend their money. So if consumers are losing their homes, they will have no money to spend in the stores. Oh, so I guess that’s why it’s so important to make sure these greedy homeowners get saved from their poor budgeting. All to avoid the dreaded R word: recession.

———————-The End of my Soap Box————————-

I have set myself a new goal after going through our playroom and giving away half of the things in there. It was difficult to part with the stuff for some reason, but Rob made me do it, and it hasn’t been missed. We need to reduce the amount of clutter in our house, and get out of these horrible student loan debts, so and the easiest way to do that is by reducing the amount of stuff we buy. I am such a sucker for a great deal that I will walk into a store with 3 things in my head that I need, and walk out with a full cart of things that were great bargains, but really unnecessary. How many shirts does one kid need? Will I really use that Christmas platter marked 70% off? Do my hips need the bag of Valentine chocolate kisses?

So here’s my plan. Every time I go into a store I will go with a written list. This will mean planning ahead of course, and that’s the hardest part. Once inside the store I can only buy what is written on that list. If I see something on sale or that I think I need, I will have to pass it by. I figure if I get home and still remember what I passed up, I can write it on another list to get the next time. So far it has been two weeks and I haven’t bought anything that wasn’t needed. It feels so liberating to not be trudging through more junk around the house, and now when we review our budget we don’t say, “Where did all the money go?” So now that I’m not shopping, I can spend my extra time getting the house clean, doing projects, blogging etc. etc. Somehow I don’t really feel like I have any more time though. Well, two out of three ain’t bad.