My Single Mom Life

I'm not a big fan of her, but Suze Orman was on the Oprah show today, and she had a recession rescue plan for people, because things are really starting to get very, very bad for everyone.
She says to be greatful for what you have, not what you had.
That you need to really cut back on your expenses in order to survive this crisis.
Cable? Gone.
Cell phone? Cut those bills as much as possible.
Home phone? Ditch it if you can.
Eating out? Stop doing that, and so much more words of advice.
I really recommend you read the article I linked if you're starting to feel the crunch, or worrying about when it's going to hit you, and it will hit you.

Oprah had people on there today who had done everything right, had savings and retirement plans, kept their bills low, only used credit cards for emergencies, paid those cards off as soon as they got the bills, paid more on their mortgages, and paid all of their bills in full every single month.
Then the husband got laid off.
Then the wife.
Neither of them could find another job in their field or any job for that matter.
One of the husbands even tried to get jobs at all of the fast food places in town, and none of them would hire him, too over-qualified, plus, they couldn't afford to hire anyone else and were letting people go themselves.
Both the husband and wife had now been out of work for 1 full year, had gone through all of their savings, were having to dip into their retirement accounts, using their credit cards to keep the lights on and buy groceries, and now were in debt to their credit card holders.
And they had done everything right.

Those of us who live paycheck to paycheck, man, we're gonna be screwed when this gets worse, and Suze is convinced it's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.
She had been on the show in 2007, and told Oprah then that it was coming, start prepping, it's coming, and she was right.
Now she is saying "Things will get better, get worse. ... [In] the next two or three years, it will start to turn around," Suze says. "But I'm so sorry to say it will be, in my opinion, 2015 until every single person feels hopeful again."
That is a wicked long time friends, it's really time to get serious about this.
She says that we need to start living on half of what we bring home, that means really cutting out all of the extra stuff, cable, extra cell phones and cut those bills down, eating out, hair cuts, manicures/pedicures, going to the movies, cut all of your expenses down to half of what they are now, stash the other half, and don't use any of your credit cards, use cash for everything.

This is something I already do.
I don't have cable, I have a pre-paid cell phone that I only add money to it when I need it, I don't get hair cuts, I rarely ever get manicures, once every few months I'll get a pedicure because I can't take care of my feet myself, we rarely ever eat out, like maybe once a month, and I have cut down on all of my bills.
I am so strict with the teens about water and electricity usage, I make them take shorter showers, turn off all lights, computers and video games, fans, etc, when they leave rooms, there's no long distance on my home phone, only have it because I have dsl, but my expenses are super low.
I'm paying my monthly bills right now, and my water bill is $22.71, I got my electric bill down to $119.24, my phone bill is only $12.71 because I cut out all extras, my dsl bill is $28.95, I still can't pay that one online, but oh well.
We do have Netflix for entertainment, $14.99 per month, I pay for Xbox live which is $50.00 per year, and I also pay $14.99 per month for the teens to play WoW.
My total bill expenses are $217.75, that's not too bad at all.
Then I have all of the other stuff, cat food and litter, toiletries like toilet paper, shampoo/conditioner, soap, dish soap, laundry soap, etc etc.
I probably spend about $375.00 a month in bills and household expenses, plus my rent of course, I'll figure it all out to the penny using the monthly expense calculator from Suze Orman, which once you fill it all out honestly, it will give you advice on how much money you need to put away every single month in order to have at least an 8 month emergency fund for when things get really bad.
I plan on sitting down and doing this, getting all of my bills together, all of my income together, and figuring this out.
I don't want to be one of those people, one of those families, who are now living in tent cities because things have gotten so bad.
I really am worried about this stuff, I'm disabled, a single parent, I don't have a whole lot of income coming in, I wouldn't survive in a tent city with my health the way it is, I have to get a handle on my finances and really prepare myself for whatever is to come my way.
I don't like being a worry-wart, but things are bad out there people, and single moms have it even harder, we're doing this alone, we don't have a partner to get out there and try and find a job, that extra person's income to sock away for the emergency fund, it's just us, and it's frightening.