Call me crazy, but. . . . .

I find it difficult to feel much sympathy for the wives of husbands who work on Wall Street, who have seen their incomes shrink significantly. For example, in this LA Times article, one woman's husband was making $400,000 a year ($200,000 base salary, and, I presume, $200,000 in bonuses). Now he's down to "just" $200,000 a year. No bonus, poor guy.

Am I seriously supposed to feel bad for people who were earning---on one salary---more than I'll make in ten years?? I'm usually not this snarky on this blog (I'm plenty snarky in real life), but $200,000 is a ton of money. If you move out of your giant house with the giant yard in the great neighborhood, and maybe trade in your giant cars for one efficient one, and consider NOT spending $500 on a 3-year old's "back to school" clothes, perhaps, just perhaps, it won't hurt so bad.

Now, I know everything's relative. My salary is pretty good, and my income is actually right at the median for Portland when I include the earnings from my second job. I've got it pretty good, in spite of the crazy fun I've had with credit cards in the past (one more month to the Big Payoff, folks!). There are people out there who would look at my life and think it's pretty luxurious, frugality notwithstanding.

Truly, though, I don't think I can stand to read too many more articles about Wall Street wives (or employees, or whatever) who were making upwards of $200,000 and more a year, who are now forced to (gasp!) clean their own houses and make their own meals.

There. That's my rant. I hope to be less snarky as the week goes on!

What we've given up. . . .

As the economic news continues to worsen, I'm thanking my lucky stars I started living more frugally almost a year ago (!!!), and am used to the 'loss' of certain luxuries. What have I given up, over the past ten months?

• Cable TV (with all the 'extra' time I have I read more, see my friends more, and write this blog)
• My gym membership
• A warm(er) house in the winter
• A cool(er) house in the summer
• My overly expensive Verizon wireless plan (I'm now a pay-as-I-go wireless customer, and it's working out brilliantly, thank you very much!)
• My car (I'm now a public transportation junkie)
• Buying books left and right (have I mentioned that the local library has FREE books and movies, AND has heating and air conditioning for those extra cold/hot days?)

What's interesting (and yes, disturbing) to me is reading about families who are just beginning to cut out their own luxuries, whatever they are. CNN has a section on its website called 'iReport', and this week quite a few American families detailed how their lives have changed since the economy started heading south. After reading some of these stories, I, for one, feel incredibly lucky to have not one, but TWO jobs, considering there are highly-educated and experienced folks out there who cannot even find one job.

Even in the midst of paying off debt and trying to live more frugally, I think this new economic downturn can result in positive changes, both politically and personally. The fear and anxiety that Americans are feeling just serves to emphasize to me that living below my means is the way to go: in healthy economic conditions I can save for the future while enjoying my life; in horrific conditions like we're witnessing now, my frugal ways will help me stay afloat until the economy improves, as it always does!

Preparing for a strike. . . .

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, my labor union may very well call for a strike in the next 60 days. I do have $1,000 in my emergency fund, so I'm feeling somewhat comfortable with the idea of not earning any money for a few days (as long as it's no longer than a few days!)

However, thinking about the possible financial ramifications of striking has led me to consider whether I should deposit my 'debt repayment' money into my emergency fund for the next two months, just to beef it up a little more. I lowered contributions into my 403b last month, so that I would have $550 free to use toward credit card debt, beginning in the month of May.

Should I put off the oh-so-sweet (so sweet I can almost taste it, folks) notion of being consumer debt-free by August? It's possible that the extra money won't be needed at all, and after the threat of strike has passed (hopefully with an adequate salary increase, to boot) I can take it out of my EF and send it merrily along to American Express.

Just for kicks, I updated my debt spreadsheet, which is shown below. As you can see, I've paid off $1530.84 in the past two months (primarily using my tax refunds, but also increasing the amounts I'm sending from my salary). Two of my cards are completely GONE! Only one more remains. . . . !