Higher Prices, Lower Wages

There was an article in the Des Moines Register today that confirmed what everyone already knows, prices have gone up.  The premise of the article was that many people have not recovered from the Great Recession because prices have gone up and wages have gone down.  Okay, I already knew that, but the article gave statistical information which I found quite interesting.

In Iowa the median household income in 2007 was $52,371 and in 2012 was $50,957.  In the U.S. as a whole the median household income in 2007 was $56,189 and in 2012 was $51,371.  Americans are paying about 12.5% more for household goods.  In 2007 a pound of ground beef cost $2.40 and in August of this year a pound cost $3.46.  A loaf of whole wheat bread in 2007 cost $1.71 while in August of this year a loaf cost $2.04.  A pound of coffee was $3.50 in 2007 and in August of this year a pound was $5.21.  Gasoline has consistently fluctuated over the past few years and has increased to the point that it was not uncommon in Iowa to pay an average of $3.37 by the end of August this year.  Fortunately as of today, the price of a gallon of gas in our area is $2.97. 

Many Americans continue to feel the pinch as they are still cutting back, have tried to adjust to lower wages, higher costs, have lost their homes, jobs, are having problems paying their mortgage and have increased credit card debt in order to pay basic bills. 

The recent fiasco in Congress created more financial problems for many people which has led me to believe this:  we are on our own people.  I have stated this recently on this blog.  While thankfully there are programs that can be helpful for families, many people don’t want to have to need these programs.   It is comforting that they are there to help but when the government shut down occurred some of these resource programs were suspended such as the W.I.C. program (Women, Infants and Children).

I believe it is becoming the responsibility of each of us to take care of each other.  If you have a little extra and you have a neighbor in need, it is up to us to take care of our neighbors.  Sometimes we may not have a lot, but a loaf of bread or a half a gallon of milk can go a long way for someone who does not have much.

Recently I had an individual comment and ask what I am doing to combat higher prices.  I cut out some frills in our budget such as getting my nails done and working out at Curves to help our budget, but there is more that I can do.  I have become a little lax, but with retirement only 13 years away and the desire to continue to be a stay at home wife and grandmother, there is more I need to do. 

You know what it is like, you sacrifice for such a long time, you need a vacation from the sacrificing.  You get tired of counting pennies and you just want to go out to a restaurant and spend some money on a great meal.  I have been there.  Funny thing is this:  I can buy a 16 oz. steak on sale for $6.99 (recently $4.99), cut it in two, grill it, add a potato, small salad and a homemade dessert for a lot less than I will spend for the two of us at a great restaurant and it tastes better.  The same is true if I marinate some inexpensive chicken breasts and grill them with some vegetables.  The point is that sometimes you need to take a break from the scrimping but you don’t need to throw the budget out the window.  Sometimes it is creating a special meal and serve it by candle light OR as we did when our kids were little, having pizza on a blanket on the living room floor in the winter  - our version of a winter picnic.

When it comes to scrimping and getting the most out of your hard earned money, there is one thing that will save you a lot:  being aware of what you are doing daily.  I know it sounds weird, but think about it.  Are you aware when you run the water for a shower or bath how much water you are using?  When you squirt dish soap into the dish pan to wash dishes, are you using too much soap, the same being true for dishwasher detergent? When you cook a casserole could you get by with using less meat and more vegetables or pasta and rice?   Instead of purchasing ice cream bars and cones as a treat, buy a half gallon of ice cream on sale and put it in your own cones.  Sprinkle a few inexpensive sprinkles on top and you have a cheap treat for your kids.  Treats are great to keep us going during hard times.

One thing I know is a fact, you can still get great results in cleaning products by using less.  You can save even more money by making your own products or by using plain water to clean extremely dirty windows and then spritzing on the cleaner to finish them off.   The same is for dirty services of any kind.  Get the dirt or grime off as much as possible with warm or hot water and then spritz on the cleaner at the end to finish the cleaning process.

Be aware of what you are doing throughout the day and you will find ways to save money.  

As far as combating food prices, my main tool is my freezer and a storage space for pantry items.  Buying meat and frozen vegetables when they are on sale is a great tool.  If you only have the freezer above your fridge to use, then use it for expensive food items that go on sale such as meat. 

I am a believer in Ivory bar soap.  I can get it on sale with coupons all the time for about 15 cents a bar.  I am steering myself away from the shower gels which are costly.  I don’t need the fragrance as I spritz on a very light amount of perfume after I dress.  No need for the scents of a shampoo with a shower gel and then a lotion along with perfume.  Don’t buy into all of the hype and instead find a bar soap that is cheaper that you like. 

When I am at the store if I need a product and don’t have a coupon, I always give the store brand a try.  This is true for many items.  I am not brand loyal and I am always looking for a cheaper alternative.  For basic items such as canned tomatoes, pork n beans, and such I can virtually not see or taste a difference especially when these items are going into soup, chili and casseroles.  I have always added my own ingredients to pork n beans (ketchup, mustard, brown sugar and vinegar).  Why would I care if they are name brand, store brand or generic?  The same is true of laundry detergent.  If I get a name brand on sale at a really great deal, I buy it (during the summer I can get a great deal on Tide).  I reserve a bottle of  Tide, Wisk, Oxydol or other name brand for those wicked stains that won’t come out.  Then I mix the rest half and half with a store brand that I get on sale.  Once a year a store here in town has their store brand detergent on sale for $1.00 or less for a 29 load size.  I have also done the same with mixing sale bought name brand powdered detergent with the Fels Naptha powdered laundry soap recipe.

I use ivory bar soap (rub it into the stain and let it sit) or a small amount of liquid Dawn dish detergent for pretreating stains.   And since we are on the discussion of laundry, does each family need a ton of clothes in their closets? 

If you have children in the home and you are working, you will have a much more difficult time in saving money because you are busy and you may not have the time to do some money saving tasks.  I am going to address this in another post this week as I have been there and I am also there a little bit now with watching my grandson 4 days a week.  What questions do you have about saving money in general or in a specific area?  What help or ideas do you have or need?  Where are you at in your household budget?  Are you discouraged and struggling?  We may be facing a different America than was there 20 or 40 years ago, but if you are willing to put forth effort and keep a smile on your face, you can make it.  It is sometimes about attitude and the willingness to not give up. 

Leave a comment and I will address them.  

I'm Happily Back!! (And reinforcing being financially prepared)

Well, I still don't understand everything on my new computer because I haven't had time to play around with it.  I am more of a"learn as I go" kind of person. 

I am glad to be back to blogging.  At one point I considered ending this blog as I was feeling that over the past 4 years I had probably covered everything that needed to be said about living frugally.  But -- I missed blogging and the reality is that a lot has happened over 4 years and there is still a lot to be said.  It was good to take a break, even if it was largely due to needing a new laptop.

When I started this journey 4 years ago, our economy was reeling from the Great Recession.  Then things started getting a little better in some areas, and not so great in other areas.  Now with the government shut down it has shown me once again that you have to rely on yourself (and God too) when it comes to being prepared for hard times.  What if there weren't unemployment checks, W.I.C., Food Assistance, Rent Assistance, etc.  What if life was like back before the Depression in the 1930's when there weren't very many relief programs.  Families counted on each other and worked together to help each other out, but many times that wasn't even enough.

I think a lot of people in the past year or so started to forget what it was like in 2007, 2008 and 2009 when the economy really tanked and unemployment was a lot higher.  People cut back and I'm sure that many thought that they would never go back to being spendthrifts and in debt and no savings.  Time does lessen the difficulty of some of those times.   Isn't that true?  If it wasn't, there would be a lot of moms giving birth to only one child.

The Great Recession changed how many people felt about their finances.  For some people it was a temporary annoyance and for others it was a life changing experience.  No longer would they live with no savings and a tremendous amount of consumer debt.

I have been listening to the news programs regarding the government shut down and I am not going to discuss politics - let's leave it out of the discussion for this blog.  Instead it just backs up what I already know which is that you should rely on yourself when it comes to your finances.  Plan on getting no help at all when things get rough, and save, save, save during the good times so that you can weather those hard times.  

This is easier said than done.  I am guilty of becoming soft and spending when I shouldn't be spending.  Then I get back on track and ask myself what got me off track in the first place?  Many times it is impulsive small purchases that can add up over time.  

Now I make a list in an app on my phone.  Whether it is food, thread, shoes or whatever, it goes on a list.  Many times I look at the list, perhaps it is rather long, and I decide that I really don't need a lot of that stuff after all.  And, if I really need it, it is still on that ongoing list waiting for a sale.

Being prepared financially also means that you may need to learn some new skills or resurrect some old skills that you haven't used in a while.  I am sewing a lot more these days than I have in 20 years.  It took me awhile to get the knack of it again.  For Christmas each of my immediate family members will be receiving a homemade gift that I have sewn.  I have purchased fabric on sale since the beginning of the year with Christmas gifts in mind.  

Learning to mend is a skill that we need to resurrect also.  Throwing clothing out because it has a broken zipper, missing button, small tear or pulled seams is money going down the drain.  Learning to make repairs saves money.  Baking bread and cooking from scratch or just learning to cook simple meals to keep you from going out to eat all the time is a great skill.

Bottom line, when it comes to being prepared for hard times you need to rely on yourself over the long haul to make sure you are prepared.  It just makes sense that hard times will happen and you need to be prepared. I should add that leaning on God in making financial decisions is an excellent idea also.  

Over the past year we have seen a lot of disasters occur in the U.S.  From Hurricane Sandy, to wildfires, to floods and mudslides and droughts, we have had many different disasters.  People have been displaced from their homes and have lost their homes altogether.  Preparing for hard times also means being prepared for disasters.  This is one area that I am not prepared and over the next few weeks I will be doing some research on how to have my own emergency management protocol for my home and family.  

You can't put your head in the sand and think that hard times happen to other people and will never happen to you.  Many people over the course of the years have lost their jobs, when they thought they had job security.  When a disaster happens and people are being interviewed by the news media, they are in shock at the loss of their home.  None of them think it will happen to them.  When the power goes out for several days, many people are not prepared and wish they would have been.  And then lastly, many people don't want to be prepared for the death of a spouse as if talking about it, will bring on death sooner. 

Yes, we will be discussing these things over the next couple of weeks along with the topics of grandmothering, cosmetics, healthy nails on a budget and menopause.  

"The Winter of Our Hardship" - 60 minutes documentary

In yesterday's post I talked about a documentary that I had watched about a town going through excessively hard economic times and how the people were coping with losing their jobs and their fear of the future.

Go to this link to read the transcript of "The Winter of our Hardship" from a 60 minutes documentary that was recently re-aired on CNBC or to watch the segment.  The town is Wilmington, Ohio.   The documentary was aired in 2009 and then they updated it in 2010 to show that the situation had gotten worse now that more and more people were being laid off.

Learning from History

I love to read about certain events in history and in the past few years I have been reading and watching dvd’s about the Great Depression. I’m curious about the causes of the Great Depression and mainly I want to know what it was like to live through that desperate time.

My father was born in 1917 and he used to tell me what it was like during that time.  My mom was born in 1930 and remembers some of it. The difference is that my father was raised in a single parent household and they were poor. Many times he and his siblings went to bed hungry. My mom grew up in the country on a farm that supplied their produce, meat and milk and her father supplemented the farm income by teaching school.

My mom never went to bed hungry and throughout the Depression they were able to survive off of the food they raised and sold. How did it affect them? My mom loves to spend money and when my dad was alive he saved as much as he could to the point that when he died we found buckets of money hidden around the house.

In my lifetime, I have never known what hopeless feels like.  I think if you look at the picture at the top of this post, you will see what hopeless looks like.  During the Great Depression there were people stumbling through the years without hope and living in desperation.

We know of grandparents or great grandparents that lived through the Depression and you see how it affected them for the rest of their lives. They continued to save cardboard, string, rubber bands and they also continued to respect money and save it. These individuals saw the hard times and they never wanted to go through it again.

If you are interested in knowing personal stories of those who lived through the Great Depression, I recommend the following books: Hard Times by Studs Terkel  and The Worst Hard Times by Timothy Egan.  Hard Times is an oral history of the Great Depression. It is filled with stories of people Mr. Terkel interviewed. One story tells of a man going out to pick dandelions as his family hadn’t had anything to eat in a couple of days.  The book The Worst Hard Times is about those who survived the Great American Dust Bowl.

Of course if you enjoy movies you should definitely watch The Grapes of Wrath starring Henry Fonda and another movie that I enjoyed was Bound for Glory based on the life of folk singer Woody Guthrie.

I have a couple of cookbooks filled with recipes from that time period. How about some “Dandelions in Ham Gravy” or “Bologna Gravy” for supper tonight? One child remembered her mother having to feed 11 people with the only meat being 4 or 5 hotdogs. The woman would cut up about two quarts each of yellow snap beans and potatoes. Then she would slice the hotdogs very thin and would cook everything together and then add a big pat of butter. Talk about being creative in cooking.

I’m sure many of you have heard about Great Depression Cooking with Clara. Clara takes us through several recipes of what they ate during the Depression. It is extremely interesting and she now has her own cookbook. You can view many of these episodes on You Tube at this link.   Here is my favorite episode:



I know that things have been better for families during the Great Recession due to unemployment pay and food stamps to name a few. These were not available during the Great Depression. Don’t get me wrong, I know of people who have been through some hard times in the past few years, but I truly believe it was worse back in the 1930’s.  There was more fear then and rightly so.

What stories will we tell our grandchildren when they ask us what it was like to live through the Great Recession? Or how has hard economic times affected your spending now and in the future? For me it has driven home that no job is secure and that it is up to each of us to prepare for any possible hard times in the future. No one is going to force you to save, but you must find the fortitude to cut back, live on less and save for that rainy day.

Gasoline Prices - I'm going to do something about it - finally

I have told my husband that for my birthday in a few weeks, I want some kind of cart to hook onto my bike.  I want to use it for when I go grocery shopping or when I want to haul something somewhere without taking my car.  He laughed.  Perhaps he was laughing because it had been snowing today and we are still in the middle of a storm warning.  Obviously, I wouldn't be riding a bike today.   I told him I was serious. 

I started looking at Amazon today and saw a cart that is kind of like what I would get,  but I am going to do some research on this. 

I need to look further on line at the reviews and such before I would purchase a cart.

It is the in town driving that kills me on gasoline as that is the majority of the driving that I do.  You don't get great mileage with all the stops and starts.  So it's time to make a lifestyle change and really think about using the bike more for shopping trips. 

So, I'm curious, do any of you have a cart to pull behind your bike?  Any suggestions???

Changing Your Attitude About Money

Have you ever told your kids that they need an attitude change?  Many times I have said things to my kids that I should be directing to myself. 

Making the change from one income to two incomes means more than doing the numbers to balance your family budget, it means changing your attitude toward money.  This is easier said than done. 

Last week I was in a store picking up some things on my carefully prepared list, when I walked down an aisle that had plastic shelving units.  I came close to picking up those shelves when I stopped myself.  They would have to wait until the end of the month - next pay period.   We need some plastic shelves for our basement for storage but it wasn't a need at the time.   So, I put those on a short list I keep for items I feel that we need in the near future. 

Putting off purchases until you can afford them or work them into your budget, is something that is foreign to many people.  After all lets look at those shelves.  The price for one of those plastic shelving units was $15.00.  I could have bought them then, but I wanted to keep more money in our checking account at this time of the month and I knew that I could get one shelving unit at the end of the month and one at the end of September. 

This is a change in attitude toward money or perhaps it is a respect for money.  It looks as if this attitude change is sweeping the country.  The news reported that households are now saving close to 6.3% of their income as opposed to less than 1% before the Recession hit. 

This Recession has been hard on a lot of families but if there is one good thing that will come from it, it is that people are starting to respect their hard earned money and have changed their attitudes about spending and saving. 

Lessons from the Economy

In the past week there have been a lot of news reports and newspaper articles suggesting that the economy is rebounding slowly or we are in danger of swinging into a double dip recession. I am not an economist, although I do find the cause and effect situation very interesting. I read everything I can about the current economy, not because I am a pessimist but for the reason that knowledge is power. We could be in for a few more lean years and knowing that helps in making decisions and financial goals.

This is why I keep doing what I am doing - making my own laundry soap, hanging clothes on the line, unplugging electrical items when not in use, finding any way I can to save some money - it is not only for our present living circumstances, but for our future.  Some of the money saving things I do, many of my friends would never even consider.   Then again I never want to work full time again and I never want to be caught unprepared if the economy should tank again.  I'm not saying that we should live in fear, instead we should make financial decisions so that we are prepared for anything that life throws at us.

I live in Iowa and I read the Des Moines Register.  Per that newspaper, nationally the recession began in December 2007 and it hit Iowa in October 2008.  An economist is predicting that Iowa won't return to its pre-recession employment until the end of 2011.   That is probably the best case scenario.  What does this tell me?  More and more people will need help from my local food pantry and I need to step up to the plate and save money so that I can in turn give more.  It also tells me that I need to continue on the path to frugality and learn more ways to save money along with being more diligent and intentional about saving money.  This isn't temporary.  When the economy rebounds, and history shows that it will, I will continue to be frugal.  It only makes sense.  After all living below your means brings peace of mind. 

In the Des Moines Register there is a column that I read called "Your Two Cents Worth" in which readers briefly make a comment about anything.  Here is what was in the paper today "I still need a job.  I will work more than one if it will pay my bills.  I've given up so much already, that some extra time away from my kids to work a second job couldn't possibly hurt much more.  I used to be a health care worker."  and this one:  "Where do you go for support when the only problem you have is that you cannot get a job? I have never been this depressed before." 

The next jobs report comes out on Friday and people are already wondering what that report will say.  Now we are also learning that the recession has inflicted more damage on the economy than previously thought.

Why am I posting this and even bringing all of this bad news up?  Because there is something I can do about this.

My DH has a job and we have adjusted our lifestyle to live on his income.  We have had bumps along the way but for the most part we are making it.  However, I never want to go through another financial meltdown or "Great Recession" unprepared.  That is why I find any way I can to save some money that I can in turn put in the bank.  I am sure that a lot of people feel the same way.  It goes back to people that lived through the Great Depression. Those individuals became frugal throughout their life and I would say that by living below their means and stretching their resources, they were probably happier because they were prepared for leaner economic times. 

Again another comment from the "Your Two Cents Worth" article in today's paper - "Most of us who grew up during the Depression clean our plates, turn off the lights and squeeze the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube.  Squeezing that last bit of toothpaste out probably is not worth the trouble, but old habits die hard."

We have goals for our future - retirement, siding and new windows for the house, a new roof, putting our son through college and lastly (but not necessarily the least important), a nice big fat savings account for the future.  I also have a goal to continue to support our local food pantry and to continue to give money to our church.

Some people would rather not read anything in the newspaper and forget about the economic meltdown.  I am reminded daily from reading the newspaper that I am blessed that my DH has a job and it affirms my continued path to live a frugal lifestyle. 

"The Farmer's Wife" a dvd review

Back in 1998 David Sutherland produced a series on PBS entitled "The Farmer's Wife."  I remember watching the three episodes over three evenings.  I have never lived on a farm.  My Uncles had small farms that they maintained along with careers in teaching.  We live in Iowa where there are a lot of farm operations.  When the weather has been bad, such as now with the flooding, you can almost feel the tension in the air of farmers that are trying to get into their fields to spray the soy beans or watching their fields turn into small lakes. 

I could never do it.  Perhaps I don't have enough faith or enough resilience.  I admire farm wives as they carry the burden of the farm operation along with their husband.  They help on the farm, raise the children, keep chickens and a garden for their family's use and also to sell eggs and produce at the farmer's market.  I think it is a life you either love or hate.

So, there I sat for three nights watching a farm family in Lawrence, Nebraska and seeing them fight to save their farm and also their marriage.  David Sutherland followed Darrel and Juanita Buschkoetter for over three years on location at their farm.  The cameras caught everything. 

It showed a desperate struggle to save their farm operation.  It also showed the stress and how it affected their marriage.  Juanita went from being a passive farm wife to a wife that was fully involved in the farm operation down to understanding everything about FHA and all the finances of the farm.  Darrel at one point was working in a factory and coming home to farm.  One time it showed him driving a truck during the day and coming home at night to farm.

Juanita cleaned houses.  She was being paid by the hour and had to rush to clean the houses in order to get home when their 3 daughters got off the bus frrom school.  Juanita was determined to be a good mother and wife.  She did everything she could to create a happy home for her children.  One scene showed how she had created a Halloween party for her kids and neighbor children with only $5.  They had been wanting a Halloween party for years and she finally decided she wanted to do it for her children.  She was quite inventive.

The hardest part for me was to see how little they had.  Having little resources, having a husband with an anger management problem due to the stress and not having hope, was hard for me to watch at times.  Then imagine that this doesn't go on for just a week, but for years.  Add to that the lack of family support from Juanita's side of the family.

The expressions on Darrel and Juanita's faces during some of the interviews speak to their plight.  They have very little or no money for food at one point.  Juanita talks about not having meat and after awhile it gets to you.  Juanita does get support from a local group that helps farmers that are struggling.  She receives some food from a local food pantry and then they do end up going on food stamps.  Juanita does it for her kids.  They need nutritious food.  She talks with a crisis counselor about not having enough money to take her daughter to the doctor for an ear infection.  Juanita also attends a clinic with other farm families and shares her story about the farm and the long road they have to get out of debt.  As the camera pans the room you see in the faces of the farmers' and their wives that if they had a chance, they would probably be telling the same story.

Juanita sees education as a future for their family so she enrolls in a community college.  Towards the end of the series you see her graduating from the community college wearing a dress she borrowed from a friend.  She looks amazing. 

Every month and year they put their hopes on future crops, future sale of farm animals but the weather was against them.  At one point Darrell makes a powerful statement, "If you have never had money problems, then you don't know what it is like." 

In my marriage we have had dry periods when money was tight, but never to the level of the Buschkoetters.  Actually, their story is not unique.  I remember the farm crisis of the early 1980's and many farmers went bankrupt and had to abandon farming.  The Buschkoetters were doing everything they could to save their family farm.

Towards the end of the series their life is getting better.  However due to what they had been through, they were cautiously optimistic. 
Why do I recommend this dvd series?  It shows a family going through a crisis.  It is honest in its telling of the entire story.  Nothing is hidden.  You need to watch it if only to see what it is like to live on a farm and see the stresses that farm families endure.

I bought the dvd series about 5 years ago when I saw it on sale.  I hadn't watched it in about a year but with my recent conviction to get back on track in my finances, I pulled it out.  I've been watching a little bit every day. Sometimes I need to see a story of a struggling family to make me appreciate what I do have.  I don't have to worry about not being able to afford a doctor's visit or not being able to afford meat, but I do need to be more cognizant of what resources I do have. I need to respect those resources and value them enough not to waste them.

The dvd series is a 3 dvd set and is available on Netflix.

Our Local Economy and Walmart

If we go by what economists tell us and for that matter politicians, the present recession began in December of 2007. 

We saw massive lay-offs and business closures in 2008 and 2009 in our community.  In the past few weeks there have been three jobs advertised in the newspaper.  Just three jobs and those are for truckers.  So if you can't drive a truck, you're out of luck. 

When I am around a group of people, the topic usually goes to the state of the economy and the lack of jobs.  I pay attention to these discussions since I lost my job last summer in part due to the economy. It doesn't look like we will be coming out of this recession anytime soon, and I believe it will take a few years to recover and even then, our life will never be the same.  We will be living by different rules - save up and then buy; have a nice sum in savings for a rainy day.  Basically we have been slapped on the wrist for living beyond our means and we need to go back to good old fashioned money values.  Of course, these have always been good rules to live by.

I noticed that Walmart has been doing a lot of advertising about lowering the prices on their groceries beginning April 1st.  This intrigued me.  Why now?  I had heard last fall that Walmart was doing pretty well as people were doing a lot of their shopping there in order to stretch their dollar.  In our community Walmart is the most expensive place to buy your groceries.  People go there anyway as they have not priced the other grocery stores or have been lulled into the feeling that Walmart is always cheaper. 

I have noticed some changes in our local Walmart over the past month.  Namely, the main aisles are mostly free of any displays and I don't seem to see as many employees as I am walking through the store during the day.

About the only thing I buy at Walmart is toiletries (if they are on sale) and pet food.  But last week I stopped by the fabric department to buy some fabric to make some skirts and tops for the summer.  The lady that waited on me has worked in that department for a long time.  I made a comment about the t.v. ad I had seen advertising that Walmart is lowering its prices on groceries.  She leaned into me and quietly said "they have laid off quite a few people and families are hurting."  She went on to tell me that many department heads are now doubling up and covering two departments because of these layoffs.

One could surmise that the way Walmart is going to save the consumer money on groceries is to cut expenses - namely laying off employees.  So it made sense my not seeing as many displays and  employees in the store when I shop during the day.  Time will tell but it is usually standard that the employees are the first expense to be cut.  Wages take up a big chunk of any business' bottom line. 

A couple of years ago I read the book "Nickel and Dimed" about living on minimum wage in America.  The book was written before 2007 and it opened my eyes to the working poor.  The author went under cover and worked several minimum wage jobs around the country and tried to live alone on what she earned.  There was one chapter on working at Walmart. 

I will never blog that we should all boycott Walmart, as I will still shop there for the toiletries, pet food and now fabric.  It's a catch 22 - if people stop shopping Walmart in our area, there will be more lay offs. If you continue to shop Walmart, then you are in a small way supporting Walmart's way of doing business.  It's hard to know what to do. 

The economy is becoming old news to many people.  They are tired of hearing about it. I have found this true of families that have not been affected by unemployment.  When your needs are being met and life is going on as usual, it is easy to forget about those that aren't so well off. 

Every night the national news always has a story about the economy.  We should not become numb to this news or complacent.  Times are still very hard in our area, which means those of us that have incomes need to step up more and make donations to our local food pantries and charities to help others out.  We should never forget that those of us that have the means, are obligated to help those that are without.