Monday, October 06, 2008
the slow drain
Like you, I've been following this economic meltdown. I'll admit sometimes I only vaguely understand the meaning of what I'm reading and hearing. For me, two podcasts have sort of crystallized what this situation means. The first is here, it's called The Giant Pool of Money, and it explains, in plain language, how The Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis (it requires capital letters now) came to be. The second explains the slow drain in this giant pool, the resulting credit freeze, and the resulting $700 billion bailout package. It's called Another Frightening Show About the Economy and you can find it here. I have to say that--although very enjoyable and informative--neither of these shows have made me feel better about the trajectory of our economy, nor have they actually awakened me from surreal slumber, the feeling that none of this will affect me anyway. I hope it doesn't. Now that I've written that, I'm thinking of ways it has affected me. Mostly my spending habits. Let's just say the trips to Sonic for the 32-oz Diet Cokes with chocolate have tapered off. What about you?
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The frequency of my trips to grocery stores has gone down quite a bit. But I don't think I'm only one - one store I use the most often has been pretty empty lately.
The better question is what haven't I cut down on. You know how much I love to shop, and I hardly go to the stores at all anymore. We have also had to cut out drives in the mountains to see the changing leaves, because with gas those drives now cost at least $50. We have already been recycling, but now we are really focusing on REDUCING and REUSING.
Thanks for those two sites to check out. I have been following it on NPR, but like you, often find myself wondering what the heck it all means. It does make me angry though, because this crisis has been caused by the people in our country who we are now bailing out. I just think if they hadn't been so greedy, some of this might have been avoided....
I have cut down on visits home. This year, I have only been twice. We also buy fewer snack foods and have gone on fewer dates. Also, I have just been looking around the house to see what I already have that I can use instead of buying something new.
I feel like we've already become minimalists on lots of things, so there isn't a whole lot to cut down on! I have been more watchful of combining errands so we don't fill up the cars so much. And I've been better at shopping the grocery ads - I even found a bakery outlet where I now buy all my bread for half as much as the regular stores charge! And then, of course, we've stopped going on all those cruises....
how did you know i have been walking around my life telling everyone i know to listen to those very same TAL episodes? wait, are you getting paid to advertise for them? i knew it. those cheap old so-and-so's.
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