by P J Scanland

Created on: March 20, 2009

Surviving Difficult Financial Times

If your belt has been tightened so much you look like an hourglass, here are a few ideas to help you loosen it a bit.

Leave your car parked and walk or ride your bike to do some errands. You get the added benefit of exercise you didn't pay for at a gym.
It might make you feel better and perhaps even save on future medical expenses since you are improving your fitness.

Plant a garden if you can. Fresh vegetables this summer and fall could save you some money at the grocery. As you tend the garden it could improve your mood.
Working in the dirt is a good stress reliever.

Carpooling is not just to your job and back. Take trips to the mall or the grocery with friends and neighbors if possible. Or take turns and pick things up for each other.

Get back to the barter system. Your doctor may not take a chicken for stitching up your child's cut finger, but your neighbor might take a chicken dinner for replacing your leaky faucet.
Get your neighborhood together and see what you can do to help each other.

Drink more water and leave the designer coffee and soft drinks as a weekly treat. The water is better for your body and has no calories.
This might be an effortless way to lose those extra pounds you hate and get a bit healthier in the bargain. And I don't mean bottled water. I mean the stuff that has been coming out of your tap for years and years. You are already paying for that and your municipal water district keeps it safe.
Sulfur taste in your water?
Filter it and keep it in your refrigerator. That is all many of the bottled water people are doing before they package it in plastic anyway.

Look for bargain food in the produce section, meat section or back aisles of your grocery.
It could be half price or more and if the expiration date is today then eat it tonight.

Patronize the small businesses in your area. Ask for deals. Locally owned businesses are responsible for their own pricing and might be willing to work with you to move their inventory. Can you walk or bike there?

Mow your own lawn for the summer. Maybe even mow your elderly neighbor's lawn and let her pay you in homemade jelly.
The exercise might do you good and you can get a tan for free while you do it.

Quit smoking, it's expensive and the tobacco companies would serve the world better if their farmers grew food anyway.

And if you have not already heard this a million times, put your credit cards in a drawer and use them for emergencies only. Pay your balance as soon as you can and get into the habit of spending what you earn, not the promise of a paycheck that you may not get.

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