Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics General Stuff What would you give up first?

Not really. For a person leaving within their means the total debt to income ratio (including housing expense) is around 35-41%. Adding a monthly payment of $60-80 to that (assumed minimum monthly payment for a fridge) will not push you that much higher to make a store deny credit.

OK,I think we're getting a little off topic here, so I'll try and get back on track. What would I give up?

Movies, concerts would be the easiest since I can't remember the last time I went to a movie in a theater. Same with concerts, except for a 6-week classical summer concert series to the Colorado Music Festival that we've had tickets to for the past 23 years. That one would be hard to talk my husband out of at this point. It's our one big entertainment extravagance.

Eating out would probably be fairly easy since we live in the country and once you're home, you don't normally feel like venturing out again anyway.

Cell phones only became a necessity when our only child went off to college. He's set to graduate next May, so we'll hang on to them at least a little longer, but I could certainly drop the family plan thing and just get one of those that use prepaid minutes.

Cable/satellite TV - After getting satellite service after years of cable, I have to say there really is a lot of repetitious crap on there and I could easily do with just the basic channels or no TV if things got really desperate.

I've been very fortunate to have a job where I can check the Internet during off times, and rarely use the one at home, but I would miss my email access.

None of this stuff would have really worried me when my husband and I were both working full time, but when he was forced to leave his job on medical disability due to his Parkinson's disease, it certainly caused us to pause and think what really were necessities in life.

My heart goes out to Greger and the others here who are struggling. Things have to get better and, hopefully, sooner than later. Hang in there.

My list:
1. Cell Phone - I have a prepaid cell phone in the car, mostly for emergencies. It might get used once a month, if that.
2. Movies/shows/concerts - No big deal; we only go a couple of times a year. If we splurge, we'll do three days at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in August. It's only a couple hundred bucks total for both of us and it seems to give us our live music fix for the entire year.
3. Eating out - Most times I'd rather eat my own cooking. It's better, cheaper, and I get to choose the menu!
4. Cable/Internet Access - We get our Internet from our cable provider and my wife has to have it for her in-home business. That one's non-negotiable. If we had to unbundle, I could probably give up cable as long as we had the 'Net.

Okay, no fair giving up stuff you don't do anyway!

I just realized - one of the first things on my list would be my expensive haircuts - even though I only get my hair cut 4 or 5 times a year!

You know, after reading through the thread, I was just thinking that the whole point of the original post might have been what actual expenditures in your life are you willing to give up. In that spirit, my original two are still valid. I spend money each month on Satellite TV, but could get rid of it if necessary. And I spend waaayyy too much money on soda (I don't like coffee, so that"s really my only caffeine source), so I could give that up to save money. I could also renegotiate my cell phone package to reduce the money I spend there. And I have a satellite pay radio in my vehicle, I could give that up.

My apartment rent was $1072.00 (1bd/1ba). My mortgage is going to be $1236.00 (3bd/2.25 ba). That's an income ratio of nearly 46% for rent; 48% for the mortgage.

No one I know has that low of a income-to-debt ratio ratio of 35% - 41%. Those figures, for the Bay Area, are simply unrealistic.

So, yes, in my situation, a store would deny me credit currently. Three years ago? No problem.

It's fine. I paid cash. So I don't have that bill hanging over my head.

Sadly, but conveniently, I look around and know that most of what I have & use can be categorized as luxury. I've lost the ability to rationalize those items as necessary for the raising & education of kids...they're out of the house. Even when they were here, I found that most of what I had, most of what I bought was unnecessary. The easiest place to look in comparison was at my parents & what they required to raise 7 kids...very little actually. Necessities were defined as what was necessary, and not as what was available, not as what others had, not as the newest, latest or greatest to replace yesterday's newest, latest & greatest. We are a "I want" society. We, for the most part, do not understand what "I need" truly means. We, for the most & lucky part, don't have a need to understand the concept of need. Conspicuous consumption is our norm, unapologetically...mostly because we don't understand...or really care unless some luxury deprivation inconveniences us. And even then, we don't get it. We whine and move on to something else we don't need but which sooths our need to have things we don't need.

Ahhhhhh....ain't we spoiled....

Gregor is going to be fine - he as a terrific backup plan.

First to go would be (and will be, I think) the satellite TV (we decided to disconnect about 2 months ago. I called them and said we wanted to disconnect as it wasn't worth the cost. The agent said they'd give us a $100 credit and also reduce the cost for 6 months by $20 - no strings attached).

Second would be movies, concerts, etc. I've already bought tix for productions at our local theater. Won't buy anymore.

Third would be eating out (we rarely do that now).

Fourth, cell phone. Have a contract until Aug. Only use it to call home, if necessary, when I'm out of the house.

THERE SHE IS THERE SHE IS!!! Dockside's back! People have been asking about you & I deleted your message; couldn't email you.

It's good to see you!