Tough times call for tighter budget

With the economy crunch upon us it certainly makes sense to cut back on unnecessary spending and stick to the necessities of life. I am already doing that by making my shopping list before heading off to town.

My mother always made a shopping list. I used to, but somehow got out of the habit. Until recently, I just picked up what I needed whenever. However, I ended up with more than I needed. They do make those impulse shelves at the checkout stand for a reason. Retailers want to snag the impulsive buyer, tempting them with stuff to "ca-ching, ca-ching" up the cash register.

The other day I got to a checkout register with a bunch of groceries and realized what I had done when the tab started adding up to bigger numbers.

I told the clerk, "Whoa! I don't think I really need that, nor do I need that."

I asked him if he would like me to take it back to the shelf.

He said, "No. This is happening a lot these days."

I apologized for any inconvenience, but my gosh ... what a difference it made when I re-evaluated my true needs.

It seems we Americans are on a proverbial shopping spree, a year-round frenzy if you get my meaning. I bet half of the junk we buy will eventually up in a landfill or storage shed somewhere - perhaps sooner than we think.

I've heard some nightmare stories about storage sheds these days. People losing their homes stash their worldly belongings in them, then can't make the monthly payments. They end up letting the whole works go on the auction block for a fraction of what it is actually worth.

So I guess we Americans are getting a lesson on value these days. I'm trying to instill a sense of value in my grandchildren. If you value it, take care of it and it will last. But because American's have become a throw-away society, why value something when it's so cheap and easy to replace.

Well, not these days. At least, not anymore.

The buying has slowed down and sensible people are extremely cautious. It makes far more sense to buy something that will last and then take care of it. I'm still digging out clothing that is five and six years old but still in style - and getting compliments on it at work. So I plan to attack the storage shed on my property and see just what it holds. I might find an entire new wardrobe in those mothballs. It's true, I've been a packrat. But right, it's a good thing.

Back at the grocery store lately, I've been seeing a lot more of those cloth green shopping bags hanging off the arms of shoppers. It's funny too, because the stores are actually capitalizing on them. They aren't free. A buck ninety nine will buy you a grocery bag that will live almost forever. However, those of us who rely on the plastic bags and paper type we can use for garbage can liners are going to be in trouble if the ever become unavailable.

It's all too bad. We could all take a lesson from our forefathers who went through the Great Depression of the 1930s. I've heard some real gut wrenching stories about survival during that era.

Back in the olden days, Americans burned trash in 55 gallon barrels. I remember Dad having one on the property where I grew up. Garbage was burned. Tin cans and the unburnable trash went to the landfill. Because it was tin, it eventually decomposed.

Not so with aluminum and plastic, which it does make sense to recycle.

When I was a kid, we recycled bicycles. I ended up with my older sister's bike and she ended up with the oldest sister's. Dad refurbished them and they looked brand new to us at Christmas.

A while back I came across a homeless man who was trying to hide his bicycle in the bushes along the road. I was headed out to check on horses and I told him it was private property. He said he'd only leave it long enough to go to Wal-Mart where he was going to buy a new bike because he had a flat tire on the nice-looking one he was hiding.

I couldn't believe what I heard. A homeless man thought he was better off buying a new bike rather than fixing the tire on the one he had? Maybe I am a bit out of date, but this seemed to me to be the icing on the cake. He either had a large social security check coming in or was doing quite well on the corner downtown. But he certainly wasn't making his dollars count. You know, sometimes it's hard to feel sorry for some people, rich, poor or homeless.