Window Shopper

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Having just seen the breaking news that the price of oil is down UNDER $70 a barrel now, are the oil companies going to continue to give us the break we have needed from this greed that they continue to put on us? Honestly, I believe that they should have done this long before now. When the housing market went downhill, it would have been fantastic if some of the big oil companies had the compassion to drop their prices so that Americans could keep their homes. I have no doubt whatsoever that big oil contributed to many of the homes lost during the crunch on mortgages. Don’t get me wrong here. People should not have fallen for that snake oil salesman’s dream loan. But if big oil had one grain of compassion, they could have helped the economy and the American homeowners who were standing on the precipice with their mortgages.

Hopefully, big oil will get a clue since we have stayed away from the pumps, found other ways to cope. It sure does not hurt to let them know that we can deal with this and live without as much gas. I truly hope it hurt them in the right place, the wallet. They had no problems whatsoever hurting us there. In these perilous financial times, it is a breath of fresh air to see the prices of things coming down again. I did not think we would see that unless we had a full blown depression. And that still may occur.

Having said all that, I also saw today that retailers have plans to give big breaks on prices this holiday season. That is a fantastic thought too. We have been hit and hit hard in many places at once. It will be a relief to see lower prices especially during the Christmas buying season which has definitely started. All in all, it might just be a better time now. Well, except for the stock market which has fallen as of this writing. Who knows. It may bounce back at closing. The good news is all about the gas prices and goods prices. That will help us all.

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I had to check this out for myself but it looks to be a good plan. So many families are going under because they are paying things that will not matter and do not pay things that really do matter. People need a place to live. They need food. They need to have lights and water. They need to have heat in the winter and, frankly, these days with the weather outside looking the way it does, they need the air conditioning as well. It is no longer an option. Now it’s a necessity.

But you can do some things to help your family. These are just suggestions. They are not a rule of thumb or any type of real advice since everyone’s situation is different. These things may not have anything to do with your situation at all. But if this is good for you, then it helps.

1) Deal with credit card debt. Pay the bills on that because the interest rate is going to kill you financially if you don’t. When the things are paid off, CUT THEM UP!!! Get rid of them. They are a huge part of the problem.

2) Pay what you need to have….utility bills are top of the list there. Also, your rent or mortgage is very important. If you don’t pay that, you won’t have to worry about utility bills. As homeless people you won’t have any. If your bills or mortgage are out of control, contact those whom you owe. They will work with you. DON’T IGNORE THIS! The bills do not go away magically. Things get shut off or you become homeless. That should not be an option.

3) For those who use heating oil or propane, contact your company and see if they have an incentive plan to pay for the oil or propane in the summer time when the prices are lower. Most places have such plans. Then, in the winter when the prices are way higher, you will get the fill up for the summer rates. The risk is that the price will go down but since that is highly unlikely, it’s worth the risk.

4) You can do things around the house to lower your heating and cooling bills by simply..in winter, lowering your thermostat a couple of degrees. Believe me, you get used to it. We did. In the summer, raise the thermostat a couple of degrees. This will save you some money. That bill is going to be high enough.

5) Insulate if at all possible. That will cut down on your loss to the outside.

6) Prioritize what is needed and what is not. Be brutal if you have to. No one needs that many snacks or cokes. Do you really need that extra cell phone? Does your cable or satellite have to have all those extra channels? Stepping down one level on either of those will save you quite a bit of money. Must the family eat out all those times? Go back to home cooking. There’s a benefit. You have family meals again.

It’s getting so that people are desperate now. I understand that. But it’s time to get in there and find ways to survive all this. With families helping each other, this can work. People don’t always have to lose out.

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No, utility bills aren’t new. But with today’s rising prices at the grocery store and the gas prices at the pump getting higher and higher, in many cases, it’s all a family can do to survive each month. And now the rise of the utility bills just to put the icing on the very bloated cake. It seems that with the end of winter, because of the difficulty people are having in coming up with the money for all the bills, the utility bills are starting to suffer. Lots of people have opted to stop paying the light bill and the gas bill since it’s not freezing out there anymore.

Okay, our family is one of those that lives almost completely on Social Security. Anyone who gets one of those checks or knows someone who does, knows that there is nothing rich about that. The crime is that the checks do not keep up with the continually rising prices of literally everything in sight. So, what is a family going to do when there is no food in the house, some of the people need medications that are sky high priced and the bills need to be paid? They either end up removed from their homes or they find themselves buried in bills they could not pay. Where do you draw the line? In the past, it was a rule of thumb to pay the bills especially those that were going to keep the family in lights, hot water and heat or coolness. I remember when the amounts of food coming into the house depended on how much the bills were each month.

These days, people are thinking more about making sure they have enough food instead. But the reality is that there is not enough money to go around anymore. Most of the middle income, lower and lowest income people are being touched by this incredibly bad situation. What can anyone do about this? I have no answers here. Perhaps when the greed dies down, we can survive all this. I have no idea. And the reality is that it will get worse before it gets better. Count on it.

This is not a fun subject but it is reality and it must be addressed. Since the congress appears to be doing nothing about all this, maybe if we made enough noise about it something would have to be done. What do you think about that?

EDIT NOTE: We just got our electric bill for this month. It was up considerably from last year at this time. We actually used less wattage but were charged more for it. Big shocker. The funny, as in very peculiar, thing is that the amount our bill was for this month was the largest bill we ever paid before. The largest bill we had last year was in August and was slightly lower than the one we just received. This is not going to get better any time soon.

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