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I was just washing dishes and, as usual, doing a mindless chore is the time I use to think deeper thoughts. I’m not talking about thoughts on string theory, or how the universe works. Where my thoughts were at is how to do things more economically now that we are in a recession. I understand it’s bad for the economy to not spend money, but hey, if you’ve had your hours cut, or worse, then there won’t be any more spending until a new job is on the horizon. At our home, no one’s been laid off. In fact, my husband has his own computer programming business, and he’s the boss, of course, but still, business for him is at a lull right now, too. Companies can afford the luxury of purchasing custom programming when it’s in the corporate budget to do so. Unfortunately, not many companies feel they can afford programming services right now, at least for a while. That being said, I, too, am feeling the pinch and want to do as much as I can to conserve money, and spend as little as I can, but still have fun and enjoy life.

I thought of some suggestions we can all use. I’m sure you’ve thought of some of these before, so forgive me for being redundant, but maybe for some of you, these ideas might be something you’d consider having not thought of them before.

Here’s my list of some ways to save money and live more simply which reflects the economic times:

1. Instead of going out to a restaurant or to an expensive 1st run movie, get a group of friends together and host at eachother’s homes once or twice a month. The host can make a home cooked meal, and rent the newest movie on DVD. You can play cards, or board games. By doing this, you can still have the feel of going out, enjoy the fellowship of friends and save money at the same time. Help the hostess out by bringing a small dish or dessert.

2. Instead of buying books, make friends with your local library. Spend time browsing the library and start checking out books. Usually you can keep them for 3 weeks. If you don’t do it already, bring your kids and make it a special treat to go to the library. Let them pick out their own titles and by doing this, you teach them there is more to do when you’re a kid in the 21st century besides play on the computer. There’s reading to do! If there’s a book hot off the press you are dying to get your hands on, check the library to see when they’ll be getting a fresh copy in. Usually it’s within 3 weeks of release. Check with the librarian. Maybe they can get it sooner if you request it. The same goes for DVD’s and music CD’s. Check them out for free and enjoy them. Your tax money pays for this. You might as well take advantage of it.

3. Do you enjoy your specialty coffee which tends to cost you $3 or $4? Lower your standards and purchase some pricier, gourmet coffee at the grocery store (believe me, worlds cheaper than Starbucks per cup, and still tastes expensive). Buy some aerosol whipped cream and some flavored creamers and you can almost replicate costly restaurant cups.

Take advantage of Free Coffee Monday at McDonalds. Go through the drive up and hit every McDonalds in your town till your’e satisfied. Sounds cheap, but hey, why not? If you’re out on Mondays doing your errands (which you should be because, afterall, it’s Free Coffee Mondays!), then it makes going much more convenient because you are already out.

4. Think of fun things you can do at home for enjoyment. If you are an artist, or have artistic tendencies, pull out your art supplies and make art on a daily basis. Art journals are a wonderful way to make a quick, less than an hour project.

b. Read more. See #2

c. Play board games, have card game nights, or enjoy a game of Mah Jong on your computer.

5. Turn your thermostat down to 68 and wear a sweater. Throw an extra blanket on your bed at night.

6. Quit your costly gym membership. Take the money you’d spend in one month on your membership and buy yourself a few dumbells, an exercise ball or a mini trampoline and workout at home. OR, just start walking. If you have a dog, bring the dog, too. It’s a free activity and the best form of exercise you can do. And you know how I know that? The Hulk guy who works at the gym told me so. (I quit the gym…so I can give you this advise.)

7. When the warm weather comes, use your bike to do small errands or just use the bike as another form of exercise.

8. Now is a good time to cancel your landline and just pay for the cell phone.

9. Cancel your newspaper subscriptions and read the paper online.

10. Shop thrift shops for clothing and household items. Goodwill and Salvation Army get Target clearance castoffs on a weekly basis. If you go to your junk store regularly, you can find new Target items for a song. (I found Shabby Chic bedding brand new there. You can too.) While you’re there, check the toy aisle for board games. Most junk stores sell games and usually they have all the pieces. It’s so much cheaper than buying them new.

11. Now is a time to go through your cabinets both in the kitchen and bathroom and use up all the stuff you have. If you’re like me, you probably have 10 bottles of lotion, 6 bottles of conditioner and about 20 bars of soap. Make it a promise to yourself and your wallet that you will not buy anything you have an excess of at home. Use it up, and wear it out. Last summer I did just this. I went through my bathroom cabinets and found excesses of lotions and conditioners. I told my kids to not dare by any of these two items until we’ve used up what we already bought.
Same goes for the pantry. If you have lots of one item, either canned goods or whatever, find some recipes that use those food items. Use it up, before it’s too gross to eat. If you really won’t use those items, take them over to a food pantry and dontate them while they are still edible. In these tough economic times, there will surely be more families taking advantage of food pantrys and your donations will help.

Take inventory of your freezer. Dig out that pot roast that’s been at the bottom of the bin for 6 months. Thaw it out and cook it.

12. Do you enjoy being cultured and have a difficult time giving it up? You don’t have to. If you live near a city with a museum, check and see if they have a free day. Here in Chicago, most of our museums do. The Art Institute has a free Thursday. Save even more money by taking public transportation instead of driving. You won’t have to pay for the gas, or the parking and you get an added bonus-you can walk and see the city all while exercising.

13. Drink green tea and water, take your vitamins, your baby asprin and exercise. Stay healthy to avoid the doctor or hospital. Do what you can to keep yourself well.

14. Don’t buy anything you don’t need. Get the necessities, but conserve your dough till the economy looks like it’s improving. Then buy yourself a slab of marble and roll it out!

15. Don’t quit paying the internet bill….how else can you read my blog! Some things are just necessities. I know you are probably like me…or almost there. I wouldn’t want to give up the internet. I’d give up TV and cable before I’d give up online access.

These are just a few things I can think of off the top of my head. If you have a suggestion I haven’t touched upon, please leave a comment stating your idea. I’m sure we all will enjoy reading about another way to save money!

Violet has this little bit of fun going on over at her Blogspot Place. She chose 5 questions that seemed to suit me to a tee.

> What is your one favorite thing about Chicago?

I love having such a fabulous art museum. The Art Institute of Chicago is one of my most favorite places. AIC is home to American Gothic, Sunday Afternoon…by Seurat and other awesome French Impressionist paintings, and so many other masterpieces I can’t possibly name them all. I used to frequent it weekly when I attended Columbia College downtown.

If I can have a second thing I like about Chicago it would be the accent. I was on a plane once when this someone overheard me talking to my travelling friend. They said, “You’re from Chicago, aren’t you? I can tell by your accent!” Here in Chicago, we have our own lingo…such as, “Where’s your gragekey”, which, translated means “Were’s your garage key?” Or, we say, “Yestaday instead of ‘yesterday.’ Chicagoans also use ‘de’s, da’s and doe’s in place of words…such as, “I’ll have a dozen of does.” Or, the famous line, “Da Bears!” Sometimes we say, “De’s are the best tasting saasages around.” Let’s not forget we call soda “pop.” And just yesterday, my son celebrated his 21st ‘bert-day.’ Chicagoans are Midwesterners, the most friendly Americans around.

> When did you first know you were an artist and how did it manifest itself?

I’ve known since I was a little kid. I loved to draw and draw and draw. I was attracted to artistic things from an early age and nothing sparked my interest more than art supplies and paintings. I also was very interested in the sewing machine. My godmother had one in her family room and every time I’d visit, I would gaze at that sewing machine and ask her to teach me to sew. I wanted to learn how to sew in the worst way…like I said, art was something inside me and I was just drawn to creative elements. The sewing machine was another thing that sparked my creative interest. Art was something inate, that seemed to be in my DNA. In high school I majored in art and I later went on to get a fine arts degree in college. I used my sewing skills (self taught after my dad bought me my first sewing machine from Sears in high school.) to start my cloth doll design business, Hootin Annies. Currently, I’ve taken some time off from doll designing to pursue mixed media art. Lately, dabbling in painting and collage has been a theraputic, artistic diversion.
>

You will be isolated in a very comfortable place for a year. You will have delicious food and many luxuries, but no television, movies, reading material, or electronics. You will be joined by one person you have ever met. Who would you like that person to be and why?

If this person could come with me unconditionally, I’d really have to say Jamie Lee Curtis. I almost said Chris Noth, but he would probably wear me out (lol…what a nice thought-actually, considering how nutty I am over him, it would probably be me wearing him out!). Anyway, I’m thinking that over the course of a year, I’d probably prefer the company of a gal pal, and in that time I’d hope to become a better, more worldly person, so I have to choose someone who could help me achieve that goal. I love how Jamie Lee has grown into her own and become such a wise, confident and strong person. She and I could spend alot of time together talking, developing strong, bonds in the art of being female. I’m hoping one of the luxuries provided to us would be a Pilates table and a yoga instructor. She could work with me to slim down by doing Pilates and yoga with me on a daily basis. And she would run my ass ragged….but that’s okay. She could stitch (I’ve read she likes to do needlepoint.) while I sew. I could teach her how to make dolls and how to create an art journal. She could teach me some acting techniques and let me in on some juicy Hollywood secrets. I’d fill her in how what it’s like to be just a normal person who can walk around out and about unnoticed. I hope we would spend hours laughing drinking coffee. One other luxury I would request is hot, sexy Latin men who visit on Wednesdays and Saturdays to give us Salsa lessons. We could document our year together though our art journals. She could listen to my problems and give me advise, ultimately empowering me with the strength to make some real changes in my life. I would talk her into setting me up on a fantasy date with Chris Noth and at the end of the year, I would emerge with a pixie hair cut and no one would recognize me because I’d be so thin. Through this year, I will have morphed into a classy, sassy chick who has the world by the balls.

> I went wayyyy back in your archives and found a post about Camp Nawakwa. (My family also spent one week every year at the same resort – in Northern WI, too – with the same families.) Tell us about those vacations.

These vacations started out with me tagging along at the young age of 16. I accompanied my then boyfriend on what was he and his mom’s yearly vacation. Besides myself, Larry would bring a guy friend or two and it would be a crazy fun week filled with teenage frivolities and badness. You get the picture-1979. A teenage boy and girl alone (at times) in the woods, and not even mosquitoes the size of birds could tear us apart.
My boyfriend and I went to ‘camp’ for 4 years, chaperoned by his mom. We eventually married, continued to go every year and now, 25 years and 5 kids later we haven’t missed a summer. It’s a tradition and my kids love it. Now they bring their friends with raging hormones and I get to be the mom who pays dearly for my sins of the past by having to go through the same crap my mother in law had to go through with my husband and I. There’s nothing like a little history to repeat itself and end up biting you in the ass.

> What non-political piece of advice would you like to give President Obama?

Change your middle name to Henry. In times like these, Hussein just sends out a waves of red flags-You’re scaring me, Barack.

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Now it’s your turn. If you would like me to interview you just leave a comment and I will email you the questions! Here are the directions:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”

2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.