CHANGES I HAVE MADE IN MY LIFE DUE OF THE ECONOMY:

I consider myself pretty creative, although not as creative as our elected officials (see previous post) at cutting corners and saving money and I always have been, so there is a limit to what I can change - I did manage to find some more things to cut.

~I have not had a cleaning lady in over two months. I really hate cleaning, but since business is very slow I do have some extra time on my hands, so I have been cleaning myself*. My place is not as clean though. Too bad. The sad part is that I am only saving a grand total of $20 a week, since I only had two hours a week. Not a huge savings.
~NO more yogurt and lebens. they are over a dollar now.
~More comparison shopping: coop versus local grocery.
~Cereal is WAY cheaper in Walmart.
~Milk is 2.49 in the COOP, which is 40-50 cents cheaper than the local grocery.
~Chanuka vacation we did not go anywhere- we took some balls to the park and played ball. We actually had a really good time, no one was complaining.
~baking more, rather than buying cookies. also baking rolls and challah in the bread machine,
which saves the price of challah for shabbos. Although shabbos doesnt cost, so I am not sure this counts, but I am saving on laying out the money...
~chocolate chips have gone up tremendously - can anyone tell me why a bag of chocolate chips is 2.79 when you can get Swiss chocolate bars for less than that? In Walmart you can get a bag for 1.50, only it's chalav stam. Why should kosher brand be that much more? So today I bought a bar of bittersweet chocolate and I am going to break it up the next time I make chocolate chip cookies.
~No more bags of cabbage for cole slaw, which are around $3.00 for a 1 lb bag. I bought a head of purple cabbage, (you dont have to check it for bugs) it costs .49 a lb. I put it thru the shredder on the food processer, which is out anyway for potato kugel. It makes a two week supply, and we are cole slaw people- cant have shabbos without cole slaw. Tastes the same, and it looks even prettier on the plate.
* NOT I am cleaning myself, I am doing the house cleaning myself.