The mainstream media is finally comfortable using the word recession. I’ve been saying recession for a long time now and, in fact, I am comfortable using the word depression as well. Take an honest look around you. The jobless rate is frightening. Prices for food and other necessary items are going up instead of coming down. Housing prices might be more affordable for purchase now, but millions of people are losing money when they sell – or just plain losing their homes. Rental prices for homes and apartments are still sky-high and are not coming down to meet the demand for lower cost housing.

A depression could not be far off. Now, think about stories you have heard from people who were alive in the depression era. My grandparents are mostly dead, but I do have one grandmother who is still around to tell me stores of how she and her family survived. Also, my parents were both raised depression-era parents and were instilled with values of frugality and self sufficiency. Thank goodness they passed those values down to me.

Up north we always kept large gardens. My mother canned fruits and vegetables. I see now the value of growing as much of my own food as possible and “putting it away” for later use. I am ready to learn how to can. However, I live in Florida now and I have to re-learn how to grow a successful food crop. I know I am going to have to have good soil brought in. I will need to build a tarp to make sure my crops do not burn up in the sun. I will need to learn about planting season here and what foods do the best.

Fruit is an easy option to start. We have a large yard and although the grapefruit tree was cut down a few years back, the star fruit tree we trimmed to the ground this year will be back within two years. We have lemons and oranges in pots that are ready to go into the ground. We have apple trees of a variety that grow well in the Florida climate. I have looked online and found suppliers for Blueberry and Blackberry plants that should do well here. All of these things can be canned and will also provide a good deal of fruit to be eaten fresh.

After the 2008 gas price fiasco, we started off 2009 right. Gas prices here in my part of Florida hovered right around $1.50 a gallon. The, last week they shot up 20 cents everywhere. I tried to look at the going price per barrel to gain some insight into WHY the prices went up, but I could not locate any information that made sense. I grudgingly filled up my tank and wondered what might happen next week.

AAA Auto Club South keeps tabs on gas prices in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee and says the cost per gallon of regular gasoline did indeed rise about 20 cents all around our region this past week.

Here’s the part that might make you angry. Those gas prices went up, but the closing cost for a barrel of oil actually went DOWN last week, to $5.51 less than the prior week. Oil closed on Friday at $40.83 a barrel – down about $9 from, earlier in the week.

AAA is saying that the lower oil prices might finally have an effect on gas prices this coming week.

Ok, so I just wrote that article about using layaway and how people are using credit cards less than usual this Christmas shopping season. No sooner had I published the article than I found some cool, related stats on a study released today by the National Retail Federation.

They surveyed 8,758 consumers on their proposed holiday shopping habits and among other findings, they found that shoppers who will use credit cards as their primary method of paying for holiday gifts will fall when compared to a similar survey taken in 2007.

Yay for the American consumer public for finally getting it through their collective heads that credit is not the way to go. This has been a long time coming, although most people only finally saw the light this year before the presidential election and during the bank bailouts.

The seniors are doing their research papers right now. They have to research a career that interests them. I’ve had a good time helping them with the research, the outlines, the thesis statements, etc. I look forward to seeing rough drafts on Monday and delving into the editing portion.

Anyway, one of the boys came up to me early this week and said, “If I become a firefighter, will I have to pay taxes?”

I told him, “Of course you will.”

He looked at me with a blank face for a moment and then he finally said, “But Obama won the election and firefighters make less than $250k a year.”

“You will STILL have to pay income taxes,” I reiterated.

I went on to explain that Obama has promised to add an additional tax deduction for working people. He has said that the tax rate for middle income families will be less than it was during the Reagan years (not difficult to do, by the way), that families making less that $250k a year will not see a tax increase, and that middle income families will receive tax relief. The key word is relief, which in and of itself is a rather ambiguous word.

Nowhere does Obama say that middle income families will no longer have to pay taxes at all. However, SO many people came out of election season believing that. MANY voters think that their boat just bought the gravy train. As sorry as I feel for those who are uninformed, I also have to say that they could have avoided ignorance by doing a little light reading on Obama’s own website.

Foolishness.

You know that super cheap gas I blogged about yesterday? Well, it’s drawn a lot of attention all around the Tampa Bay area.

The local papers ran a story about the low price at this particular station. And, due to all the people who wanted to get in on the deal blocking traffic in the area, the local police ended up stepping in and giving the management three options:
1. devise a traffic plan
2. hire off-duty officers to direct traffic
3. let the police impose a traffic strategy

The station’s management did not choose any of those options. According to police, their corporate offices told them to raise the price per gallon. Management for the gas station, however, said the price increase was due to getting a new shipment at a higher price.

Bummer. I guess that’s why it was higher when I went by this afternoon. (When I went by at 6 a.m. today, they were out of everything except diesel.)

In any event, it’s still the best price in the area.

I know that gas prices are way down all over the place, but today I was on my way to pick up my daughter from school and I saw up a head a few blocks a snarl of cars in the road. I looked a little harder and realized it was a backup of people trying to get into a gas station. I looked at the sign for the gas prices and saw they were selling regular gas for $2.89 a gallon. No wonder everyone was crazy to get in on the deal.

So, here is my dilemma. Is the price that station is offering worth my time and effort to get in the car snarl for my turn at the pumps? I am considering leaving early tomorrow morning to see if I can get there before 6 a.m. and avoid a line. Of course, I am not even sure they will be open then.

What would you do?

My daughter is 5. She has moved recently into different musical tastes. She is no longer interested in seeing Laurie Berkner or The Wiggles in concert. “Oh, yuck!” she exclaimed.

Nope, she recently informed me she wants to see The Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus in concert.

*sigh*

Unless you have been living in the back woods without electricity lately, you know all about the last Miley Cyrus tour, the expense of the tickets and how in-demand they were. Tickets were expensive to begin with, but once they got bought up by bulk resellers and scalpers, they become positively unaffordable.

The fan base for Miley Cyrus is young girls. Their parents are the ones forking over the dough for the tickets. And, there is obviously disposable income left in this society, or entertainers would not be able to demand and get such high prices.

I had to tell my daughter I could not afford for her to see Cyrus or the Jonas Brothers in concert. She is 5. Her abstract reasoning has not kicked in yet. She just could not understand.

And now I am seeing how Cyrus is celebrating her 16th birthday at Disneyland out in California and tickets to the party will be a mere $250.

What?

They go on sale August 30 and the event is expected to sell out quickly.

Don’t people have food and gas to buy?

We all have our own little quirky ways of saving money. Some are quirkier than others. I thought I would make a little list of ways I regularly save pennies here and there so that my budget goes a little farther from month to month.

Ten ways I save pennies:

1. My dentist is super generous with toothpaste and floss samples, not to mention toothbrushes. I have not bought any of those items in at least a year and we always have plenty.
2. See a penny, pick it up…and after 99 more you’ll have a buck. That’s what I’ve taught my daughter. When we see loose change on the ground, we pick it up – and then give it a good rinse – and put it in a little jar we have in the bedroom closet.
3. Reuse Ziploc bags. I am astounded at how many people do not reuse Ziplocs. Unless I’ve had meat in the bag, I turn it inside out, give it a good wash, let it dry and use it again, …and again and again.
4. Shop the loss leaders. Nearly every week in all of the grocery store ads, there are a few items that are so cheap they are almost priced at a loss of profit for the store. Those are called loss leaders. They are specifically aimed at getting you in the store so you will do all your shopping for the week while you are in there. So, make note of when I will pass each store through the natural course of my weekly errands, run in for the loss leaders, and get out. I don’t stay to be tempted with impulse items.
5. I wash every thing I can in cold water when doing the laundry. I save a little by not using water that had to be heated and my darks and colors love me for it.
6. No convenient snack packs. It is SO tempting to pick up little individual serving packs of chips, cookies, juice, and such for my daughter’s school lunches. However, when I just buy a regular pack or Oreos or bag of Cheetos and pack a serving in a little sandwich bags I save SO MUCH money. I try and use a thermos too, even though my daughter adores those Capri Sun packets.
7. Look at tags BEFORE you buy. I avoid clothes that need dry cleaned. When I was married, my ex’s parents owned a dry cleaning chain, so it was like paradise to have anything we wanted dry cleaned for free. Now, I just buy clothes we can wash right here at home.
8. OK, I admit it – I am one of those people who bring my own snacks to the movies. I even have a special purse. It’s a very cool Kenneth Cole that is nice and tall and happens to be made out of a dull vinyl, so it can be wiped clean. We take our own candy bars, chips and even sodas.
9. Kids eat free. When my daughter and I do take the time to go out to eat, we try and plan around a handful of local restaurants that have nights that kids eat free. I particularly like to go to Cody’s Original Roadhouse on a Monday or Tuesday during Early Bird Pricing. I get my meal cheap, my daughter eats free, and we love the salad.
10. Learn to love your pressure cooker. When I use my pressure cooker I can buy less expensive cuts of very lean meat and it comes out flavorful and so tender it falls apart. Plus, dinner is done a lot faster.

Of course, these are all small ways to save money. They can only help so much if you have run up a lot of debt. Personally, I try to by as much as possible with money I already have, thus avoiding debt as often as possible. Still, I went through a time after my divorce where I needed Debt help and turned to tips on Debt consolidation.

As America creeps closer and closer to a very dangerous financial landscape, more and more people find themselves overwhelmed with debt and in great need of Debt relief. Often, the wisest move is to find a way to bundle things all together and Consolidate debt. A good place to start is Bills.com, where they have a huge amount of articles and tips to get you started on understanding and paying down debt.

We have not had a massive hurricane in Florida in years. On top of that, home prices have gone down – WAY down! Despite all of that, State Farm) currently Florida’s largest private property insurer) has filed a request with the Office of Insurance Regulations requesting a rate hike that would average 47.1%

Are you kidding me?

The insurance company says they are requesting the rate change simply so they can afford to stay in the market. But, as I pointed out – there have been no massive weather disasters of late. Homes cost less and need less coverage. Nonetheless, State Farm wants us to believe they cannot stay in business here in Florida unless they raise rates almost 50%?

There were computer models that predicted that 2006 and 2007 would be record years for catastrophic storms and hurricanes. Insurance companies immediately responded by hiking prices in preparation However, the storms never came. Let State Farm, and other insurance companies, operate off the price increases they have ALREADY applied.

This is sometimes a technique some insurance companies use to get their current poly holders to drop policies. That way they can say they have offered the coverage to home owners and still get away with mostly just covering car and life insurance here in Florida – something often referred to as “cherry picking”.

And, while I am at it – I take offense that insurance companies want me to take up the slack in a shared risk with homeowners who make a personal choice to live on the beach or in a high-risk flood zone. What good is it doing me to live inland, in a less risky area?

You are not fooling anyone, State Farm. We know you are looking at record profits. We know that infernally you are not operating independently in Florida. We know that the high rates here are funding your upper level employee’s pockets with nice bonuses and pay increases.

Well, at least there appears to be one good thing coming form the bad economy here in the United States. It seems to be keeping more of our men home at night.

Strip club owners are reporting a downturn in business. The regrettably famous Mons Venus club here in Tampa is down 25 percent, that according to owner Joe Redner.

Redner also says that the bad economy is leading more women to give stripping a go. So, does that mean it is sort of like a couple of years ago when the real estate mushroomed and we had 9 Realtors living on every block?

*shudder*

I’m not sure I’m ready to deal with every third person I know taking up pole dancing.

All I know is that if the financial pinch people feel is keeping the men at home and away from spending cash on booze and strippers, that’s a good thing. Maybe the divorce rate will go down.

Well, that is unless now the women aren’t home at night because they are out stripping.

Ponder that one.

It was like the Heavens had opened and rained down blessings when Wal-Mart announced their new $4 for some generic prescription drugs. That was back in 2006 and most major retailers followed Wal-Mart’s lead, creating an ever competitive market for prescription generics.

That kind of competition is always good for the consumer. Proof of that lies in Wal-Mart’s new plan to 90-day supplies for $10 of nearly 350 generic medications and to add discounts to several women’s medications. They also plan to lower prices on over 1,000 over-the-counter drugs to $4 or less.

The women’s medications that have been added to the discount program will be available for $9 (or 90-day prescriptions for $24) for a 30-day supply and include drugs for breast cancer and hormone deficiency.

Generally, I prefer to shop at Target over Wal-Mart. When the new prescription drug plan began at Wal-Mart in 2006, it was exciting and diverted a lot of my business back to Wal-Mart. As other stores began to offer generic prescriptions for prices close to Wal-Mart, I found myself shopping there less and less once more. With this new 90-day program, I can safely say I will be do more errands at Wal-Mart again. It’s worth it.

Economically, there is at least one advantage to living in Florida. We do not have a state income tax. We do, however, have outrageous property taxes in most counties, as well as a system that is not adequately protesting homeowners from the criminal homeowner’s insurances prices.

Our state sales tax is currently 6%, but nearly every county in the state tacks on at least another penny to cover things like roads and bloated county government salaries. I pay 7% where I live.

You don’t get anything for free. That is a universal truth. With so many people complaining about the cost of property taxes, the state government is offering to make some changes that would cut 25 – 40 percent (or more) off a typical tax bill.
But, at a price!

On November 4, when elections occur, we will have to vote on whether or not to add another cent to the base state sales tax. That would mean 7 cents on most purchases, excluding food, drugs and some other products. Only then would the Legislature eliminate a portion of local property tax.

Since all of the counties in the Tampa Bay area already tack on that extra penny, that means sales tax around here would move to 8 cents on the dollar.

Even with what would look like an extra burden on residents, the proposed change would actually cut a lot of money from schools in the state. The bill would take $7.9 billion from local school budgets statewide, but the extra penny would only give back $3.9 billion.

As distasteful as this increase initially sounds to me, I do see it as a valid way to make some of the illegal individuals working and living in Florida pay a little more tax. It’s a small ray of sunshine.

…or worse?

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey indicates that three-quarters of all Americans think the economy is in a recession. This poll was released today, timely in that the stock market seems to be taking a beating today as well.

Only 66 percent felt the same last month, while back in October only 46 percent said we are in a recession.

I ask, though, is it possible worse than that? Are we actually headed dead on for a depression? If you look only at the price of gas, which is expected to hit somewhere around an average of $4+ a gallon by this summer, then you might want to rethink the recession issue and look more firmly at depression. The gas prices drive the cost of all consumer good. In the meantime, the jobless rate is up and salaries are not rising in proportion to the cost of living.

You do the math. Can the average American continue to live this way before it all crashes down around us?

One of the more odd side effects of all of the foreclosures we are seeing in the area is how some communities are seeing their cable bills go up in price every single month.

One Gibsonton, Florida woman reports her cable TV bill has gone up 44% so far.

Why?

Some communities with homeowners associations were able to negotiate discount cable packages for their members. The problem is when home owners start going into foreclosure and stop paying their homeowners association becomes unable to pay the full fixed payment they agreed to pay the cable company.

Some community associations are finding themselves in the red, because the fees they pay monthly to the cable company makes up close to half their monthly association bills. The cable company charges late fees and sometimes increases the bill. The homeowners are feeling the pinch.

Banks are supposed to pay association fees on homes they receive through foreclosure. It turns out that actually getting them to pay can mean a lot of paperwork – which means increased legal fees.

AT&T reached a settlement with Florida via our Attorney General Bill McCollum. They must repay Floridians for unauthorized third-party cell charges, such as ringtones and text messaging that were advertised as free.

The settlement could mean refunds totaling more than $10 million

McCollum said the main culprits are third-party companies. They often advertise ringtones and other services that are supposed to be free. When customers sign up, they ultimately find charges on their cell phone bill. Although it is the third-party companies who are using deceptive advertising, AT&T agreed in the settlement to begin policing agreements with third-party providers to make it more clear what the charges are for when they appear on the phone bills.

AT&T stressed that the problem is an industry-wide and that they did not actually sell their customers the ringtones and other services, but just provided the billing.

Check your bills for charges labeled things like “Other Charges” or “Usage”. If you call your provider’s customer service and ask what these charges are for, you may find you are being charged for text messaging or ringtones you id not authorize and you may be able to talk them into a refund.