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| Rainy day lazy puppy Buddy - 10 months |
If you live outside Canada you may not know that Canada is currently in a recession. Low oil prices have decimated the oil industry in the prairie Provinces and that has had a relay effect on the economies of all the other Provinces as well. I don't talk too much about our business but we essentially help other businesses make more money - via sales training and consulting, mainly to companies who deal with the oil industry. A lot of the companies we deal with have been reporting back 30-40 percent drops in sales this year. That means some have laid off staff or effected cost cutting measures to stay afloat. Is this effecting our business? Yes. We are also having a tougher year as our clients have less money to spend with us or in some cases are having to delay signing contracts until things get better. Fortunately, there are only two salaries to pull out of our company and if things get tight we can simply lower our salaries - not something you can easily do if you have outside staff. We don't have high overhead as work from home - high overhead is often a business killer when times are tough.
Canada is such a vibrant country that we all know things will get better as we have a very diverse talented population and lots of natural resources. It reminds me of growing up in the 1980s and graduating high school during a recession. Although my Mom had a good job she was a single Mom trying to raise two kids with an ex-husband who refused to pay any child support. At that time the court system was such that she had no recourse as he fled out of country. I distinctly remember one time in winter when we ran out of furnace fuel and had to try and keep the pipes in our mobile home from freezing by using space heaters and blow dryers. We kept warm by snuggling under electric blankets that we already owned. Fortunately, Mom got paid, we got another load of fuel delivered and that never happened again. I also remember times when the cupboards were quite bare and there was no money to buy groceries. Mom always seemed to be able to make dinner out of nothing and we never went hungry.
I was always a bit jealous of kids who had new clothes every new school year. Our clothing all came from other families as their kids grew out of their clothes although we did get new shoes, coats and underwear every single year. For a time when I was really little I thought that was the way it worked for all families. Mom brought home a couple of garbage bags of clothes, we tried on everything, kept what fit and passed on the bags to other families in the community with kids around our size. Funny, now I can afford to buy all my clothes brand new and I buy 90% of my wardrobe from thrift stores because I would rather spend my cash on other things that make me happy like travel.
I never realized we were considered the "working poor" back then. Having assets gives me peace of mind now as no matter what happens with the economy we will be ok. We no longer have a mortgage or owe anyone any money. We pay credit cards off immediately. Our retirement is funded sitting in the bank thanks to pensions from our last jobs. If things got worse and we reduced our salaries we could certainly find areas in our budget to trim.
Perhaps that is why I seem to be stockpiling groceries this month - a gut reaction to all the crap on tv about the economy and hard times. It makes me feel better to have 40 pounds of rice, 10 pounds of chicken legs and 20 pounds of potatoes on hand. I happen to remember what hard times felt like. What other families are probably going through right now. I do know this - you cannot expect anyone to take care of you but yourself. Spend every penny wisely, try and limit your debt as much as possible and you will be ok.
Yes, the puppy picture had absolutely nothing to do with this blog - but a bit of cuteness was required to lighten this post up a bit :)
Excellent post!
ReplyDeletewell said. things aren't so great here in the states either. word on the street is USA going into a recession sooner than later. not looking forward to going through yet another one.
ReplyDeletethanks for your honesty. we're all in this together. thanks for sharing.
I think I was raised pretty much like you.. our parents just got on with it..we were well fed and clothed,but I remember my parents and our home never seemed to have new things.I too,like a stockpile of basics,just in case. Yes, Buddy did his job!!
ReplyDeleteJane x
You need happy puppy time to remind yourself that life is good! I have a similar history to you. It shapes a lot of things. Some people go in the other direction and spend as "the best revenge." I think your approach is a lot more intelligent!
ReplyDeleteI think your mom was much like my mom! She always had something of the table for us to eat. I also remember going back to school that we got one new piece of clothing and that was it but somehow I don't ever remember getting hand me down clothing but I am pretty sure that we did. My parents were both brought up in England during the war when things were tough and somehow they never got that out of their systems and of course it got passed to to me. I NEVER waste a thing.
ReplyDeleteLove seeing Buddy so relaxed! :-)
www.travelwithkevinandruth.com
My Mom was born during WWII to a poor apple orchard farmer in the USA and learned to live with what you had. I guess it was passed on to me too. I hate waste, it just drives me crazy - especially food.
DeleteBoth my mum and dad were brought up in England during WWII and were exactly the same and I think that they just never lost that feeling of making things stretch and like you it was passed on down to me.
DeleteI heard the CEO of Cenovus saying how painful it was to lay off employees. I believe 20% of their workforce so far plus all contract employees. I long to hear a CEO say "no one will be layed off, we are going to get throught this together-I am going to slash my salary and that of all upper management so it covers only our mortgage payments, groceries and utilities, share holders will have to accept a drastic drop in the value of their shares as this business is cyclical and they will go back up again, we will not lay off people to keep our share prices unrealistically high. Is there a CEO out there willing to show some integrity and respect for their fellow man-seems not.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right. We got a call from an old colleague of my husbands this week, he is in management and has just been asked to lay off an employee to cut costs, although their division is on budget. He was so angry he almost jeopardized his own job arguing with the higher ups about it. If I know him he will devise a plan to move one of them to a different department rather than just let someone go simply for cost cutting measures.
DeleteLately I'm just thankful that I don't have the problems that other people around me have, like health issues and family difficulties. I'm also glad that my region has not had to face a hurricane in the two years that I've been living here. I'm not prepared for that at all. I'm just so busy trying to make ends meet right now, working hard, watching every penny and being grateful for a healthy happy family.
ReplyDeleteI agree, we are so lucky with our health and family. The hurricane thing would be something that would make me worry a bit although we have the same thing with earthquakes, no biggies but they say it is coming.
DeleteGreat photo!
ReplyDeleteMy parents were comfortably off but we didn't have central heating,a video player or even a washing machine. Holidays were taken in England and our clothes were mostly second-hand. My Dad believed in living frugally which I've obviously inherited.
I don't stockpile food as, being a vegetarian, I buy vegetables and cook from scratch. xxx
You definitely know how to live/travel frugally. We are eating less meat these days, dinner tonight is veggie chow mein with 1 chicken breast. Hubby definitely is a meat eater but hasn't even realized I have slowly cut down on how much of it we eat.
DeleteI agree cuteness helps!
ReplyDeleteYour mom sounds like a wonderful soul and that you were blessed to have her.
Things in the US aren't as rosy as they have been painted. They say things are picking up but that is the government putting a spin on everything so that big businesses keep the money flowing in. In fact, the only jobs that I can see that have been added are very low wage. The scary thing for us is that Den's job seems to be slowing down and this isn't the slow time of the year for them. Its a wire company and I swear watching how they do is a good predictor of what is to come. I mean if companies aren't buying wire for their products, it means that they are cutting back on producing. When things get slow I just do like you do and prep a bit.
Sounds scary with Den's job. We are in position where all our money comes from the company because we are both employed there. We have decided a few things, first being if we need to cut salaries we shall simply do that. Worst case scenario I go get a job and still help out. We are working on a big project right now that will hopefully secure our company's future no matter the economy. It will take tons of effort and time upfront (and a little money but we are trying to minimize that) but will payoff in the long run, especially if something should happen to hubby we could continue to run the company.
DeleteMy parents grew up during the depressions. Even when they had good jobs, they lived the same frugal way. It served them well, with a large nest egg for retirement to go along with their pensions (which don't always cover those fun extras like travel). I think about my expenditures, but I'm not as frugal as my parents were. Probably because I grew up during a time when money wasn't as tight. - Margy
ReplyDeleteentão seja frugal porque as coisas só tendem a piorar.
DeleteI actually think I am better with money than Mom was, mostly because she never made very much. I did pick up all her frugal traits though.
DeleteThe oil industry is a tough one right now. Everyone I know except one has been laid off and he is going month to month. Close to 30 years ago we downsized and laid off all our staff and started to work from home. My husband had worked out that he was making $5.00 an hour after paying office rent and expenses and salaries. Now we work hard so that we can afford to take the winter off and then do it all over again the next year but it took a long time to get to this stage and still every year we are at the mercy of someone hiring us to do photography.
ReplyDeleteWe want that same freedom and basically have it although we make way less than we used to when we worked for others. We actually have a better standard of living though - and we lead less stressful lives which will make both of us live longer.
DeleteI grew up 'poor' too, though I didn't realize it then. We ate a lot of what we could produce on the farm in Michigan -- bought baloney, fish sticks, food like that. (I haven't had bologna in decades...)
ReplyDeleteI was lucky to have older cousins who passed on their hand-me-downs, and my mom also sewed. I don't think I had a new store-bought dress until I was a junior in high school.
Hubby and I both still love balogney although it is not nearly as cheap as it used to be. Fish sticks we ate but I can't stand them now. Lots of home raised chicken and potatoes for us. Kids these days don't have a clue.
DeleteGrowing up my Dad would bring leftover fabric from his job and Mom would sew clothes for us from them or my Dad's old sweaters. We always had food, but clothes were either handmade or hand me downs and you did not change the thermostat to the warmth you desired ! During the day it was at 68F and at night 65F, we all had warm sweaters on!
ReplyDeleteWe had wood heat when I was a kid in a log cabin - no central heating. Someone had to get up every few hours in the winter to put more wood on the fire - the wood was free though as we had a huge acreage with lots of trees on it. We wore sweaters too - I still do that!
Deleteaqui no Brasil está very very pior. O dólar batendo R$ 4,00. Desemprego, violência, baderna, corrupção, etc, etc...
ReplyDeleteBrasil is in poor shape unfortunately. I hope things get better there for you.
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