The economy is really bad now; the only thing cheaper is the gasoline. I believe the economic depression will continue for next 2-6 months, that’s because it takes time for the new US government to get on track. If the Obama’s government doesn’t fix the economy on time, the new world leader will be China. At this moment, what I feel is that my income did not change but everything is getting more and more expensive. The whole economy is going out of control. What I did to this situation is:
1) Take bus (muni) if I can. Now, I usually take muni 2-3 times a week to go to school. Sometimes, I share cars with my roommate if he has the same time class with me.
2) Define what’s “necessary” for your everyday life. Do not spent more than what you need. This is hard because you need to define what level of living quality you need before you define what’s “necessary.”
3) From 2), re-define what the new level of your living quality is. With this bad economy situation, I lower my won living quality to be close to the average normal life.
4) Turn off all the electronic devices when you are not using them. This is just a little step, but can save you a lot of money.
5) Cook at home if it is possible. This can really save a lot of money from your pocket. Think about this, if you eat a meal cost $4.25 (before the economy depression), and you eat this meal twice a day (I only eat twice a day), it cost you $2762.5 for a year. But now, the meal cost $4.75, the total cost now is $3087.5 which is $325 more than before. But if you cook at home most of the time, it will be even cheaper than $2500 per year.
6) Go to bad on time. This is important, because what happen if stay awake late, you will turn on all the light. If you went to bad 3hrs later then regular person, the cost will increase about $150-$160 per year; this is if you live alone. Imaging if you live with a family, the total cost will be crazy.
These steps are what I did during these 1 and half year. It really changed my life style. I went out less and less in order to save money. And I went fishing more and more because it is cheaper than golfing. But there are still good things; I eat with friends more and more because it is cheaper to share food than just eat alone. And I spend more and more times with my friends. At the end, you will find out that sharing is a good thing.
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ride a bike. its the cheapest form of transportation
@alex but what about the cost of purchasing a bike? Although i have to admit riding a bike is not only cheap, its fast and accessible, esp in SF.