Surfing the Recession

Game night

surfingtherecession — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:52:36 +0000

Most of my friends in Houston fall into one of two groups: church friends and engineering friends. My engineering friends are my peers at work, or connections through them, or others who just happen to be engineers. We, as engineers, all make pretty good money and don’t mind spending on a night out at the bars or a nice restaurant.

My church friends generally have lower paying jobs or are in college or both. They are all trying to watch what they spend carefully, and a big night out for them would be dinner and a few drinks, without even hitting a bar after the restaurant.

I’ve noticed that I don’t spend a lot of time with church friends any more. The activities I normally choose to do are the expensive ones with my engineering friends, and my church friends are effectively priced out of participation.

Now that I’m trying to control my spending, I think I’ll be able to spend a lot more time with my church friends. I had a game night at my house last night. It’s lots of fun – we played Rummikub – and pretty much free. I had a little beer on hand, but didn’t go buy any food, and my friends just had to show up. And I think I had at least as much fun as spending $60 at a bar.

My first change

surfingtherecession — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:20:48 +0000

On Saturday I made coffee at home instead of picking up a cup from Starbucks or the corner store. I know this is one of the most recommended ways to cut back on spending, so I’m not saying anything new here, but I felt like documenting my first step in cost cutting.

I did notice something I hadn’t thought about before. I enjoyed my coffee a lot more than I normally do when I pick up my Saturday morning cup. Instead of getting dressed and getting in the car, I was still relaxing at home when I had my coffee. I eased into the day much more slowly. Rather than starting with stress and traffic, I started in relative comfort.

I think I’m going to start a new Saturday morning routine, where instead of sleeping in and buying coffee when it’s almost time for lunch, I’ll get up early and make coffee, and plan a productive day.

Surfing

surfingtherecession — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:57:27 +0000

Let me begin by saying that this blog will have nothing to do with surfing. Well, almost nothing. I intend to capture ways to live a good, full, happy life in the midst of the current recession, and I can see surfing coming up someday.

I plan to address three main topics. First and probably most often, I will speak to people in my own situation. I just found out my pay would be cut, but I will have a job for the foreseeable future. I am trying to cut my expenses as much as possible while still maintaining most of my current lifestyle.

Second, I’ll try to speak to people less fortunate than me, who are already laid off or will be soon. There will be a lot of information here that anyone can use – free entertainment, cheap meals, ways to make money outside a regular job, and how to stay productive.

Third, I want to explore ways that people with extra money can exploit the recession. For example, there are a lot of luxury cars going for next to nothing right now. I’m also fascinated by the idea of channeling unemployment into some sort of a business opportunity. I don’t know what yet, but some posts will be a stream of consciousness on that topic.

I’m a big personal finance fan, but I didn’t want to write just a personal finance blog. It’s been done, and probably better than I could. I think Surfing will be more valuable anyway. Money isn’t everything, and I hope to approach a frugal recession from a fun and optimistic perspective.