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Name at least three items you will never cut from your family budget. I'm trying to do that, but my guilt reflex makes me ask, "How can I name what not to cut from a family budget when there are people who have less than I do who must slash items such as treatment for a special needs child?" Many Americans no longer have choices about what to cut and what to keep.
Internal guilt trips about money--that's what comes from growing up with a mother who is a child of the great depression and a grandmother who raised five children during that disaster. My conscience disallows pleasure sometimes, accusing, "You profligate! What about the starving people in Africa?"
You've probably heard that the voice. It's the one that hits when you throw food away or procrastinate cleaning out the garage and giving the exercise bike you never use to charity. It keeps track of your wastefulness and tiny extravagances.
I like that word for the wasteful, "profligate." Level it at someone, and while she may not know what it means, she knows you've tossed out a zinger. It's the hard sounds--the "fl," the "guh" and the "t" at the end.
I wonder how many people listening to the final presidential debate last month heard Obama say, "Once we get through this economic crisis, we will not be able to go back to our profligate ways." Our profligate ways? Perhaps they mumbled at the TV, "Wait! What did he just call us?"
He slyly slapped our hands in response to a question he and McCain had been asked before, "If you become president, what will you cut from your proposed budget, Senator?"
We can identify with the candidates' quandary because when you flip that question you're asking "What can you not afford to cut?" Anyone who's painstakingly developed a budget knows each item may seem critical.
In another debate I recall Obama likening cutting the federal government's budget to cutting a family budget. He said something about belt-tightening, hatches vs. scalpels, and other scary stuff. As we go through our money crunch and I hear talk of sharp objects, I see us all running with scissors.
At various moments in my life, I've grabbed my family budget and done more real slashing than a downtown furniture store. You've seen that one perpetually going out of business, shouting, "Everything must GO!" So, I know as do readers who left comments on my post "What's cut from your family budget?" that some of us have nothing left to cut.
Nevertheless, hoping that I never get to a place of hard choices again where I must choose between prescription medicine and food, I've made a list of what we all should try to keep in our lives, recession or not.
10 Things I Will Not Cut From My Family Budget
- I will not cut my family's self esteem: In this category I place keeping our dignity and integrity in times of financial crisis. So, I will care for my family members and show I believe in their abilities and intelligence. Sometimes that means being a better housekeeper. Yes, the clutter-free life is next to the good life. I'm not kidding. Read this article.
- Also, better organization helps me follow the budget I slaved to create. I can find my bills, assess my actual financial status, and then pay them or make arrangements to pay. The article at this link may help you organize your financial papers.
- I will keep my family informed about money without scaring them, ask them to share their own ideas about how to save money and to share their concerns about having less money. If you have younger children, I recommend you read this article at Slate, "Books to Read Children During a Financial Crisis," and check out its companion, Great Kids Books about Financial Ruin.
- Also, I must include Mothering of 5, whom I've mentioned before. She reminds us that a lack of money does not diminish us.
- I will not cut fun (or small pleasures): A higher power created movies on demand, NetFlix, and Blockbuster for people like me facing a money crunch. I'm not alone in this belief. The entertainment industry rarely suffers during recessions because people
