The economy!
For months we’ve been hearing about how horrible the economy is, how the housing market has collapsed and sky high oil prices are sending the value of the dollar down and inflation soring. I thought I was seeing a bit of it with not so great sales, but recent events have proven to me that we are in a repeat of the late 70’s early 80’s housing collapse and recession.
I work part time for a pool and spa dealer and yes I’ve noticed that sales have been down this year, but more so, so have my hours and paycheck. Now take into consideration rocketing food prices (Milk nearly 5 dollars a gallon, bread nearly 4 for a single loaf) and for the first time in a long time I’m faced with some tough decisions. Our budget simply can’t comply with all that is asked of it and the extras are having to go by the wayside. No more eating out, no more weekend trips to places. No more morning Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks iced coffees. While we’re probably still better off than many, we like so many others have finally felt the impact of the situation. For now we’ll do our best to try and weather the storm, but I hope that things take a turn for the better sooner rather than later.
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:09 pm
A lot of people are feeling the crunch right now. As long as gas prices keep rising, so will everything else. It’s a scary situation. A friend of mine has been saving up to buy a house next year, using the Fannie Mae first home buyer loan(at least, I think that’s what it was called), but that’s out of the question now. The housing market is down, and yet it’s harder than ever to quailfy for a loan to buy one. It just seems like a big catch-22 to me.