What NOT to Do in This Economy

I can't exactly hold my family up as a shining example of well-planned personal finance. There are plenty of frugal bloggers out there with ambitious savings goals (Money Saving Mom and her husband, for example, are saving to pay 100% cash on a house.), and they post regular updates about their spending and their progress. At our house, on the other hand, actually writing down a monthly budget (aside from the grocery budget) has been a perpetual resident on my to-do list, one currently residing somewhere south of "refinance the house" and "finish our wills and get them notorized."

However, I can tell you we know what NOT to do financially. The family featured on the front of today's Tribune is a prime example of that. You don't plug along in an economy like this with no emergency savings fund, not when you could actually afford it -- this family was earning $130,000 between the two parents when the dad got laid off. The immediately had to go on food stamps because the dad got no severance and the unemployment benefits all went to the mortgage.

I don't mean to say that this family was rolling in dough or that they were stupid. On the contrary, I think they were normal. With four kids -- who in this case went to a private school -- $130k is not a luxurious Chicago-area income. And I'm sure feeling like saving for the future -- or paying off that credit card debt -- is something you will get to soon is the norm.

I'm just sayin'. In this economy, if you still have a job, you can't afford NOT to save. Fortunately, cutting spending is not as hard as most people think. Keep reading here and talking with other frugal and would-be frugal readers, and you'll be on track before you know it.