With the government shutdown still going on I’ve been hearing about all kinds of different things they have been forced to close or cut funding on such as government monuments, layoffs, and even cut funding for soldiers funerals who have paid the ultimate price for our country.
This is truly a sad situation to see and frankly I don’t want to make this article all about politics and who did what but rather look at this situation from a personal stand point. With the government currently in shutdown mode they have been forced to cut funding and close things. Not because they want to but because they have to.
This begs the question, what would you give up on a personal level if you had lost your job and had little to no income coming in? Now I know most people don’t operate in the same way as the government does but on a personal level this might be comparable to losing your job or getting laid off for a short period of time.
Below is a list of things I would have to give up if I were in this type of situation.
Things I Would Give Up And Do Differently
- Smartphone – One of the first things I would give is my phone. In my case I would keep my LAN so I would at least have a phone and I would ditch my smartphone. It would be hard to do but it would save me a ton of money.
- Internet – The second thing I would ditch is my internet simply because it cost me so much to have every month. However giving up your internet is not the end of the world I have a lot of friends and family that have internet and if that doesn’t work I can always head on over to my local library.
- Cable TV – Third, I would give up my cable TV. For me this wouldn’t be so hard to do since I don’t watch that much TV. My wife and kids on the other hand watch far more than me and they would have a really tough time with it but we would survive.
- Cook More Meals From Home– Another thing I would change is that I would cook from home more often instead of eating out. We tend to eat at home every day during the week but when it comes to the weekend we like to get out a little more or at least order out. This is basically because we don’t do a lot of cooking around our house on the weekends except for lunch. However one way I like to curb this is to cook out on the grill which is one my favorite things to do.
- Drive Less- Fifth on my list of shutdowns would be driving less. With the high cost of gas driving would come at a premium. Right now I drive pretty much to work and back each day and a tank of gas can last me nearly 3 weeks. However my wife’s vehicle is used a lot to transport the kids around and do a lot of the running. In shutdown mode we would plan things more methodically and try to conserve as much fuel as possible.
- Cut My Subscriptions- Another big area I would have to cut into is subscriptions. For example, I would probably cut my Lifelock subscription even though it is very important to me I would have to do it to save as much as I could. Secondly, I would also cut extra curricular activities that my kids are in. I know my kids would be bummed but that doesn’t me we could do other things with our kids such as taken them to the park more often or taking walks with them.
- Cut Down On Groceries- Groceries are yet another area I would have to cut down on. Typically I’ve been blowing my grocery budget by $50 to a $100. Well this would have to stop. This means weeding out anything that I don’t need and only getting the bare necessities.
- Cut Out The Babysitter- Eighth on the list is cutting out the babysitter. If I were to lose my job tomorrow I would be able to take care of my kids until I did return to work. What’s great about this is that I have a babysitter who is extremely flexible and would work with me on this. In total this alone would save me $150 a week.
- Do More Activities From Home- Finally the last thing I would cut out is any extra costly activities. This means no more going to the movies or taking the kids to the zoo or big family excursions.
Final Thoughts…
In the end when it comes down to it I would stick to only the bare necessities to get through things. It would suck and I know it would be hard to give a lot of the things up that I mentioned above but I would do it if I had to.
So how about you, what would you give up if your family had to go into a financial shutdown?
You’re right, Chris, this shutdown thing is a mess. We’ve already given up the stuff on your list, but would definitely give up whatever else we needed to in order to make sure that our kids were fed, warm and safe. We’d sell anything we could and work to make money however we could. Far cry from the government and their handling of money. 🙁
What’s crazy about the whole situation Laurie is that you have given up so much to make ends meet but the government won’t give up anything or at least even make an attempt to change their spending habits.