Unemployment Is Up,Household Income is Down,Know Your Priorities!

Hi.My priorities under such conditions is to spend only on necessities and not luxuries.Gadgets are last in the list of my priorities unless they are capable of generating income or are essential to our work which in turn aids in earning income. As far as credit cards go i'm a novice and would be grateful if you could explain more how they help in budgeting money?

Great that you are so strong. I am in big trouble because I cannot pay my credit cards back. Personally , I failed the credit card "test"so to speak. I gave out too much money, to easily. Now I am in deep SSHT! When you use your credit card, you should be a strong minded person, who keeps to his/her decisions.

When my husband retired, we had to change our priorities. I never worked after marriage, mainly because before I married, I never got good paying jobs and they were not considered good jobs that would help my marriage such as housekeeping, nursing, or teaching. So we lived on one income. My husband made good money, he was a heavy duty mechanic boiler maker, but then we got paid every two weeks. When he took retirement, our income came once a month so we had to budget so that we could have enough food for the month plus the other things. We do use credit cards as I find it easier to have a record since when I pay cash, I usually forget to write down what I spent it on. I also have a pension of my own and we do pay off the credit cards each month. The trouble is those necessary expenses like car insurance, house insurance and medical insurance that seems to be the problem as they usually come once a year. Then if we need something like for instance a new refrigerator and maybe a new stove, we have to save for that. It is not the luxuries that i worry about, it is the big things that are necessities. As for luxuries, I get points on our credit cards and am saving up to get them. I also will use the money I make online for those. We pay our bills online and I figure them out as soon as we get our pensions in the bank account.

Our biggest priority is our kids. As long as they are well fed and clothed we're doing good. We're trying to get our budget under control and then we're going to hopefully stick to it. We've never had credit cards except for store credit cards, and those caused enough trouble for us. With the way the economy is going I think it is a good idea to start cutting back on spending now and have money in savings you can fall back on. At least my husbands job is pretty secure and he can soak up lots of overtime now.

i am a family man so i should know my priorities. basic needs should come first, followed by health requirements. there are gadgets that look luxurious, but you have to have them to be able to provide for the basic needs. you can have a motorcycle instead of a car. when you need to commute everyday to reach your work, and it would turn out to be less expensive to have a vehicle of your own, then why think of the big amount of cash the will go out of your pocket today, than less but frequent or continuous expenses. credit cards? i know you know how they work because you work with a credit card company. but it is a big no no for me now. it could be helpful for much of the time for us. but if you become an unfaithful creditor, intentionally or unintentionally, problem will be beside you forever.

I can't handle well credit cards. So I opt more on cash.I just have cards for backup use. I think with cash I can control myself on the level that I'm not depriving myself . I have poor management with cards. In terms of priorities, the basic needs comes first. But sometimes the usual problem of impulsive actions do gets me into spending beyond basic needs. And cards would take in charge.

I do not use credit cards anymore. I use cash, except when I purchase something online. I immediately go and pay that amount to the credit card, when I do that. I know alot of people that pay their bills with a credit card and pay the balance. I am a bit afraid to do that myself.

I'd rather pay for my expenses in cash, rather than with credit cards. I really hate the idea of borrowing money, that's why I never liked credit cards. I also hate their interest charges and my brother who did not know how to manage his cards well, his paycheck always ended up paying up his credit cards. And since he has no money, he will have to use the cards, then pay with interest again. Its like he is giving his money to the credit card companies who will give him a certain amount and ask him to pay it back ten fold. So even if I am unemployed and the cost of living is rising, I will still pay in cash than use a credit card.

looking for things that are free to do such as going to the library instead of buying books; shopping at thrift stores (recycling clothes) and saving up for things that you want!

hi rberon1985 I just realized why I knew you so much as you do make some of the most interesting and up to date discussions.glad you are back. Yes we just have to realize our priorities now. In this really bad economy we cannot baby ourselves any more with all the latest gadgets and still be able to afford the things that are basics like food, electricity, gas, water and rent. I do not have a credit card but just my debit card I do u use as I go not have to worry about credit charges. I am a senior citizen and retired so have a limited income which most of it goes for my rent and board, leaving me with some money for personal needs. so making some money on mylot and mysurvey.com really does help me. I had credit cards but spent foolishly in my younger years thus getting into debt over my head. credit cards used wisely are really helpful. but I will not go that route any more.

For us, it is important to make sure that we are able to pay all of our bills first before we take any money to do things that aren't necessary. There is one exception to this rule is gymnastics for my children. My daughter has been a student of gymnastics for the past four years and my son for the last year. Then, we pay for everything with cash now. The reason that this is a priority for us instead of credit cards is that there was a time in our lives when we were irresponsible with credit cards and thus we've decided to give them up.

There is nothing wrong in using credit cards, infact I am using it always even if i have money. I just make sure that I pay the whole amount in full and on or before its due. in that way, no interest will be charged to me. I like to use it too because of the poits and rebates. I actually got PHP2000.00 worth of sm gift certificate from the rewards. It is a big thing... big savings. Those zero percent installment promos are very convinient too. My priorities? Not palnning to buy any gadgets for now...may be sometime if I saw the need... no plans of upgrading me cellphone into a new model too. I definitely agree that with this economic crisis we afe facing, we need to be more careful and smart in terms of buying and spending...

Hi, Good day! I agree with you. Aside from that the cost of living is shooting up. We have to be more practical now in making decisions that has something to do with spending money. Just recently my husband and I talked about cutting off our phone service and lowering down our mobile post paid plan. We don't think it's practical to continue having a home phone when we don't even use it to call anyone and no one calls us also through our home phone. We rarely use it. I think we only use it for like average of 5 - 10 times every month. Our home phone contract is for 1 year. After that we can have it disconnected. Last month will be August so by that month we're planning to have it disconnected. The next one is our mobile post paid plan. Both my husband and I are paying fixed monthly rate for our post paid plan. The bad thing about it is that even if we will not be able to consume our credit we still have to pay the full amount. Based from our billing statements we are only consuming 1/4 of our post paid plan. It means we are paying 3/4 for services not rendered or something that we were not able to benefit at all. Because of this my husband and I decided to cut off our post paid plan and change it to just 1/4 of our plan right now. We alo have 1 year contract for our current plan and after that we can have it terminated. Our contract will end month of September. Regarding our Cable and Internet COnnection we both decided that it's something that we can't live without so it will remain connected. Hahahah! The reason for this is we are able to consume what we are paying for both of the Services. That's why we think having Cable and Internet Conection is worth what we are paying for it.

wel lucky for people with low income and such its not easy to get a creditcard but i see indeed more bad parts about it then good parts. my main priorety are paying my have to pay montly bills so i dont get fined by the goverment :D. I choose my bike over my car since i have to deliver papers with it wich is my own income atm and i choose internet over mobile phone i cant afford both so i choose internet since i have no money to do anything i can at least occupie myself on internet, download stuff wich makes me not needing to buy games,movies etc, and its an easy way to look for jobs and apply to jobs so u wont have to go out wich costs money