How are these tough times affecting you?

[Linc5.0]

im busier than I ever have been. Luckily places have to have there grass cut...I have a good savings, and own all 6 of my vehicles. I have no credit cards. Pray that things will turn around sooner than later forsure.

[MrMeanGreen]

My grass is tall.

[vitamincj]

My IT job was outsourced Nov. 1st last year. I got hired on by the outsourcer at a 14% pay cut and ~75% benefits cut(less vacation, less perks, no 401K match, no pension, etc.). Second child arrived April 6th this year so that is expensive. We aren't eating out as much and our impulse buying is down to nil. We had been paying off all of our debt but that had to slowdown. School loans would have been paid off at the end of last year on the old pay scale but now they probably won't go away until July. I think we were feeling the crunch more before the baby but now we are too sleep deprived/busy with the baby to sit around thinking about stuff to buy.

I feel lucky to have a job right now.

[neonkiller]

im busier than I ever have been. Luckily places have to have there grass cut...I have a good savings, and own all 6 of my vehicles. I have no credit cards. Pray that things will turn around sooner than later forsure.

 

 

this mother fucker looks out for his boys.

 

12hr days FOR THE WIN.

 

 

 

 

I got both my jobs and working on clearing my credit this summer by sellin the project and savin loot.

[Miller]

I just worked 30 hours this week and earned 400 dollars. Then my boss disappeared and has not been in any form of contact, with my money.

 

That's how I've been effected.

[Rally Pat]

Got laid off at the beginning of February, been trying to find a job ever since, which is hard when you have to find a job that will work with a school schedule that changes every 8 weeks. My tax return completely paid off my credit card, and then some, but then I had to fill it back up again as I had nothing to buy anything with. Its really depressing when you essentially can't do anything. I was making more than my mom does, and I was buying a lot of the food for the family and paying a few of the bills. I was hoping that I was going to be able to move out of my house at the beginning of this year and even start working on a project car, but that failed miserably. Now it sounds as though my family might even lose our house too.

 

Finally going in for a second interview somewhere on Monday. I'm hoping that means I pretty much got hired. It has very little to do with my field (the position is a cell phone technician), but I am hoping that the pay is OK enough to where I can start properly paying my bills again. I am tired of having to call everyone I owe money to to make arrangements for smaller payments and stuff.

 

I envy those who feel uneffected by the economy. I would give anything right now for my family to be financially secure.

[Mopar]

I do insurance work at my job. We have taken a huge hit on the amount of cars we get. The insurance company we deal with has 15 shops IIRC that they send work to. When I first started in 07 we had 30-40 cars on site, while the insurance company had 150 cars in the repair process. Those numbers now are 12 cars on site, 60 at the insurance company. People aren't getting their cars fixed if they are driveable, between deductibles and needing the money from the insurance check elsewhere.... I understand why, just sucks to not have toy money.

[Jelloman4571647545499]

On the car side of the industry, I'm not actually suprised that the repair / maintenance side of the industry is still doing well. Seems like people realize they might be holding onto their cars for a longer period of time and are more focused on making sure they are well maintained in order to have trouble free time with them.

 

This is very true. Body shop business for us is crazy busy. Brought in close to 50 in for repair and close to 50 left the shop last week alone.

 

Also all overs, restorations have picked up in the past month more than ever for me. Still thinking about doing them too. So far a 66' mustang vert, 67 Chevy II, another 72 Mustang, and 67 thunderbird from just this week have called asking about getting work done. Its just when to find the time to do them.

[Mopar]

Fuck your shop

[Linc5.0]

My grass is tall.

 

then get it cut weekly not biweekly you homo

[Miller]

then get it cut weekly not biweekly you homo

 

Erik have you seen Reindhout out and about today or yesterday?

[Dave1647545494]

I don't know who you're talking to? Most of the Chrysler dealers are closing, Ford dealers are closing, and a lot of the GM dealers are closing. Maybe on the aftermarket side of everything, but even then with so many out of work techs it's getting cut throat out there unless you own your own shop. I've gone in the last year from making 110 hours a pay to roughly 70-80. Actually last pay I had 49 hours, for two weeks. Yeah that doesn't cut it.

 

But anyhow.

 

My house is going into foreclosure. (No I didn't buy something I couldn't afford, $750 a month, $74K house)

My bills are piling up.

My credit rating I'm sure is below 0 if possible.

Who knows where my son and I are going to live after the foreclosure goes through.

 

None of this stemmed from the economy though, it's all b/c my wife decided to take all the money out of our bank account and leave me. Causing every bill I had sent out to bounce and collect overdraft fees. It all went down from there b/c I don't have her extra income to keep us afloat. It took me a good 5 months to get things to where they were managable, then hours started going down. FML

 

Hopefully my job come through with the Sherrifs office, my brother's been there 18 years and is talking to HR about me coming aboard. Then things might allow me to get my head above water.

 

 

 

kind of off topic, but you should sue her for spousal support and child support you don't need to lose your house

[Dave1647545494]

we have slowed down some at Ntb, but I'm still collecting a check and paying my bills

 

on a side note we went out to eat last night at logan's and the place was kinda dead for a friday night

[FourString]

It seems to be steady for me. I am getting ready to sell my Jeep and old truck to buy one newer truck in place of both. That will also come with a payment. For this reason, I have decided not to insure the Talon this year. Maybe next year.

 

Though, I must admit that I am preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.

[rampage]

I'm making more money this year than ever before in my life, and my house hasn't depreciated a cent since I bought it over two years ago.

 

Verse, if you can't get a dime out of the ex, I would suggest doing some research on bankruptcy. It sucks, but it may be the way to go.

[wnaplay1647545503]

I am hoping everything goes well with my injury. Like Tim I was lured away from my job and only recently returned to, well being stuck in bed. However I am assured I will have a good job when I am healed for the same company. I was scheduled to make more money this year than ever. Now I will probably make less than ever. I have always tried to be prepared with no credit cards and paying cash for all my vehicles. We havent really slowed down either. We still eat out everynight, have multiple vacations scheduled, and my wife is constantly buying stuff. We are in a bad situation if I dont heal when the doctors say I will. I am fortunate to still have a good sum in savings, but I will probably have to dive into it soon.

[Bam]

Wow, I feel for everyone in this thread, and hope the best for everyone as well. We are nowhere near in a horrible position, sure things are a little tight and whatnot but nothing new or surprising, but some of the stories I've read are definitely scary.

 

And Jason, having credit cards aren't a bad thing,(unless I read your post wrong), especially in emergencies, but I agree always pay them off when possible. It's always harder to get credit when its needed, so having them out there just in case can be good.

[Tractor]

So far things are going good for us. I'm getting a new business off the ground, doing some day trading, my full time job is still here and not likely to go anywhere and my wife's in a great position as well. We suffered pretty badly through the last recession (`99-03) so I know how bad it sucks. Luckily at that time it was just us two, the bad part was we just moved to columbus so starting out in a new place in the middle of a recession was not easy.