Let’s Talk About MONEY, Baby!

–by Carla

So I’m talking to Katy the other night, chatting it up, talking about wedding stuff, talking about fabulous L.A. things (because quite honestly, who wants to listen to a tired 30-something mom drone on and on about spit-up, poopie diapers and baby fat…come on…seriously)…so of course I try to live vicariously through Katy…wishing I’d been a tad more like her in the $$ department, but hey, onward and upward. Anyhoo, she fills me in on a super posh get-together (at least that’s how it comes across to me) where the topic of this blog came up. She said her friends and friends of friends (or am I embellishing that last part a little…?) said they loved it, thought it was funny and so forth…but they were talking about it AND talking about $$. Hearing that made starting this little labor of love worth the blood, sweat, tears and a currently developing hunchback. Let’s go ahead and talk about money…that’s what we’re about here at RecessionMama. And this is coming from someone who was raised to “never discuss finances”. The three of us here at RM wanted to start a national dialogue about what used to be so taboo and it seems to be catching on, just barely one month into this experiment.

OK then. If you have a pulse, you’re probably a more than little tired of the gloom and doom we’re getting blasted with every single day…not just about the economy, but about everything else going on in the world. Same here.

So in doing my research for today’s post, (…sitting on my deflating yoga ball in front of the computer which is set up in the breakfast nook inside a computer armoire because we have a small house and Toddler Boy already broke one printer…and the kitchen chairs are too high and my abnormally long torso is too long and I end up hunched over, slowly dooming myself to a painful, cripply end…)

And yes that’s a paper plate. It once held brownies.

I went ahead and called on my good, good friend, Google and typed in “Recession Fun”. You’re welcome. I’m honestly up to my ears with talk of swine flu and recession lately and I never ever want to be a Debbie Downer and THAT’s why I went on my latest little Google excursion. I was comforted when I came across this little item from our friends across the pond. It’s so nice to know we’re not alone in our new found national frustration and boredom. Plus it’s always nice to see words like “pint” and “pub” and “favourite”.

The long and short of the article: it’s cheaper to park your tush at home and/or find things to do around town that don’t cost much if anything at all. And the little things are making a comeback, too. Cooking (omg), growing your own veggies (omg), baking your own bread (omg), and so on. But if sewing is really making a comeback, I’m doomed. The last time I saw a string dangling from my blouse, I whipped out a lighter and singed it.

But this is fun stuff: cooking classes, learning to sew, playing board games. Why not. My brother and I were talking the other day about how different it was when we were growing up and how I hoped to allow my sons to grow up in a similar fashion: playing outside until the sun started to set, riding our bikes all over the neighborhood, just being kids and playing. So in a way, this new, trimmed down lifestyle of mine will most likely lead us in that direction because I’m guessing a good, pre-owned bike (that sounds fancier than “used”) is a hell of a lot cheaper than all of those video game gadget thingies that we don’t yet have because the boys are so little.

And here it is, Friday. The weekend upon us. Very cool. I was finally thinking it’s time to head out to see a movie, because it’s been two pregnancies since that happened…and now there’s swine flu to worry about. Maybe I’ll just rent a movie. It is cheaper, after all. Ahhh, RecessionMama Carla just made herself smile, thinking of all the dollar signs and sick days I just saved myself. Whew…..

And now for some totally unrelated fun on a Friday, someone please tell me what’s wrong with this picture…

Puhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhlease! Didn’t we learn ANYthing from that hot sauce commercial?