Off late we are hearing a lot of bad news starting from Lehman brothers to Satyam Computers… We all must be aware that we have just opened the Pandora box and we are yet to reach the peak of the recession… It is time for all of us to wear the socks and start planning for lean days ahead… I started my cost cutting activity already, as I clearly stated that I don’t have a lot of new year resolutions, these are some things I’m doing and I’ll be doing till I overcome this recession…
- No new expenses list other than basic expenses…
- Stopped buying merchandise. It is time to collect all the reward points in credit card and start using those points to buy things we need… To my surprise I’ve accumulated Rs.30,000/- as my reward points and made big shopping last month… I brought merchandise for next 2 years…
- Cutting fuel cost… I stopped going for long drives on car… In fact stopped using car for this spring, just using scooter as climate is not that bad and started using more public transport…
- Cutting on my visits to malls as I can’t control my desires and I tend spend more… In fact for last two months I’ve not visited Chennai Citi Center & Bangalore’s Forum or Garuda mall…
- Work on your financials. There are two types of financial things we have to do, one is to plan our finance and the other is to monitor our existing finances…
- Plan finances means planning our “expenses & savings” with our income…
- Monitor finances is checking of Return on Investment, on investments we have made… Look into banking charges on our bank account & cards… To my shock only now I noticed I’ve been swindled by banks by making lot of charges and just made a visit to banks and got all things sorted… I’m saving almost Rs.5000/- a year on getting waiver from charges…
- Cut on lavish parties… Generally I throw lavish parties for my birthday, that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop it, but it might not be the way I did for last 3 years…
- Paid a year for GYM and I saved 50% of for the charge and also working on my fitness is the only New Year resolution… So, I think I’ll serious in my workout…
- I’ve been an avid spender and most of my spending will be in fuel, food & merchandise… All that happens only when I go to lavish places… So made some investment to stay at home…
- Brought Nintendo WII and will be playing inside my house
- Brought a Camera and planning to learn photography… Will be visiting places where I can shoot and that too will be using Public Transport only :)…
- Writing blogs so that I’ve the pleasure of sharing my experience and also improve my writing skills…
- Networking and getting more friends…
- Cutting on my mobile bills, I’ve been a High Value Customer for my service provider and no longer will I be one :)… Thought this is very hard, some how I managed to cut 20% but I still want to reduce this by 60%…
Over all I want to cut 75% on my expense compared to what I did for last 3 years… I’m somewhat successful in it as I was able to cut things by 30% and in months to come I’m sure I can reach my goals… Other important thing is I’m also looking on alternate source of income other than my salary like making some money from my blogging, thought it is too early to reap results, in time to come I must be benefitting on the efforts I’m putting today… Also we have enjoyed the sunny days and it is time to be careful for the rainy days ahead… Think more than once before making an expense and do shopping during festive seasons to get some good discounts… Enjoy what you are doing so that you don’t feel the pinch of falling down…
For your information I got a report on past recessions and think it would be nice to share it here so that you can get some idea from history on duration of recessions and how you can plan… Wish you all a happy recession :)…
|
Peak (Recession Start)* |
Trough (Recession End)* |
|
|
December 1854 (IV) |
|
June 1857 (II) |
December 1858 (IV) |
|
October 1860 (III) |
June 1861 (III) |
|
April 1865 (I) |
December 1867 (I) |
|
June 1869 (II) |
December 1870 (IV) |
|
October 1873 (III) |
March 1879 (I) |
|
March 1882 (I) |
May 1885 (II) |
|
March 1887 (II) |
April 1888 (I) |
|
July 1890 (III) |
May 1891 (II) |
|
January 1893 (I) |
June 1894 (II) |
|
December 1895 (IV) |
June 1897 (II) |
|
June 1899 (III) |
December 1900 (IV) |
|
September 1902 (IV) |
August 1904 (III) |
|
May 1907 (II) |
June 1908 (II) |
|
January 1910 (I) |
January 1912 (IV) |
|
January 1913 (I) |
December 1914 (IV) |
|
August 1918 (III) |
March 1919 (I) |
|
January 1920 (I) |
July 1921 (III) |
|
May 1923 (II) |
July 1924 (III) |
|
October 1926 (III) |
November 1927 (IV) |
|
August 1929 (III) |
March 1933 (I) |
|
May 1937 (II) |
June 1938 (II) |
|
February 1945 (I) |
October 1945 (IV) |
|
November 1948 (IV) |
October 1949 (IV) |
|
July 1953 (II) |
May 1954 (II) |
|
August 1957 (III) |
April 1958 (II) |
|
April 1960 (II) |
February 1961 (I) |
|
December 1969 (IV) |
November 1970 (IV) |
|
November 1973 (IV) |
March 1975 (I) |
|
January 1980 (I) |
July 1980 (III) |
|
July 1981 (III) |
November 1982 (IV) |
|
July 1990 (III) |
March 1991(I) |
|
March 2001 (I) |
November 2001 (IV) |
|
*Quarterly dates are in parentheses |
|
Source: National Bureau of Economic Research
AnandNataraj 
Hi Anand:
Good plan. Try it out, give a dry run in the coming days and let us know how far and how long you are successful in executing this. That will be interesting to see.
Jokularly or even serious part, if you are a married men, you can further reduce the cost 🙂 as you always have to get your bill passed by your better half 🙂 My personal experience. Lot of time, this has helped me in cutting my cost.
For example, whenever my wife is not at home, sometimes I feel like having a Pizza. Suddenly, I will start feeling what Chitra will think if I spend Rs.250 for a Pizza. Most of the times, I will settle down for a Chicken/Mutton Biryani where it will be over between Rs.45 to Rs.70. More than 100% reduction of cost 🙂 (although suggestion from Chitra will be coming like why didn’t I used the Dosa flour in the house and done with it 🙂 U see , she always better herself in cutting the costs 🙂 )
From my food to other spending habits, my wife is always there to watch and control me and of course, I enjoy this. It is always great that somebody is taking utmost care on you than you do on yourself
Are there any chance of hearing your wedding bells in the near future 🙂
Regards,
Swami.K
http://ksawme.blogspot.com
Hello Swami,
that is nice to see and you must be lucky to have such a wonderful wife… I’ve friends whose wife is a spendthrift… Don’t know if you have the experience of waiting outside pothys or GRT :d… I’m not yet ready for all those stuff and so i’ve postponed my marriage for that :)… My parents are pestering me for marriage, but i’ve couple of mission to be accomplished before marriage… So, no marriage for this year, planning to get married next year 2010…
our interaction after your marriage was limited, but i think you have lot of things to share with me… I still thing playing cricket in your veranda & you leading our cricket team when we use to play in Indian ground… It all remains ever green but days have passed… I’ll be in Chennai next week, spare some time for me, letz go back to old days and also discuss about present and future…
thank you once again for sparing time to read my posts and further more to write comments…
Anand
Hi Anand:
Yes. Even yesterday night, I was thinking about those cricket days …. Hmm.. we can’t get those times back… but yes we can cherish that and talk
Agreed… post marriage… lot of things happened in my life as I have to get to relocate myself due to my mother’s health … then my mother passed away , followed by few family problems… All these things preoccupied me much and I am literally out of touch with most of my freinds for the past
Sure… Have a lot to talk to you. Let me know when and where we can meet and I will make it. Preferably at weekends so that we can talk in detail
Take care.
Regards,
Swami.K
http://ksawme.blogspot.com