I remember when I was in high school and we were studying the Great Depression in my American History class, I went home and asked my grandmother how it was for her during that time. I mean, there was all that talk about people throwing themselves out of windows and all. She told me that it didn't affect her family so drastically; they lived in the country and were pretty self-reliant and, really, they were already poor and were used to having to tighten their belts and go without. It was bad, but nobody felt like killing themselves over it.
Now, I know that times are different, and most of us don't live in those small communities and grow a lot of our own food anymore. As for me, I will say that DH & I haven't felt much of an impact...yet. I'm sure it will affect us in some ways, but, although I think that we live very well, we also live relatively simply. We cook most of our food "from scratch," eat pretty low on the food chain, and rarely eat out. We both have and maintain 10-year old cars that rarely have problems--mine is a Saturn sedan, he has a 4-cylinder jeep. We both live very close to our jobs, and in walking distance of restaurants, a neighborhood grocery store, a CVS, and other shops. Because of our location, we rarely have to fill our tanks more than twice a month.
We see no need to upgrade our house or our lives. We're both in jobs that don't seem to be affected by the economy either. I could be blind-sided, but, it's only been within the last 10 or 15 years that I haven't worked two jobs at a time. (and I've worked some pretty menial jobs.) If I have to, I'll do it again. We've lived off of a lot less than we make now and survived, and, though I'd hate to go back to a smaller salary, it won't be the end of my world. There's plenty in my life that I know is not really a necessity.
