And the price of gasoline too.
I'm not living under a rock and I track our spending, so I've definitely noticed!
We're okay on the gas thing. We can walk most of the places we need to go and that leaves gas enough for me to get to and from work.
Groceries...not so much. We've been running over budget for groceries for months now.
Clearly our budget needs readjusting.
Our income is not increasing so whatever we add to our grocery budget has to be taken away from something else we currently spend money on. Debt repayment is the big priority in our budget, so we won't take away from that, and otherwise things are already pretty lean.
It's hard to find somewhere to trim the fat when so little fat exists, but there's no question that something's got to go. So, after knocking it around for weeks, we've decided to take a big step and ditch two of the few remaining luxuries in our budget: We're dropping cable TV and disconnecting our home internet.
Starting next week, all of our at-home time will be off line time.
My fella says it feels like we're traveling backwards in time: We gave up our cel phones a few years ago because our budget could no longer support the expense. When our dishwasher broke, we chose not to repair it; going back to washing dishes by hand and converting the dishwasher space into cupboard space instead. Now cable and internet are going.
If it weren't for our quite modern microwave and range, our home technology would be in pretty much the same place it was in 1980!
What does this mean in terms of my on line activities?
I'll still have access to the internet at work (and, thankfully, a boss who allows me to play on line when it's not busy) and we'll also be able to access the internet through public WiFi connections and our local library.
I'll be posting on my Facebook pages, blogs, Twitter, and Pinterest, but I'll be posting less often: On weekdays only, and only as it fits in around my work schedule.
I'm hoping you'll stick with me, despite the change.
What will I do with my off line time?
Well, since I seem to be traveling backwards in time anyway, I've decided to return to some old loves. I'll visit with people face-to-face, and write real letters; the kind that actually go in the mail. I'll walk, and cook, and craft. I'll take photos and make art. I'll read books, printed on paper, with pages that turn.
I'll have more time available to concentrate on all these things.
Maybe, I'll even relax a bit.
Who knows?