Guest post from: Mohamed Simon

With the economy in the crapper, it seems as if my attitude has followed along with it. I know I should be lucky I have a job but how lucky should I feel when my income has been cut in half? Not very, that’s how lucky. You see, I’m a real estate agent. I was doing very well for myself ten years ago making well into the 6 digits income range.

Now, I’m making what a teacher makes. We have been lucky enough to make cuts and be able to maintain most of our lifestyle. I traded my fully loaded Escalade in and went for something a little more reasonable, a Ford Expedition. It also saved us a good bit on care insurance too, so that was an added perk for our budget.

We also looked into deals that we could get with our phones and internet. That helped some. Then we looked into Directv deals and decided to switch from cable to satellite TV.

All very doable changes but some days, I miss my 6 digit income, and trips to the beach in my Escalade.