I still buy the same food as always, I like to eat what I like to eat. I just have to spend a little more for it. I try to buy things when they are on sale but there is nothing you can really do about it, you need to eat. So I don't worry or give it much thought.

I suppose I could stop eating out so much to save money, but then I would have to cook more…..

Well put. Everytime I hear someone complain about high gas prices I have to laugh. The high prices have not changed the vast majority of peoples behavior. I work at a credit union and our loan officers are swamped with new loans for gas guzzling SUV's and trucks.

I'm like Brian; I'm watching every penny. My wife and I carpool to work everyday we can. We are watching the sale ads at the grocery store and buying in bulk.

Its my money and its my resposibility to take care of it!

Wonder where my Economic Stimulus check is at?????

Ah, now I get your handle/avatar!

How's Granny doing these days?

-Blast

"...you could go back to work if need be, right?..."

Bite your tongue!!!

Can't go back to work in law enforcement, too old and worn out. We do the volunteer thing now for several reasons, but right near the top of the list is that we basically live for free (other than vehicle payments now) except for food and entertainment. Right now we are at a national wildlife refuge in the boonies, 30 miles to a "town." So we make very few trips to town, buying several weeks worth of food at one time, saving us fuel money. Works for us...

I think the IRS starts mailing out the checks in mid-may, I could use it too. grad school tuition eats up all my wage, savings, loan and then some....and i will graduate right in the middle of the recession.....

Well put.

It has made certain changes in my eatting habits. All good. Less beef, less cane sugar, less trucked produce. More local produce (yeah for spring and farmers markets) and preserves (boo for pickled beets which I used to like and were a really good deal at the farmers market last summer), switched to chicken and pork. And less snacks.

Sure, I'm driving the whole whopping mile and half to work- when I get out at 8, I don't want to walk. But I've still lost 10 pounds in four months. So it is all around a good thing.

MoBOB, You have a PM

Well, the way I see it, eventually corporate life will no longer have a place for me. When that happens, I think I will become self employed as a consultant, sharing my years of experience with the noobies and charging a nice, hefty consulting fee every time I decide to show up for work, which is entirely at my discretion.

I suspect there's something like that in Law Enforcement as well. Okay, so no more beat cop for you, but I bet you still have plenty to offer in terms of experience and lessons learned. There's an awful lot of these young punk greenies that think putting a badge on equates to having an "S" tatooed on your chest. Maybe a dose of reality might be worth a buck or two.

Probably, but to tell you the truth, I have had enough of it, I have no desire to get back into the law enforcement business.

A good friend, on the other hand, retired from an allied agency, got hired back the next day as a "range officer," got sent to S&W, Colt, Remington, HK, and probably others that I have forgotten armorers schools, so that he could maintain their departmental weapons. Then he became a classroom instructor as well. Then they came up with a new rule preventing him from using all that knowledge, so he became a part time background investigator, plus teaches classes in the local JC. Makes him a lot of spending money, and gives him something to do. Not my cup of tea tho, we are having a ball doing our volunteer thing...

Hey, if you can afford to do it for free, by all means go for it, man. To my way of thinking, why do for free what someone will pay you good money for. Then again, that comes with certain conditions you may not care for.

Doing your own thing is worth something, so being able to just walk away can be a deciding factor, especially later in life.