This post will be a continued introduction and a little bit more personal information about me.  Bear with me, there will be some meat and potatoes posts coming in the following days/weeks, but for right now, let’s take it slow and get some basic info out there.

The first thing I can tell you is that I’m not a writer. Never have been and never want to be. I have an accounting background and do a lot of bookkeeping duties for a small firm. So pardon my grammar errors and spelling mistakes, I’ll try to keep them to a minimal, but no promises.  I usually just type the way I think/talk, so run-ons and fragments are gonna happen.

So, a few months ago my company laid off about 25% of its employees. They have been hit fairly hard by the trickle down from the bust of the housing market and consequently the credit freeze that is going on now.  A week or two ago, with the future still looking murky, they cut everyones salaries by a hefty 20%. I don’t know what 20% means to everyone else out there, but I didn’t have a lot of discretionary income in the first place. Needless to say things are going to be really tight now. I’m hoping the recent  passage of the stimulus bill will boost the work we have coming in to the office, but for the time being, it’s not looking very good. Recessions Blow!

I’m engaged and will be getting married over the summer. As is the custom, right now my fiance’s parents are going to pay for the wedding, assuming of course her father doesn’t get hit by the next round of layoffs at his company. Here’s to hoping that doesn’t happen, because I have no idea how we would pay for it then. I’m doing some things to bring in some extra cash , but I still have a lot of outstanding debt I’m trying to pay off (some topics to be covered later).  We’ll have to wait and see what happens with that.

In the mean time, fight back against this nasty recession. Don’t let it win. Let’s keep thinking of ways to deal with the tough times and avoid the stress.