Thursday, May 26, 2011

The weight of the world

I've been feeling a little frazzled these last few weeks.

Day after day of reading articles in the paper and watching news bulletins reporting on the increasing costs of living...food, electricity, water, council rates, interest rates, health insurance.....it just seems to go on and on and it's starting to get me down.

Add to that receiving said bills in the mail and freaking out big time by the diminished incoming funds (we have a homewares and gift shop - if ever there was a luxury item that people tighten up on during hard times, we are selling it) it's no wonder I'm teetering on the edge.

And then add to that all these same reports predicting that living costs are only going to keep going up (one report said electricity will double in the next four years), in my mind I am planning to purchase a generator, an esky, a cow and a whole lot of tinned goodies, and build a big fence around the house to keep out the hordes who will descend upon us once word gets out that I have a pantry full of tinned spaghetti and a veggie garden and chooks.....it'll be anarchy I tell ya, anarchy!

Over-reaction perhaps?  Who can say yay or nay but I'm thinking about it as a worse case scenario.  Not that I'm about to build a bunker and retreat from the world in preparation for the social descent into the apocalypse but I figure it's better to be prepared than caught unawares.  I mean, the LOML and I already live very frugally.  I grow most of our veggies, meat is really a once a week thing, we don't buy 'stuff' we don't need, we make do with what we have.....just yesterday I plugged the drafty gaps around the windows and doors with newspaper, sticky tape and carpet offcuts in a shining example of Nana Technology....but just what will happen, what will we do, when electricity gets to $600 a quarter?  When a bag of flour costs $20 a kilo at the supermarket?  When selling 'giftware' to earn an income is no longer a viable option?  What will we do then?  What will my mum do, who rents, lives on her own, works full-time and is nearing retirement age?  What will my brother and his wife do with their new baby and house out of town?

This sort of thinking takes up way too much of my mind-time lately.  

I think I'm going to stop reading the paper and watching the news.....right now, I'm off to see a man about a fence....

3 comments:

  1. Empathy! The papers have me in a frazzle too, although I'm less worried about $ and more about self-sufficiency in a crisis. Just yesterday, I said to my husband, "maybe we need to find a way to grow our own fish in the backyard". We haven't figured out how yet.

    I don't mean to sound trite, but at times like this, I watch the Muppets. It always makes me feel better. :)

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  2. I think this kind of thinking is on a lot of people's minds at the moment. It has been the topic of discussion a few times in our household this past month! SJ & I have to sit down and re-organise our entire budget because of the increasing costs. It's frustrating, infuriating, and scary - especially when we are already doing all that we can to save money so that we can finish the renovations on our house. :(
    ~S.

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  3. As terrible as it is to say, I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking this! Sometimes I feel that everyone around me is living with their head in the clouds and looking at the world through rose coloured glasses. Makes me flip out even more.

    Will have to try the Muppet Distraction Technique. Madagascar might do it for me too!

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