People keep talking boycott. Here's what can sensibly be done:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

Think 10-25% reduction in gross monthly expenditures. No, do not think larger than that. Not at this point. Just 10-25% of the gross. Think only at the consumer level. You are not going to enlist large institutional spenders in this.

Stop using credit cards and ATMs. Get transaction fees out of your life. Reduce their ability to collect profits from the cash flow. Get out from under the credit strain while you still can.

Get the hell RID of that SUV. Get it out of your life. For so many reasons. Less petroleum product consumption is an idea whose time has come. Consider every product that uses petroleum products and assess the use of it in your lives.

Do you REALLY need that home? Painful, yes, but where is that money going? Ever looked at how much that mortgage REALLY costs at the end? Is that frugal? Do you have too much home?

Remember: Less consumption means less tax revenue on a lot of levels. Ouch.

Those are a few. Chime in with more. Think frugal. Think sensible. Think incremental. Think doable.

Get off the hamster wheel. It goes nowhere good.

Chime in with more. Think sensible. Think doable. Blues: This especially applies to you.

[DebJ]

1. really need the home?? with social security going kaput, owning

a home free and clear could be the difference, literally, between life and death, the meds or food or rent issue.

by the way, I don't own a home myself. I can't as yet. But I would advise everyone who can to get in a house and pay the damn thing off.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Free and clear is one thing.

Crushed under mortgage payments is another.

These are just ideas for discussion.

[Shoeempress]

3. Are there local farms which produce meat, veggies etc, who

sell to the public and support Dems? Lower cost, better food, cut the corporations out. Can you barter with local dems for products or services. If done discretly may not be taxable. Check

http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?type=loc&addr=6+williams+path&zip=03848&search=Search+by+Location&off=400

when looking for services and goods. Are your supporting local dems when doing business?
AVOID EBAY big repuke supporters.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. Hey, those local farms...

May well support Dems now, but give it time. As the chickens come home to roost, that can change. And probably will.

One thing dems have to do is communicate what we stand for, not let them communicate what we stand for.

[Shoeempress]

5. Tell people why you are shopping or not shopping at thier place

of business.

[zeemike]

13. Where I live it is easy

To find local food because there is a large number of organic farms.
Organic growers are most likely democratic supporters so if you seek them out you will eat better and help them make a living as well.

[Shoeempress]

14. We have them too, and the food tastes better

[hippywife]

6. FundRace website isn't a useful enough tool

I looked at our area and there were many of us that gave to the Dem candidates that don't even show up. The only reason I can think of as I look at the listings is that we gave often but in smaller increments. It looks like unless you gave in amounts of $100 or more at a time, you are not on the list. So this is not the end all of reliable lists.

Also, we manage to live without many things and it isn't that difficult. Before I moved down here to OK, I had a good job that allowed me as a single woman to own a condo, buy a new car, eat out everyday if I wished, and buy whatever I wanted. Now I earn 1/2 of what I used to and we live just fine. Better even because we aren't slaves to our petty little wants and desires. We don't have cable, when we watch TV at all it's PBS. We made the choice for high speed DSL over cable so as to get more news and better news whenever we wanted it. We don't go shopping except for groceries.

We are so much happier and more focused on what needs to be done. And even tho we don't make very much, we are able to help support progressive organizations in our area with out giving.

"Live simply so others may simply live!"

[Shoeempress]

7. Takes time for them to update. My first donation did not appear for 4 to

5 months. Give it some time to catch up.

[hippywife]

8. It takes more than time

I'm talking about several hundreds of dollars we were able to donate little by little to the Kucinich campaign before the primaries. If I remember correctly, they show they are updated through 10/04.

[niwi]

12. nooooo not ebay!?!

They're rethug supporters too??

[BiggJawn]

9. Dump the cable Tee-Vee.

They lie to us anyway. Why continue to support the propaganda arm of the RNC and GOP?

Find other ways to get your entertainment. Rent DVD's Go to Movies. Start a spouse-swapping club with your neighbours. Take a bicycle ride. Get a shortwave radio and discover alternate sources of news and learn about other cultures without the filter of the Murkan Media....

What do most of you pay for it (cable), anway? $45 a month? $60 a month? I hear that top-tier digital cable with a cable modem can run $125 a month (!)

That's ridiculous! and it's a luxury. Admit it, your life would not be any worse if you cut the wire.

[Gore1FL]

10. i gotta disagree with the home part

Buying is much more frugal than renting. 1> It is cheaper, you get a tax write-off, and some of your money goes to the actual purchase.

[BiggJawn]

11. I have had to do this involuntarily

My paycheck stays the same size, but the cost of everything keeps rising. Necessities have increased to where they are gobbling up my "disposable" money.

Groceries have increased 25%, Gasoline is up 100% in the last year, Heat continues to rise at such a rate that I run the furnace for only an hour in the morning just to melt the ice in the toilet (OK, it's not that bad...YET!)

I qiut smoking. That gave me an extra $120 a month, and that was GOOD. I could buy TOYS! New bike parts! Now, this Inflation that's "not really Inflation" has devoured that and then some. I'm back to dumpster-diving for bike parts...

I'm just thankful my rent hasn't gone up.