In these economic times, what would you do for 50 bucks?

So there I was, eating my oatmeal and reading a comment on my blog about the value of 50 bucks and it got me to thinking, what is the value of a dollar these days. First, I do want to say that for the right amount of money I will do anything, in most cases I would give you up to an hour to draw a crowd to watch before I did it. As far as the example in the comment it was jumping in the cold pool. I get in mine all the time when it is cold and even perform the chicken dance for my Bride to get her to come in, occasionally she will most times she tells me my village it looking for its idiot, I see that as a compliment because it means someone needs me. Oh well, so this would be one I would give you time to draw a crowd and not even charge for it.

I digress though, what is the value of the dollar these days……… Not much now and not much in sight that improves that outlook. Some might say we should be lucky, at least gas has gone down in price, to them I say B.S. and here is why. If you track the cost of a barrel of oil as gas prices were on their way up and compare it to the cost of gas on its way down, we are still paying way more per gallon when compared to the cost of a barrel of oil. Almost every day I hear on the radio that this company or that company is reducing workforce by whatever amount of people and it makes me wonder, where does this end. If I hear the analyst’s right I am part of the problem because I have NO confidence and am not spending money on anything that is not food, who knows I may need that money for food later. I do not know what the answers are but I am concerned about the fact I see no end in sight.

So where I work we had some reduction in forces a few months back as a preemptive attempt to properly manage the shaky economic times. Later we were asked to take a cut in pay, for salaried employees we received a fixed cut based on a percentage, for hourly employees it was a reduction of hours, from 40 per week to 37. Again these steps were taken as a preemptive attempt to properly manage the business during these even more shaky economic times. Depending on what is next it will become more and more difficult to make ends meet. In the end I see a depression of wages and therefore the cost of products but in my experience the wage cuts came first and I have not seen a reduction in the costs of my tub of oatmeal yet.

I am very glad to have a job, period, let alone one that I love at a place I love but I wonder if the choices I have made throughout my life have put me on the best economic footing for an event like the one we are going through right now. I like most of my friends are scared about where we are heading and think the main factor is we can not and do not see an end in site. What is it that will fix our problems, who knows but it makes that 50 bucks for jumping in the pool even more important, 50 bucks for anything seems more important. That 50 bucks would pay one 19th of my house payment, it would pay 50% of my monthly car insurance bill, it would buy my steak and potato dinners we have every Sunday for a whole month and it would allow me 50 chances, almost a month, at the big money win in the Florda lotto.

I think we are all going to be thinking more about our money and exactly what and when we do with it. I hope I will be able to bring my commenter happiness knowing that $50 is still worth something to me.

So what would you do for 50 bucks?