trying to keep up

The markets have been so terrible lately that we are having a tough time keeping the account balances stable. The markets seem to drop as fast as we can save money into them. I guess we are fortuate that we are able to save quite a bit of money, but it is getting tougher every day. Food prices are rising, gas is crazy expensive, and our utility costs have nearly doubled in the last year. Maryland thought that deregulating the utilities would bring competition and lower costs for everyone. It didn't. No new competition came and now our rates have gone up and are expected to keep going up. We live near the Chesapeake Bay and it is fairly windy here. I was wondering today what it would take to put up a windmill in our yard. I saw a news story about a guy in Delaware who lived next to the beach and did that. He said it supplied about 30% of his energy use. Then his neighbors complained and he was forced to take it down as they said it made too much noise. I will have to search the web and see how those things work, and if it would be feasable. I am at the point that I am willing to try pretty much anything to save money now. It sometimes seems like everything is lining up against us these days and it is getting so tough for us regular people to get ahead. We will have to just keep forging ahead and hope for better times, although I am not too optimistic about that. Even when the economy recovers, whenever that is, wages and salaries are not going to jump up, and prices are not going to come down. I will keep searching the web for more links and info that can help us regular working class stiffs try to improve our lot.