great topic, I am a teacher so we are only getting a 1% COLA this next year (instead of the 3-4% we should be getting). But I don't want to complain because a few districts aren't giving anything.
DH works for a non-profit, I don't see his salary going up this year but I don't think he will lose his job or anything.
I was just talking to a friend who teaches in LA and she was the last hired in her school so she will most likely be let go because of the budget cuts, so her TTC has been put on hold because of it, which is a bummer.
We only have one car, DH takes the metro, but the metro rates have gone up quite a bit lately, even still we save a lot of money by not having two cars. One of our neighbors has a hummer too and honestly they are such stupid cars...we too have an SUV, but its a small SUV, with two dogs, a child on the way and living in an area that gets pretty good ice storms I won't drive anything that doesn't handle well in weather, it also rains a ton here and my car has traction control.
The home prices have not really dropped that much in Northern VA, but they are starting to a little, there are so many homes for sale. We are hoping to buy sometime in the next year-but I don't want to overbuy and wind up like so many people who are upsidedown in their homes.