i've had a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches in the past two weeks. i usually enjoy them ... they're filling ... comforting ... and usually quite tasty. i even enjoy them with a bit of peanut butter on the top ... i know ... sounds disgusting, but don't knock it 'til you've tried it. besides, it adds an element of protein that you probably aren't getting when you have them for multiple meals in a row.

i'd like to blame my diet on the economy. it sounds so much more tragic when i say, "i know [insert friend's name] ... i can't afford anything but grilled cheese, let alone rent!"

but it's really not logical.

it's kind-of like the gas situation. how much more does it really cost to fill up our gas tanks? $10-$15? i understand that that additional money could have been used on a few drinks with the girls after work or a casual dinner with friends (once), but it's really not that devastating. it totally sucks ... but not earth shattering.

what's killing us is our inability to budget (oh, and our need to complain and blame .. but that's a whole nother oprah). now, i'm not downplaying our economic status right now. let's be honest ... it's not looking too great. but it's not like we haven't seen this coming. seriously. all of a sudden people are in a panic. we're running around like it's the apocalypse or something. and i can understand that if you just bought a new mercedes and happen to work for a bank or the lehman brothers.

i'm sitting here in a slight panic myself. my paycheck was deposited at midnight last night (thank God i don't have WaMu) and by noon i was broke. and i have two more weeks until the next one. why? well, because rent is due in a few days (that's 90% of this paycheck- did i mention i live in l.a. the most expensive city in the world?) and i had to pay for my vehicle registration (and the parking tickets that apparently i failed to pay).

now, a few months ago, i overspent when i was in kansas. and i haven't quite recovered. that's my problem. and that's why i'm in a little financial crisis of my own. that's not the governments fault. i would love to blame it on bush because he sounds like a complete moron right now, but i can't. and i have a feeling that, if we were honest with ourselves, we could all admit that times are tough, but that, if we (government included) spent within our means, this whole recession wouldn't be so dramatic.

oh. and by the way. the lack of planning on our government's part should be a lesson to us that we need to be more intelligent with our finances. it's very clear they only became concerned with our fiscal issues when it started to directly effect them.

just saying.