Cancellations

The company I work for manufactures an automotive air condition part. When new car sales are up, our business is up. When new car sales are down, so is our production. Well, new car sales are down and have been for quite awhile. Cuts in benefits and overtime over the past couple of years have resulted in pretty close to a 27% decrease in take home pay. Yesterday we were called in to a meeting and learned of the latest cut. Managers and Supervisors are taking an across the board 5% cut in pay. When you do the math, that is over a 30% reduction in pay over the course of a couple years.

I don't mention this to garner sympathy. V and I are going to be okay. We locked in a low 30 year fixed rate mortgage on our fixer-upper home that we purchased below market value. Things are just getting a bit tight and we don't have much in the way of extra money to spend on things like trips to Phoenix in May. The money we have will be better spent replacing the back fence and siding on the Master Bedroom expansion that proves the previous owner of this house knew nothing about carpentry and installing siding.

We are going to have to cancel our trip to the NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits and the Blogbash. A trip like that is just not very reasonable this year. I will hold on to the room for a few more days in case one of y'all are going and can't get a room at the hotel with most of the other bloggers. We can just transfer the reservation to your name.