Having been in the US, and noted how many times we had to fill up our rental car, I couldn’t help but wonder why Americans don’t go for diesel. Especially with the current strains on the economy.

I drive a four cylinder two litre diesel car, and I can get 600 miles out of a full tank. The car that we had in America, barely managed three hundred miles.

Back in the eighties, diesel cars used to be hard to start, noisy, and generally deemed to be unsexy, but things are different now.

So why do Americans still insist on paying for fuel that is obviously less efficient?

Yesterday, it was reported that the Republic of Ireland had officially entered a recession after two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Then I caught a bit of President Bush’s address to the nation re the current financial crisis that has the potential to cripple the US economy.

Major lender, HBOS, lies in financial ruin, with the potential loss of thousands of jobs.

Today, it was also reported that another major lender, Bradford and Bingley, is closing its mortgage processing centre, to the tune of 370 job losses.

All this after the Northen Rock debacle, earlier this year.

The oil price surge has meant that utility companies in this country have increased their prices by 30%. Our personal food bill has risen by approximately 13% in the last three months, as supermarkets also increase their prices.

The state of the global economy is currently killing my book-reading buzz. I even opted to watch BBC World News the other day, over Smallville. WTF?

I can’t seem to help myself though. I’m worried that sooner or later, this crap is going to affect me more than it has already, and that’s a scary thought for me. I like my life, and I really don’t want it to change. I like buying shoes, bags, and books. I don’t want to have to tighten my belt. I don’t want to have to make the decision to buy three books rather than five, because of the cost. I don’t want to consider buying cheaper brand foods, because all the branded names have hiked up ridiculously in price.

I know these worries are nothing, and may be perceived as being quite shallow, in comparison to what other people may be currently going through, and truly I appreciate that, but I’m still fearful. I think it’s natural to worry about one’s self first isn’t it?

Looking at my business forecast for next year, I’m currently down by 23%, in comparison to the forecast the same time last year.

This means that I’m going to have to work harder. Like I don’t already. Sigh.

I know this blog has been littered with political talk of late, but it’s just hard to escape from the realities of what’s happeniing in our world right now.

TTG’s company has already taken steps to try to mitigate the effects of the crisis by making redundancies, luckily for us, his role is such that it would be foolhardy for his company to get rid of him. For the moment at least.

I can’t help but wonder how you guys are being affected? I hear the doom and gloom on the news, but what has changed in your household as a direct result of the current economic climate?

What are you worrying about?