Yes, I know that some people think that we are creating our own economic crisis by not spending the way we used to. But I believe that what is happening, even though it is tough and we will suffer, is good in both the short and long term. I think that as a society we were living way beyond our means and that an adjustment was long overdue. This is a great wake up call for this amazing country, and I'm sure that we will come out of this one pretty strong.

Now that our family is on its own, with no more payroll coming in bi-weekly, we realize how many things we don't need, how many things we could avoid spending money on, how little you need to live a great life.

Like many, living in the rat race drives you to buy that big house, that new car, the best vacation. Expenses grow along with your salary, your family, and your ego. Instead of saving more or investing in businesses that could generate income, we spend money on things that are a liability and, in many cases, that lose value.

Since there is nothing we can do about our big fat, rat racer LA mortgage, my wife and I have decided to analyze the rest of our expenses and cut where it makes sense.

Here are 5 things my wife and I are doing that I would like to share with you:

1- Canceled NetFlix ($30): Instead, we go to the supermarket and rent movies from Red Box for one dollar a pop. We figured that we would never watch the 30 movies a month that would make NetFlix worthwhile. And it gives us a good reason to walk to the supermarket together.

2- Sharing my car and loan payment and riding my bike more ($250): I have a car that has 6 years and only 35K miles on it. I rarely  use it, and my mom didn't want to spend money on a new car. She is happy, and I'm sweating more.

3- Letting my wife go to Costco alone ($200): For some reason, every time I went to Costco I ended up spending $300. Half of it was in the electronics department. My wife is much more focused and goes straight to what she needs.

4- Canceled the gym membership; run at the park or beach ($45): It is fun, the weather in LA is beautiful (which is why we pay that insane mortgage), and you don't have to see all the people who are in better shape than you.

5- Eating at home more ($200): Because of this new situation, my wife added several new dishes to her list (of only 2 dishes before!), and they are healthy and delicious. Now that we are eating all together, she feels proud and we feel full.

There is one more thing we did that I didn't include in the list. For about 1 week we were saving on napkins by cutting them in half. The napkins ended being way too small, so we needed to use 5 pieces instead of 1 to clean just one finger. Minor detail, we bought a $250 paper guillotine to do this (...and other things) so half of our savings were spent. Yes, I know it doesn't make much sense, but transforming a rat racer takes more time than one economic crisis!   
 

I received a very nice note from a Mattel friend who left a couple years before me in a situation similar to mine--chasing the dream. He updated me on his life and, fortunately, he is doing great. He described how long it took him after leaving Mattel to slow down and start enjoying his family, living in the present and not glued to his Blackberry screen.

Right now, I'm very busy building the new business and I don't foresee any slowdown coming soon. On the contrary, I see more speed and craziness heading my way, as we get closer to launching the site and the company. To be honest, I love it. I love almost every minute I spend building this dream. It doesn't feel like a job at all. But my friend does have a point. I need to start thinking about how much quality time I spend with my kids and the things I may be missing. I'm definitely spending more time with them than before, but I know that I have room for improvement. 

After re-reading his e-mail, a rush of guilt prompted me to take my kids, one of their friends, and our dog Dorito to the beach strand to skateboard at 10:00 PM. On the way, I bought a jug of milk and cookies, grabbed some plastic cups, and sat on a bench on the pier to indulge. We shared a fantastic and magical mini night picnic. At some point towards the end, I couldn't resist and connected to my CrackBerry while we were dipping cookies. There was nothing critical that required my attention on that evil little screen, but unfortunately that instant was enough to interrupt the magic of that unique moment. My kids noticed my absence immediately and continued to have fun without me. The present became past, faster than the screen went to black. It was too late when I realized that a precious time had gone by, before I hit reply.

Just bought new shoes for my new job

I'm entering the fourth week of my entrepreneurial life, and I think that I'm finally getting the hang of it. Here are the top 5 myths about being an entrepreneur that I have encountered so far:

Myth #1: You work in pajamas all day.
True or False? FALSE
I ran out of clean pajamas by week one.


Myth #2: You get bored of being at home and not seeing people.
True or False? FALSE
I love being at home and my friends are one skype-call away.

Myth #3: You work harder but enjoy every minute of it.  
True or False? TRUE
I work insane hours building the website and I hate when I have to stop and     go to sleep.

Myth #4: You have a hard time balancing work and your personal life.
True or False? TRUE
There is no division between work and my personal life when the kitchen is       two steps away.

Myth #5: You have a better work/life balance than in the corporate world. 
True or False? DON'T KNOW
So far I don't see a difference. I push the scale to one side or the other         many times, every day.

I will let you know how things go as the weeks pass. I'm working hard with my team and we are getting closer to the launch day. Check out the key milestones before launching the mystery site...

I'm discovering that having this much flexibility and freedom can be both fun and dangerous. I'm used to having a very defined routine, a rat-race type of daily schedule for 15 years: wake up at 6:30 am, eat breakfast, kiss my wife, daughters and, now, Dorito. Drive to the office just in time for that first meeting at 8:30am, then have lunch at 12:00 (Tuesdays - quesadilla, Wednesday - Greek food, Fridays - pizza), followed by more meetings, answer 150 e-mails and drive back home at 6:30 PM for dinner. Now I find myself with this blank piece of paper that is my daily schedule where Mondays are not very different from Wednesdays (except that it's the day they sweep the street) and, like a kid in a candy store, I'm facing all these options and I don't know what to pick first.
Should I eat breakfast then exercise and then e-mail, or exercise first? Should I schedule my meetings from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm and not in the afternoon? Should I go to yoga, Pilates, spinning, or all of the above? Should I just work in my pajamas for 15 hours straight or go to bed early. I felt like a kid who has gone nuts in a candy store the other day, when I found myself at the movies with my neighbor (who else?) at 11:30 am watching a very bad movie "Push" (rent it in the best of cases). I felt this was a little unnecessary; maybe it was just a little bit of guilt, I don't know, maybe it was that I'm just learning how to manage this new freedom, to eat the candy and not have too much of it because it can make you sick. I think I need to create my own new routine to avoid freedom indigestion. 

For all of you, savvy freelancers or ex-freelancers, any recommendations on a daily routine?