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Lynnae McCoy is a freelance writer, homeschooling mom and frugal living enthusiast. She writes about frugal living at Being Frugal.net and about balancing work and homeschooling at Freelance Homeschool Mom. When she has a rare spare moment, you can find her on Twitter.

We’re very fortunate here in the United States. We have access to many gadgets and services that make our lives easier and more pleasurable. Just two centuries ago, our ancestors lived without such conveniences as cars, running water and electricity.

With the advent of modern conveniences, though, came a sense of entitlement. In these past few years, when the economy has been down and people have been cutting their budgets, the lines between wants and needs have been blurred.

As a frugal blogger, my mantra is usually “Cut the expenses and save more money!” But if push came to shove, what could you live without?

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The U.S. Labor Department reported on Friday that the unemployment rate rose to 9.6 percent after the economy shed jobs for the third straight month. Dropping 54,000 non-farm jobs, the losses were not great, but not as bad as economists originally predicted.

Job Losses Not So Bad

Despite the fact that the economy lost a lot of jobs in August, economists saw a grimmer future. Last month, they had predicted we would lose about 110,000, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey.

According to the report, the real losses came from cutbacks in the government as more temporary workers were let go who were hired for the 2010 census. In the private sector, 67,000 jobs were added, but this was not enough to offset the losses.

Policymakers Need to Take Action

With unemployment remaining points within the peak of 10.2 percent that was reached in March 2009, it’s no wonder people are looking for policymakers to take more immediate action to get the economy up and running.

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