With the current economy, what are YOU doing to cut back? - ThinnerTimes - Gastric Bypass Forum, Lap Band Forum, and Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy Forum

sherry7 · 10-13-2008, 10:21 PM

Just wondering....with the current crappy state of the economy, what are you doing to cut back on expenses?

Here's a few I'm doing:
*Trying to remember to turn the lights off.
*Packing my lunch for work, instead of ordering out. (Don't freak out anyone...I was ordering "legal" lunches, lol.) I am limiting myself to one take out lunch a week now, and that's a Chick-fil-a salad every Thursday.
*We haven't been eating out at all. Just twice in September (DS's and my mom's birthday.) We haven't eaten out at all in the month of October, but we'll be going out this weekend for mine and my dad's joint birthday.
*Taking the regular road home from work instead of the toll road, and saving $1.
*Started using coupons again. Today I bought 20 bags of Green Giant frozen veggies for 23 cents each, and stocked up my freezer.
*Trying to limit our grocery budget to $300 this month.
*I'm reading the Dave Ramsey books right now, and I've set up an "envelope" system for certain expenses. That's getting off to a rough start though.

*I'm making my DS pay for his own gas now, and $50 a month toward his car insurance (which is about a 1/3 of what it actually costs me to insure him.)
*I've been trying to use cash rather than my credit cards. Even though I pay the bill every month, I believe I spend less money when I have to pay for it in cash...a purely psychological thing.
*Thought about canceling our vacation to Disney World this January, but didn't...I'd lose too much by canceling the airfare and the condo. So, I'm literally being forced to visit Mickey.

*Canceled our cruise to Alaska that we were planning on doing next June. Once I started adding up the expenses for that trip, I nearly had a heart attack, lol.
*I am seriously considering selling my beloved Chrysler Crossfire SRT-6.

It's a totally impractical 2 seater sports car, I can't drive it in the winter, and it uses premium gasoline. DH doesn't want me to sell it though, and in my heart I really want to keep it. Afterall, I'm finally starting to look cool in it with my skinnier bod.

I'm debating it though...it'd be nice not to have that big payment every month.

So....what are YOU doing to cut back?

offstringgirl · 10-13-2008, 11:15 PM

-I make my mom lunch for work every night since she doesn't have time in the mornings. I usually give her one huge sandwitch, or two small ones so she can eat half for breakfast...that saves 2 meals out per day that she'd buy if I didn't make her lunch.

-I drop her off/pick her up from carpool so she saves gas money...2 hour commute.

-When shopping I buy only what is actually NEEDED rather than what I would like to have.

-I don't turn the house AC on just because it's one degree hotter than normal.

-I have all of my electronics plugged into an extension cord so I just un plug one thing each time I'm done in my room, rather than having to plug and un plug 8 different plugs.

-We open up all the windows in the house to cool it off during the night to save having to use the air conditioner later in the day.

jtroth · 10-14-2008, 12:19 AM

nothing. We don't use credit cards. And any extra money we do get goes into savings. I have a strict budget with very little room for play that we do follow I do this so even though we aren't broke I tell myself we are broke.
BTDT where we have had nothing and lived paycheck to paycheck. So I still have that mentality of living as cheap as possible.

CiCi · 10-14-2008, 06:41 AM

wow... that's quite a list, Sherry. i'm pretty tight and live frugally for the most part, even when the economy is good. but now-a-days i try to keep my driving to a minimum by combining trips or just staying home when i can.

Squishy · 10-14-2008, 06:41 AM

What a timely question.

Things are definitely tough these days. It's nice to see the gas prices coming down. That helps a lot, even though we do not have long commutes. To make matters worse, things have been really tight at work lately and there is a chance that I could be laid off. Jane and I have been talking about preparing for the worst, but I have to admit that I am psychologically avoiding putting plans into motion. I have to knuckle down and get to it.

We have cut back on eating out and are avoiding turning on the heat unless we absolutely need it. I turned it on at about 3:00 am today because it was in the low 30s outside and getting a little nippy inside too. I turned it back off today when we got up, though.

We canceled our home phone and are just going to use our cell phones. We canceled HBO and are going through all of our bills to see what we can eliminate. It seems that every time we make a little progress, something comes up. I'm sure that is the case for everyone, though.

One thing that is saving us a lot of money is that the Starbucks closed in our town. Jane is in withdrawal, but her "latte factor" has been eliminated. (Well technically, it was more of a lite frappaccino factor.)

Looking forward to more ideas from others.
-Mike-

Vikkator · 10-14-2008, 06:59 AM

We've been working at it since I left my full time job in '05 but there's still room for improvement.

Both hubby and I work from home. We're saving a boatload on clothes, gas, parking, and lunches, not to mention the aggravation of commuting. Because of that, we get to write off home improvements, utilities, parts of our taxes and mortgage interest, etc. And, we get to have lunch together every day (well, most of the time).

We also decided to replace our 22 year old furnace for a more efficient one. Originally we were going to try to sell our house and downsize a bit, but we don't want to lose our shirts in this crappy housing market. We're hoping our utility bills will go down significantly. We also plan to replace our storm doors. I got tired of freezing all winter. We're looking at other ways to make our house warmer this winter too.

I shop more at BJs and buy mass quantities. I no longer get my nails done. I get the glue on Broadway Nails that you can get in any drug store and everyone asks me where I get them done. I ran into my former nail guy and he asked me where I'd been, and I told him. I changed hairstylists and highlight my own hair (with help, of course). I shopped around for insurance and got our insurance company to give us a better deal. We saved several hundred dollars a year this way. Because my boys have their own cars, they have their own insurance. And believe it or not, they pay less than $500 a year each. One is 19, the other is 22. We still have our other 19 year old on ours because she doesn't have a car yet, but the savings of having the boys get their own has been significant.

We go out to eat once a week. We cut down on our alcohol consumption. Our kids got jobs and we no longer have to give them money (well, for the most part anyway). My biggest challenge has been trying to save money on groceries. I try to spend time planning meals, but it's something I need to really focus on.

Oh, and I almost forgot...we got a new financial advisor who has given us some sage advice and helped us not to lose our shirts.

txchick1971 · 10-14-2008, 07:00 AM

nuttin really.......my job is only 2 miles from my house and nuttin's really changed in my house......

CrazyElvis · 10-14-2008, 07:52 AM

Try to keep the miles down....but with four kids, swim practice (2 a days in summer) and all the meets we go to in Dallas, Houston, Austin and Little Rock, AR gas eats up a lot. I think I put 30k on the Suburban this year

We also don't use credit cards unless we order something off the internet .....but pay the bill off every month.

With the cash we have saved we actually bought stock last Friday when the market was down.....and sold most of it yesterday when the avg. gain on what we bought was 30%. Got lucky once and probably won't tempt it again for a while. Too much volitility.

I guess here after my surgery on the 27th the decrease in food cost will be a savings.

Godsblessedme · 10-14-2008, 08:49 AM

haaa like Gina/John's philosophy on calories same goes for me NOTHING IN NOTHING OUT! hahhaa

the EBT card is my BFF and i pay bills, with my financial aid this year i had somethings in the house repaired and saved a couple hundred but owed my parents money. And splurged and got my daughter her homecoming dress / shoes. I really dont ever splurge on stuff and theres nothing i can cut back on.

KathyV · 10-14-2008, 09:06 AM

This has been difficult for me because being the mom of 3 beautiful girls I have not really spent money on myself it all goes to them. So yes we are cutting back but on them. Homecoming this year we borrowed a dress. DD had a beautiful dress we bought her for "Wicked" but didn't want to wear it twice. So she borrowed. Cut back on their expensive makeup. And I have already told them this year Christmas was being cut back. I will by less but better. They are older now and appreciate the finer things in life, so I can do that but not as many items.
As for me well I am looking for work. I take a typing test on the 16th for the college I attend and the pay is good and full time, so fingers crossed they take a chance on me.
We definitely don't eat out as much be when we are on the road going to gramas we do and it gets expensive for 5. Everything we do seems to be for 5 and so we do less. Also, we have cut back on the propane bill. Havn't turned on the heat yet and I make everyone wear sweaters in the morning.
I guess that is it. Having 3 daughters go to college puts such a burden on the budget but we will figure it out. Its only money right?