I'm trying to trim down our monthly expenses since our double childcare costs will start up in January. We're thinking about getting rid of cable, but I just don't think $100/month is going to make that much of a difference! I'm also going to up my couponing game to include food, and I'm going to challenge myself to cook more.
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I dropped my gym membership, I stopped buyingextra produce that I end up tossing, downgraded my cable and use coupons occasionally!
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My MIL made a list of a way they could save $1,000 a month. It included things like no drinking (they drink wine often) getting their hair cut at cheap mall type places, not getting her nails done, cutting back some channels, etc etc etc. I think it depends how you are doing now.. if you have a lot of extra expenses like wine/nails then that's easy to cut.
Good luck!
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I use coupons, we dropped cable, and we shop at CostCo (only when I compare prices and it's cheaper to buy in bulk)
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Definitely cutting down on take out/eating out would make a big difference for us.
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Try writing down everything you spend for a month and you'll find opportunities!
Cuttin back on cable can help... Getting as my friend calls it "hillbilly cable" LOL. When I was really desperate I also stopped coloring my hair and started getting it cut at a beauty school! And no eating out or takeout. Selling stuff I didn't need like old books etc
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@MamaMoose: oh ya. forgot about that. us too!
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Once i got pregnant, our entertainment budget dropped significantly, and more so after LO came! Haha. Eating and drinking alcohol less has definitely cut our spending by quite a bit. Those takeout meals really add up!
Also, my company offers employees a sweet cell phone plan so i went from $75 to $15 per month. My husband threatened to leave a competing cell phone carrier by saying he could get a family discount through me, so they dropped his plan cost by $15. You can always look for better deals at competitors and then call your cable company to see if they can convince you to stay.
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For us, we hunt so we save so much on meat. We just got 100lbs of elk meat for a hundred bucks. That is enough to feed us for most of the year. I also try and purchase items through coupons and I called my phone company and asked them if i'm actually using everything that i'm paying for. I only saved 6 bucks/month last time I called but I have saved much more in the past just by doing this.
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Refinanced our mortgage and switched cable providers We're also getting rid of DH's cell phone plan (since he has a company phone). All told that's saving us $600+ a month - although most of that is the mortgage savings
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We hardly eat out, we don't have cable. Thats really what helps us cut our bills. We also use basic energy saving steps like not having lights on during the day. Turning things off/unplugging them when we aren't using them, Coupons whenever we can. Just basic stuff.
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I haven't worked for 2 years so I've slowly cut a lot of old habits.
- I rarely get my haircut, but when I do, I try to go to a school or be a hair model for someone.
- I rarely get my nails done at the salon, just do them myself. The few times I have, I've found great Groupon deals.
- I limit what I dry clean and what I wear/buy if it needs to be dry cleaned.
- Costco Salmon! Cut up the fillets and freeze individually! Saves me a lot from buying individual salmon fillets!
- We got rid of our cable movie channels (but we have Netflix).
- I don't turn on the heat or A/C when I'm home alone.
- Coupons, groupons, eBates, free shipping, and tons of comparison shopping before purchases!
- A lot less (well now, I'm down to zero!) happy hours with friends and colleagues! -
Dropped cable.
Paid off our cars.
In the summer, we close all the blinds to keep the house cool. We open them in the winter to let the light in and help keep the house warm.
Keep the thermostat no lower than 76 in the summer, no higher than 65 in the winter.
Florescent bulbs in every light in the house.
Keep doors to drafty rooms (like our laundry room) closed.We don't have gym memberships, spa memberships, any memberships. We shop at Walmart and Aldi's for groceries. We buy in bulk when the price is right on meat and chicken and don't buy it when it's expensive. We each get $200/month to play with (eating out, buying stuff, etc) once that's gone, we don't get more. It works.
Every. Little. Bit. Helps. I can promise you that.
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What?!? $100 won't make a difference?!? Oh my gosh it makes all the difference!!! I could not imagine making $100/mo less than we do.., well I kind of can since I just lost my job but seriously.... To us it all matters... Maybe we're just really poor lol!!
We never even had cable. I'm glad we don't because I know I'd e addicted!!
We don't have a landline
At one point we quit our gym membership, but got it back post baby now that it really matters to me
We allot a set amount for groceries, gas, clothes, and all other expenses and except for emergencies we stick to it religiously
DH started biking to work back in March
Coupons from the Sunday paper for toiletries, food etc
Unplug everything when not in use- even lamps!
Turn off any lights when you're not in the room
Go down to one car if possible
Call utilities and insurance and see if they offer any additional discounts
Eat out only 1-2x a month and then it's only chipotle! -
Not eating out as much as we do, would save us so much money. I am going to enjoy it while we can though. I know once baby gets here we won't be going out as much.
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@mrs. wagon: $100/month is $1200/year. Even if it doesn't make a huge difference, it all adds up.
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also, if you don't have a place where you're keeping track of expenses, i recommend signing up for mint.com. you'll see where your money is going very quickly and then you can see where your cost savings could be! there are a lot of places that are money suckers and you just don't realize because it's only a couple of bucks here and there.
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awesome fantastic ideas here, and definitely motivating me to eat out less. (or rather, order take-out less.)
Here are the things we're already doing:
We shop in bulk and store meat in a chest freezer
We only have one car (and it's gas efficient)
Got rid of our landline
Coupon for personal care items
No gym or spa memberships
Nails or haircut only with a groupon
Date night dinners out only with a groupon
Energy saver bulbs all over the house (which drive me crazy because they're not instant-on, so they take forever to brighten up) -
@zippylef: @Coco Bee: you guys are so right-- it's this attitude that's sucking all our money out!! We've already got Netflix streaming and we watch so much less tv now that we have two kids and try to go to bed by 10... so I think this is going to be next on the list to go.
@birdofafeather: I'm seriously thinking about this. Right now I use an excel spreadsheet that I store on dropbox but it's kind of a pain to update. I'd like something that can import line items straight from my online banking!
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Things we do:
- We rarely buy red meat. We eat a lot of chicken and tofu.
- We almost always bring lunch to work, or eat lunch at home (we both have really short commutes).
- We cut down on eating out in general.
- We reduced DH's energy drink consumption (he's addicted to Monsters and we usually buy them in bulk at Costco, but he only drinks it once rather than twice a day now!)...
- No pedicures unless for really special occasions (like weddings).
- I never color or do anything special to my hair. I don't get massages or facials either.
- Couponing
- Being really diligent about maintaining our budgeting spreadsheet.Things we can work on:
- Cutting cable (we have DirecTV right now so we're locked into a 3-year contract, but once it's up I think we'll do without).
- Being better at not turning on the AC when it gets hot.
- Being even more diligent about meal planning so we can cut down on our grocery budget even more.
- Getting rid of the gardener (we don't have that much grass/yard so we can easily do it ourselves... we just need to buy a cheap lawn mower). -
Seriously I'd kill for $100 extra a month! Ok, maybe not kill, but I'd maim for it.
I started menu planning and doing weekly grocery shopping trips instead of monthly. That cut back a ton on our grocery bill, because I would end up buying produce that would go bad and I'd have to re-purchase it later in the month. I also finally started using the coupons that Hubs always clips.
And I signed up for mint.com. Like @birdofafeather: said, it really helped me see where my money was going and suddenly I didn't NEED that Starbucks caramel macchiatto every day - it became a weekly treat to myself.
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I switched internet providers to a cheaper one, swapped alarm monitoring companies, and canceled my landline to install vonage.
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-we buy store brand
-make my own laundry and dishwasher detergent
-we have a small heater that we use instead of turning on our heater.
- eat out only about once a month.
- don't have cable
- use hand me downs
- we don't buy clothes unless its a necessity. -
Bring my lunch everyday to work - ditto on breakfast.
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@littlebug: I actually grocery shop weekly too. Yes, it takes more time but I find that I spent far less money that way.
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Cutting out cable would make a big difference for us I think, and I don't think we would notice all that much. We might do it when we move...
Eating less takeout would also make a huge difference
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We don't have cable, rather pay $8/month for hulu.com's premier service. I get my hair cut/colored at a beauty school (yay for $5 haircuts and manicures!). We rent redbox movies instead of going to the cinemas. I coupon at least a little bit. Hubs and I carpool together to save gas.
Hope these help.
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@mrs. wagon: yeah, i had an excel sheet. it lasted about a month because it was such a pain! now i have all our accounts linked up (and have for almost 3 years!) and can easily input those cash purchases instead of inputting every.single.thing.
- we cut cable (NEVER thought i could do this) and added netflix streaming + dvds and hulu plus. although, i could just get by with hulu plus, but with LO set to arrive in january, i'm going to need all the seasons of old shows i can get!
- we make lunchs, but still treat ourselves to really nice dinners out every now and again.
- i make coffee at home/at the office instead of buying a premade drink.
- make my own laundry detergent and use other easy/cheap/green cleaners like vinegar, borax, washing shower, etc. -
The sad part is we already do everything everyone listed on this thread.
Our big expenses are the cable bill and cell phone bill. The cable gives us sports which is one of my husbands few loves. I would love to cut cable but the man has few pleasures.How does mint.com track your spending? Do you sync credit cards? I'm just really uncomfortable with giving that information out to a 3rd party.
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We dumped cable. I don't even miss it anymore. We do have netflix streaming and hulu plus for tv shows. For a couple hundred bucks we bought an HD antenna and over the air dvr (mythbox computer he built). He sets it up and we watch 90% of our television through the ps3 these days. There are tons of kids shows on netflix and disney jr has some full episodes on their website for mickey mouse clubhouse (my kid loves it and I like it better than yo gabba gabba)
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We used to be so much better at saving before LO came along! I used to never waste food (nothing went bad) because I made sure I used everything. We never really ate out or had fast food either. Now we just don't have time. But when we were better at it I would:
-Only buy things we needed or really wanted
-Grocery shop sales and plan our meals around what's in season
-Reinvent leftovers into a completely new dish the next day
-Automatically pack DH lunch before we ate
-Freeze meats on sale (especially good with stew cuts that are already cheap to begin with)
-We never had cable, we don't watch TV anyway - only movies or downloaded shows
-Buy stuff on Amazon or online (saves on gas/transportation)
-Only have one cell phone subscription, DH uses his work phone and uses a pre-paid phone which he hardly refills
-Comparison shop like crazy! -
One tip on personal care and cleaning products.
Try to shop for deals and use brands that are on sale rather than what you are loyal to. For example, I used to pick out my toothpaste from the same kind I always used. Now, when I see coupon deals for it being $0.10/tube, I buy a bunch and we use that for MONTHS. Cutting out cleaning products and beauty/health products from the grocery budget helped lower that lot .
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We dropped cable (like many others we have Hulu Plus, and my sister in law is nice enough to let us use her Netflix streaming at our house). DH isn't allowed to go to Starbucks everyday anymore--he has to make coffee at home. Also, he's been really good about not buying lunch at work and making something at home (something I always did because the cafeteria food at my school makes me sick). We also plan our menu at the beginning of the week to minimize shopping trips where we impulse buy.
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_cheap cell phone bill (boost mobile 40 bucks unlimited everything smart phone!)
-no cable
-no hair appts/ massages
-cloth diapering
-watch our water very closly.
- dont really buy any fun purchases lately
-use gift cards for essentials or fun purchases so you dont hae to use your own money. -
#1 thing is meal planning for me. cuts down on the temptation to go out or do take out, cuts down on impulse shopping at the grocery store. I used to look at the grocery ad and plan my meals around what is on sale - now we try to buy most of our meats at a local butcher or costco and organic produces that don't seem to go on sale, but I do stock up if I see something cheaper!
Get Rich Slowly is a great blog to read archives on saving money.
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-We shop at a family grocer now, that doesn't have name brands and is bag your own groceries, but it's a ton cheaper!
-We have a dining ou budget every month, and we usually use it to eat breakfast or lunch out now, since they are cheaper, they stretch the budget further
-traded in 1 of our cars for a used to eliminate a car payment
- consignment shop for most of DD's clothes and toys
- we weekly meal plan and shop weekly to cut waste -
When we have to cut back we keep receipts and write it all down. It's like weight watchers--you don't want to have to write down that donut so you don't eat it--you don't want to write down that you bought that cute baby outfit so you don't buy it.
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We downgraded cable, switched over to noniphones :(, cut out Starbucks (except maybe once a week as a treat!), and try not to eat out more than 1x per week.
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I know not everyone can do this, particularly if you don't have enough equity in your home, but the BIGGEST win for me was to refinance our mortgage to a lower interest rate, and to a 15 year term.
We went from paying $1600+ in interest a month to $1000. That's a monthly savings of $600 and over the life of the loan it is around $250,000!
If you do a no cost refinance, it will not cost you anything out of pocket. I've now done this twice in the past 2 years and each time I have saved thousands of dollars.
Another big win for people is to negotiate your interest rates on your credit cards, loans, etc. I don't have any consumer debt but if I did, this is what I would tackle since it could be thousands of dollars a year.
I've mentioned this guy before, but I really love his advice so I'm going to mention him again! Ramit of IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com has a ton of information on ways to save money by negotiating your car insurance, phone bills, interest rates, bank fees, etc. http://scroogestrategy.com/index.php
He has a list of things you can do to save money in this post:
http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/announcing-the-save-1000-in-30-days-challenge/ -
Another tip I have is if you can be responsible with a credit card, get one that earns you rebates on the things you buy.
If you buy a lot of groceries, the Amex Blue Cash Preferred gives you 6% back on all groceries after a $75 annual fee. I have the no-fee version of the card that gives 3% back.
Since a lot of the gifts we are giving involve gift cards, I try to buy them at the grocery store to get 3% back on those purchases too. When we have a big purchase to make at Lowes/HD, I pick up a few gift cards and pay for my Lowes/HD purchase that way. Particularly if I don't need the credit card protections on the item.
There's a few other cards out there that give 1.5-2% back on all purchases, or have tiered cash back amounts up to 5% (Chase Freedom, US Bank Cash Plus).
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