i do love to save $. in both senses-to spend less and to put it away, but right now, i'm talking about spending less. i think lately we have all been cutting back and making some changes to our spending habits.
back when gas was over $4 a gallon we really felt the crunch. now with gas prices down we've been able to relax a bit but it has changed my thinking. i'm tired of $ flying out the door. i want to pay the utility company as little of my $ as possible.
so, these are some things i've changed here.
*canceled the data service on my cell. it was nice. i loved getting my emails and access to the internet but i don't need it and didn't use it very often. that saved me $600/year!!!
*changed our cable service. i changed to a simpler package. the dad lost his sports channels (he still has the internet ;)) and the kids lost some cartoon channels (not enough though!). we went from $600/year to $180-$240/year!- i did keep the dvr-we can't live w/out that!
*i drive less. i try to combine as many trips as possible rather than running out every day. this also keeps me out of the stores and ya know what happens when your wandering around target, somehow you wind up spending $80+ dollars and have no idea what happened.
*the other day oprah did a show about saving $. one of the ladies on the show talked about unplugging electronics. so we are trying that this month. it will be interesting to see if it makes a difference. and, we are leaving lights off.
*we are trying not to eat out! i enjoy eating out, but i hate when the bill comes. the food was never as good once you see how much you are paying for it(okay, sometimes it was still good!). with our little family we can spend as much on one meal out as we do on one weeks worth of groceries.-my boys like steak-it's in their blood.
*we use the library. i go online and reserve movies and the dad picks them up on his way home. it's free! and when we watch the movie we pop our own popcorn in the air popper. we started doing that way back when we found out about all those chemicals in microwave popcorn. we like it better anyway! and it is so much cheaper.
so these are the things we are trying and doing but i would really love to hear what you have done. i would love to know what works for you -maybe it would work for me too. so please share. i'll post any ideas you give me so the masses can benefit too (all 5 of you).
3 comments:
That sounds like what I've been doing. If I have to leave I make it a trip where I go everywhere I need and then I'm good for the week. If I need to work at my boys school I plan it where I go early in the morning and take them or stay until school is out. That way I'm not driving back and forth. We haven't been eating out either and I've been making homemade pizza. We try to use coupons as much as possible (I really could be better at that). Planing my menu has helped and I've started planing a few months out. I notice I spend less and go to the store less.
Well Chet and I drive together every where, we go and shop for food when we need it and stock up on meat and freeze it. We also keep the heat down or off as much as possible. We don't use the lights unless we are in the room and at night, in the summer we have the windows open more. We cancelled our cable after 6 months (my mom and dad paid for those months for Christmas last year. We switched internet providers. By what we need to get. We watch movies that we have at home more. Those are just some of the things that we do.
Gheesh...why haven't I been blogging? My time is not my own! So...I've missed a few posts. Time for catch up.
Hmm...we don't have a dryer. That saves us money (and costs ME time...but it's worth it). Someday I'll have a dryer and it will be nice, but I will still air dry a lot of stuff because it's very economical etc.
We don't have cable. Bryce would LOVE it, but I fear our wasting too much time more than I fear the wasted money! I've been in the "cable time warp" before...and I don't want to go back!
Hmmm...I think there are lots of things we do to save money (as "students" the money just isn't there for the extras) but I fear that as we begin to make money now...rather than JUST borrow it, we may be tempted to SPEND it! Yikes!
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