Who else here is barely making ends meet? What are you doing to cut corners?

Since we moved from SC, my bills have went up, and my pay has went down.

I was using angel food to feed the fam back in SC, we don't have one close enough here to use. It's a great thing, probably cut 2/3 off our food bill...

https://www.angelfoodministries.com/

I've turned the smarty down to 3, and I'm using the pod and using the revo to keep the MPG's up. Took weight out of the truck, and keeping the tank between 1/2 and 1/8 to keep the weight down. Taped some tacks to the go pedal, and drive with a bare right foot (not really, but that's what I think about).

I keep the AC at 82, and school the kids on lights off and such.

We have cut the satellite bill down by just having basic channels, we'd get rid of it if it was not for the contract.

I've got the cheapest cell phone plan I can get. I have to have a cell phone because of work, so I can't get rid of it. I only have local use on my home phone, I'd get rid of that too, but I want the kids to be able to dial 911 if something bad happens. I looked at the internet phone stuff (vonage, etc) but it did not look good.


We are using cash and a budget instead of the card... I don't buy anything with the card anymore, every paycheck, I pull out what I need for every thing for two weeks, and if I run out of dough, I'm out of luck. It's helped me save a few bucks.

I've even (gasp!) cut back on beer drinking and tobacco use. I get coupons for my snuff, but I'm about to quit for the $$$. (15 bucks a week times....) I'm making limits for the beer, thinking about giving that up too. (oh, for the love of humanity!!!)

Post up the way you save. Maybe it'll help someone else.

 

I feel ya Madhat. Times are tough. In march of 09, I got laid off by my company, well, I managed to get re-hired by said company, just in a different region. I didn't have to relocate, but I work rotational, and travel to Angola to work for 28 days at a time. I took a 63k a year pay cut to stay with the company. OUch. Man, to save, we did the same things as you, cut the cell, satellite, fuel use, no cards, no alcohol, niether of us smokes, so that wasn't an issue. We don't goto dinner anymore, we take our son to the park and library instead of the fun park. No more trips outta town, nothing. It really sucks. And really stressful too.
Wish I could give you some advice, but it looks you made the same cuts I did.
Good luck man

 

Things be tight in the patch to mad,

Here's my savin' money tips:

I dropped the second land line into the shop and use a Magic Jack for the outgoing L.D. calls (yes it works fine with my 10meg/sec dsl)

I stopped eating out as often and make my own road kill cuisine now..

What little TV I watch is free TV on the puter check into cooliris for Firefox..

I buy things in bulk at Sams Club, it keeps you stocked up and the prices down..

I think of an egg-shell on the throttle myself.. but hey every now and then you need to blow the carbon off the injectors right? The diesel trucks get twice the millage the gassers did so they are a big +

I always have built my own accessories and trailers, doing so saves some money but they are done the way I want them and it give's me braggin' rights on DTR..

It's like the bumper sticker said after a major slowdown in the energy industry years ago said:

Tough Times Don't Last - But Tough People Do..

 

Man I'm sorry to hear that. But times are hard and I hope we all pull through. I was making two to three rails a month about 4 months ago, right now I can't even give one away. I started working for my brother again he builds metal buildings and things have gotten slow for us to the point that I'm beginning to worry and stress. I hardly ever on here anymore cause I'm stressing and struggling myself. I've cut back on all my bad spending habits (truck). Just making enought to buy food. I keep my truck at my parents just to keep from driving it, try to use only the work truck in case I need to go somewhere.

But I hope like heck that everything comes back to normal someday. I really feel ya and I'm sorry that your hurting friend. I don't have anyone to support so that's a HUGE plus.

 

My only thoughts are to "Think long term"!! I sometimes feel guilty about not getting our kids some of the "stuff" that other kids had. Youngest is in his early thirties and is doing pretty well. They both have proudly indicated that despite living lower class lives as children it helped shape them into the successful adults that they are.
I digress, sounds like you guys are on the same track as we went years back doing without cards and stuff. The major change in my financial life was when we finally (with much scrimping) paid off our first house. I realize, with all your moving, that paying off a mortgage would be difficult.
However, my Dad was career military and despite a couple of setbacks (buying a house next to a base than the base closing) he managed to finally get a place paid for by year 16. Having no mortgage payment makes such a big difference in your finances.
Well, that is my long winded comment. Buy fixer uppers and use your spare time to increase their value and never try to keep up with the Joneses.
The following comments on Real Estate are as true today as they were when he made them. http://www.willrogerstoday.com/will_...otes.cfm?qID=7

 

I can feel for you too. No alcohol or tobacco for us and our little place is paid for so we're blessed to have fewer expenses than many but we still don't eat out very often and eat a lot of beans and rice. A crockpot is your friend when it comes to set-it and forget-it cooking. The Cummins has 306K miles on it and my work car is a '97 Lumina with 286K miles on it.

One syndrome that I see too often is that youngsters try to start off living at their parents current level of lifestyle instead of starting off at the same point where their parents started. If you want to know how to cut back, think about how your parents lived when they were your age. As an example, I was about 8 and my brother was about 3 before my parents ever got a second car. Until then, they were a one car family.

Other than that, get rid of any and all debt. Interest will drive you into the poor house.

 

When I was stationed at Camp Pendleton my wife and I would go to the markets for fresh fruits and vegetables, and this really cut down on what we were spending at the Commissary. We still use Farmers Markets and the like because we can find it cheaper there, plus we know we're keeping money locally. We found out (accidentally) that in California there is no sales tax on most food products so this saved us the 5% tax the Commissary charged plus we could find it cheaper out in town. I'm not sure about Arizona, but it's worth looking into. Pre-packaged food was bought in the Commissary unless we could find it cheaper at places like Wal-Mart, cleaning products like Windex, Ajax, etc., were bought from the 99 Cent stores, and coupons (both online and the Sunday paper) became our friends.

Really look into Vonage for your phone. I have the unlimited plan and its costing me $33 a month no matter how much its used, versus what the local TelCo wanted just to have working service: $55 before I even picked up the handset, and once I did they would start tacking on more fees. The savings is half of my internet bill ($50) so I'm happy with it. I've had Vonage since 2005 and the added plus is if I travel I can take it with me. A simple home office UPS keeps it and my router running when the weather gets loopy and we lose power. The Vonage adapter was free when I bought it (rebate) so for me there wasn't any down side to getting it. If you want, I think Vonage does the "invite" thing, and if you want to test drive it I'll see if it does the free month test drive so you can try it out.

Anytime we go shopping, we make sure we could hit up 2 or 3 stores in one trip to save on fuel. Buying in bulk helps as well, so we abuse Costco regularly which helps keep the house stocked.

Also look into warehouse style grocery stores (examples: Aldi's in the Chicagoland area, WinCo in the PacNorthwest, Save-A-Lot Foods in SoCal) because a lot of the packaging is done by only a few major companies. A great example of this was Dole pineapple in the can, and a simple name brand label change can mean major savings.



Kris

 

a phone option for your kids..emergency use...a track phone (cell), wally world, you buy minutes on a card... it's expensive it you use it a lot, but 100 minutes might be $20.00, vrs 35.00 month phone line,

 

I think buying things in bulk is a good idea. Most times you get more for less, and then you don't have to make extra trips to the store to get what you need when you run out of whatever you need. Clipping coupons may sound stupid, but it will help you save. Maybe think about a yard sale, or garage sale. One mans trash is another mans treasure. Don't know what kind of backyard you have, but maybe start a garden. If you already have the tools and are handy with them, build picnic tables or lawn furniture, and sell it to people in your neighborhood. Times are tough, but they won't be that way forever. Hang in there Devil Dog, you'll make it!

 

I feel for you Mark. I was with the same company for 15 years, got in with a bad manager that set me up nicely when the layoffs came around last spring. Found a job in Tucson, which was close to my parents, so we just relocated the family mid June. We are struggling a bit with the wife out of work, my pay cut (~20% less than I was making in phoenix, but it's work!), but the wife is getting call backs and interviews, so it won't be too long.

We have been using Vonage for the last year, and had VOIP phones for the last 4 years or so. Stay with the big name; Vonage. You can save quite a bit on phone with them. The intro rates are pretty good.

If you have DSL...scale back to the 1M or 1.5M plans. The broadband tests I have run, don't give me much more performance than 1-1.5M, so the extra DSL speed doesn't help.

I do all my own maintenance and use the internet as much as possible for best parts pricing, including oil, etc.

My wife is a major coupon shopper...A necessity, but it drives me NUTS!

Combine driving trips...make lists at the various stops...no short trips...

Tony

 

Good thread. Every little bit helps.

We shop at Costco for a few things. We always compare the price to our Kroger store. Because it is sold at Costco/big warehouse store doesn't mean it is a good price. Do the math each time you look at an item! Sometimes it is cheaper, sometimes it isn't.

We also downgraded from brand items to Kroger generic brand. Bear in mind some items just shouldn't be generic. Use your judgment and experience to determine what is best to fit your needs.

Get signed up for the frequent shopper cards for all the stores you visit. It costs nothing and you received discounts at the checkout.

Use coupons where you can.

Hit up garage sales; have one of your own.

Brown bag lunch when you go to work instead of eating fast food. You can save $25-$50 week.

When you wash clothes, use the minimum mark on the detergent scoop. That stuff is so expensive! Most people use more detergent than is necessary for a load.

Keep the curtains closed and the blinds pulled to keep the house shaded and cool inside.

Gosh, any little thing that can be rationed, should. My parents raised us pretty basic. I think my sister and I got a Nintendo for Christmas like 3 years after they came out. lol We didn't have the newest Air Jordans or the newest jeans. We ate what was on our plate or we'd be hungry. We lived on peanut butter sandwiches during the summer break when mom and dad were at work. One of the things I'm beginning to do now is trade/barter. Where you can barter work or stuff for work or stuff you need, that helps keep the cash in your pocket.

Good luck everybody, we're all in it, tightening our belts.

 

pick up a sideline when you can, I live in Texas where they don't have alfalfa, when I go to Kansas to see my kids I pull my trailer and get a load of alfalfa (I feed it to my horses)

I mark up and sell enough to pay for the fuel on my hay and then the fuel to travel to Kansas to see my kids is free

I know something like this won't work for everyone, just think out of the box and good luck

 

Mark, you know how long I've been fighting this "change" in the economy. All the big equipment is gone, all that's left is the skidsteer. Coupons and smart spending are a must. Looking specials at the grocery stores helps. Use yard sales where you can to pick up some bargains.

 

Start working on cooking from scratch, sounds stupid, but it saves serious coin.

The thing that really gets my goat though is many companies are cutting employment, wages, benefits strictly to build their profits. They full well know taxes are going up, but instead of FIGHTING the tax increases, are just pulling a preemptive strike and making mucho moola to boot.

 

Me too buddy...... Wife got laid off a month ago for cheaper help and her old employer tried every dirty trick in the book to get her to quit. They even tried to pull a fast one for unemployment. Telling outright lies to the unemployment office trying to get her unemployment denied. Man it is tough for everyone. Keep your head up, be tough, you will make it.