? about contracts

[SheriH.]

Hello, all. I am very new at forums and all the posting etiquette. So please forgive me if I do this wrong.

My question is : I am trying to cut back on our spending but, with in the last 6 mos. I have renewed contracts on cell phones, and satellite. We live in the country, and have no antannae, i have 2 teenage daughters, one driving, and we want her to have a cell phone. We make her pay for her cell, and half of the car insurance, which her half is $4o.oo a month. She does work, and i pay for most of her gas. Gas in our area is currently running at $2.90/gal. I work at home, and my husband is a truck driver, We have a car we are trying to sell, to get something older,and cheaper. We have a fairly new truck, but we are upside down on it, so I know we cannot sell it. It is mainly my vehicle, but since I work at home it doesn't get driven much. Trying to keep the mileage down.
I dont shop alot, but when i do it is mainly clearance sales, or secondhand things. My girls are great sale shoppers. Since they both have jobs, they buy most of their clothes, with me buying the essentials. We changed insurance last year and have saved some with that. I shop at Aldis, Walmart and watch the food budget as good as I can. Our biggest mistake is eating out. Mainly fast food, with the girls being in sports, work, etc. I work late alot, and of course, it is quicker ,. i know, excuses, excuses.
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What should I do about the contracts, and where else could I cut back?

Thanks,
Sheri

[freedeal]

Sheri,

First of all welcome. About the eating out, I have a friend who has a son on a travelling soccer team so 4 nights a week they are gone right after school until about 8:30 or 9:00. She packs a cooler with snacks and drinks along with "dinner" - which is a sandwich and carrot sticks or something like that. When she first told me about the cooler I must admit I thought she was a little crazy but now I can see she is saving probably $80 per week.

About the contracts. Some companies will allow you to opt-out and pay a small amount per month. A friend did this with her cell phone and had to pay $10 a month for 6 months. It wasn't exactly free but it was much cheaper than the $50 she would have to pay. Talk to the companies and see if they have any programs.

I'm sure someone else that has some better ideas will speak up soon.

[leezza]

Sheri,

What freedeal said........Eating out was one of our worst habits. I figured I worked all day why should I have to work at night too! So I know what you mean. If you really want to see what you are spending eating out put your check book register in EXCEL, (I did this for all of 2005 and 2006 so far)....it was scarey when I sorted the lunch/dinner items and totaled it.

Try the snack idea, and maybe get a crockpot so you can make one dish meals.

Groceries: I have heard Aldi's is really good. You could use coupons for any purchases at other retailers.

You are trying I think that is great and that is the hardest part.

Regards,
leezza

PS. ***W*E*L*C*O*M*E***

[frugalnana]

My son has a cell phone with CellOne and he pays about $50 a month. But it is for our local area only, which is a large area. When the contract is up we will add him to ours for an extra 10 per month. We have Cingular and always have rollover minutes.

The car insurance you could call esurance or go online to check them out, they are the cheapest insurance we have found for our son. He has had two fender benders when he first started driving but since he is 18 now and has not had anymore his insurance is a little cheaper.

Carrying the cooler is a very good idea. Even when dh and I are going fishing or just out to flea markets we pack our own stuff and its alot cheaper.
I'll tell you how long its been since we have been out. My MIL was in the hospital on the third day we called and said we were headed up to see her, we asked if there was anything she wanted. Yep KFC chicken. So dh and I get her a 3 piece and soda and it was $8.49, you read that right for one meal. I was dumbfounded. No wonder we don't go out much or when we do it is usually the chinese buffet or a coupon is used.

[PrairieRose]

If you have to pay a big penalty for cancelling the contracts, I'd be tempted just to ride them out doing research when the time comes (and mark it on your calendar so you won't forget it as it passes by) you can switch or drop the contracts without being robbed. We have cell phones and satellite service too and probably won't be doing without them anytime soon. You may can cut back in other areas when you start really tracking your spending in order to more than make up for the contract expenses. I'm always looking for ways to cut back. It's an ongoing process here and for most I think.

[Start-Living]

WELCOME ! WELCOME !

I'm pretty new to this site too. So far, I've learn so much from everyone here. One thing I kept on hearing is "Keep track of all your spendings"

I thought I have an idea of how much I spend, but I was wrong wrong wrong.

I finally decide to keep track of every penny I spend, and realize that I spend too much on certain area that I can do without.

Keep track of all your spendings, write everything down. even if you spend 50Cent for gum, etc, write it all down. At the end of the month, you will have a better idea of what you can cut spending on, so you can spend more on the other areas that means most to you, or save the money.

Keeping track of your spending is time consuming, and we sometimes forget. What I do is, I make sure I get a reciept for everything, then at the end of every day, I take a couple minutes to write everything down in paper.

There's other ways of keeping track of your spending (computer software, etc.) but I choose to write it in paper, it seems more real to me.

[Libby]

Just a thought, if the daughters are working and buy their own clothes and pay half the insurance for use of the car why not make it so that they pay for the gas in the car as well. You said yourself you dont drive often and this will discourage them from 'joy riding' or 'cruising' or plain old being lazy. Will make them think twice bout taking the car to go around corner etc or will teach them to plan their outting.

As for cell phone contracts, sometimes its easier to pay the price per month fee to cancel vs sticking out your contract. The catch is while yer trying to wait it out, you may run over your minutes or make LD calls etc thus UPPING your monthly charges. Cut features on the cells you dont need or do as I did, I went prepaid. Its good for about 45 days (the smallest denimation phone card) and I know when I use it and roughly how much so I found the best prepaid phone plan for myself. Shop around or share one cell phone with the famiy - the phone stays in car for emergencies only/track driver at the time.