I want to be debt-free so bad, still examining budget....

**Sumacaroni** · 10-20-2011, 10:54 AM

Where else can we reduce expense? Maybe you all will see something I am missing and can still work on....

1200 Mortgage
300 Groceries $75x4wks (family of 5)
50 Household goods monthly (HBA)
160 Propane heating (monthly estimated, we just bought a wood furnace that may help with this)
140 Cigarettes *I KNOW this is big!!
115 Electric (average) <-working on reducing this by 10%
110 Auto insurance, 3 used vehicles, one 19yo young man with a good driving record, one with collision that is required for loan (reduced recently)
48 Home Insurance
40 Life insurance (just had this reviewed, we can't do better with my cancer diagnosis this year)
34 Umbrella Insurance (I wonder about this)
57 Internet
35 Dog/Cat food
10 Medicine required
3 Bank fees for Quicken

300 Auto Fuel $75 x 4wks (perhaps this? not sure)
160 Cell phones (5 phones, best coverage area)
125 School lunch *9 months for 2 (MAYBE THIS?)
30 Hair
25 Garbage
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These are all being snowballed and hope to have them all gone by March 2012:
50 Student Loan
160 Aurora medical
40 Prevea medical
246 Van Loan
25 Roofing (at no interest)

The monthly groceries, HBA, and auto fuel are my best bets that I think I can reduce some more if I get smarter about couponing and cash back rewards perhaps - our grocery offers fuel discounts at a certain gas station.

I've looked into lesser cell phone plans but can't find anything cheaper around here, even looked at getting a discount for employees in the education system and they said my plan doesn't qualify - but they said if I "up" my plan, they can give a 10% discount LOL! What? Oh they said I'd earn "points" and I kindly refused and said points are only good at their business but CASH is king every where else so I'd rather save the monthly cash, thank you!

School lunch..... well I am just not sure we are committed enough to make lunches every night/day before they get off to school and sandwiches get pretty boring. But, maybe I could start by sending a lunch at least once a week. Currently, one spends $2.70 every day, the other is $3.70 per day so $6.40 rings up to $32/week when they have full weeks of school. Maybe I need to offer my kids an incentive of some sort so they help in this respect?? by making their own lunch or helping me find good deals on alternatives at the grocery that they'd eat? I have to think on this a bit more, anyone have any ideas?

**Contrary Housewife** · 10-20-2011, 11:03 AM

Hair and cigarettes. I know you said the hair was important to you as your one splurge, but is it more important than getting debt free? Can you give it up for a few months or a year?

Cigarettes... you know what I'm going to say about this.

**krbshappy71** · 10-20-2011, 12:37 PM

140 Cigarettes *I KNOW this is big!!

Me thinks you already know what really needs to be gotten rid of and are not willing to.

Maybe I need to offer my kids an incentive of some sort so they help in this respect?? by making their own lunch or helping me find good deals on alternatives at the grocery that they'd eat? I have to think on this a bit more, anyone have any ideas?

Personally I would have a difficult time asking my kids to do something lunch-related if I wasn't willing to do something Cig-Related. Nutrition is more important than nicotine.

But then, as you can probably guess, I am a non-smoker. I have pets, if someone told me to get rid of 1/2 my pets I would completely ignore them so feel free to ignore this, seriously! We all have our stuff.

**greekislandgirl** · 10-20-2011, 03:22 PM

1200 Mortgage
300 Groceries $75x4wks (family of 5)
50 Household goods monthly (HBA) every month? Seems high - use stockpiling tactics to cut this down.
160 Propane heating (monthly estimated, we just bought a wood furnace that may help with this)
140 Cigarettes *I KNOW this is big!! this needs to go completely.
115 Electric (average) <-working on reducing this by 10%
110 Auto insurance, 3 used vehicles, one 19yo young man with a good driving record, one with collision that is required for loan (reduced recently)
48 Home Insurance
40 Life insurance (just had this reviewed, we can't do better with my cancer diagnosis this year)
34 Umbrella Insurance (I wonder about this)
57 Internet this seems high to me but I don't know what's available there - could you use internet at the library for a year?
35 Dog/Cat food
10 Medicine required
3 Bank fees for Quicken

300 Auto Fuel $75 x 4wks (perhaps this? not sure)
160 Cell phones (5 phones, best coverage area)
125 School lunch *9 months for 2 (MAYBE THIS?) this seems crazy high to me - shouldn't cost much more to make extra of whatever you're making for dinner, and put that in a tupperware for the next day - or just regular home-made lunches.
30 Hair skip this for a year
25 Garbage
----------------------------------
These are all being snowballed and hope to have them all gone by March 2012:
50 Student Loan
160 Aurora medical
40 Prevea medical
246 Van Loan
25 Roofing (at no interest)

It will take sacrifice but if you cut those out, you should be well on your way.

**Russ** · 10-20-2011, 03:26 PM

Can you explain these items further? Are the bottom ones all minimums?

3 Bank fees for Quicken

These are all being snowballed and hope to have them all gone by March 2012:
50 Student Loan
160 Aurora medical
40 Prevea medical
246 Van Loan
25 Roofing (at no interest)

**Sumacaroni** · 10-20-2011, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by Russ

Can you explain these items further? Are the bottom ones all minimums?

3 Bank fees for Quicken

These are all being snowballed and hope to have them all gone by March 2012:
50 Student Loan
160 Aurora medical
40 Prevea medical
246 Van Loan
25 Roofing (at no interest)

$3 is what WF charges to have direct access for d/l Quicken

The snowballing items/amounts listed are all just the minimums - see my signature, we're putting everything extra to those and knocking out in order of highest interest.

Thanks everyone, the HBA/Household $50 is for stuff like washbaskets, furnace filters, cleaning supplies, laundry, etc., for a household of 5. Sometimes we don't use all of it and extra gets snowballed. Couponing will help here, too, if I can just make that work. I was looking at the laundry thread on making homemade laundry soap and fabric softener - that seems promising.

Hair, never said it was a splurge?

- but can't skip hair for a year for all of us - the kids are in middle and high school and this is already stretching it so each of us only goes every other month, 8 week appointments. I don't want them "looking" neglected.

Kids have no access to microwave for lunch and they say taking the same sandwiches all the time gets awfully boring. I'm still thinking even twice a week with bag lunch would help some. It would probably save about $50/month at that pace. And sounds doable. On a bright note, I do take microwavable leftovers for my lunch.

$57/month is the only internet we can have - there is no cable in the country, I've already cut out satellite, we have no landline - and with that, we have $8 Netflix. Our library is a 15-mile trip..... our kids are: one in college (online courses), the others in middle school and high school, I fear we'd would end up wasting countless hours and mileage without internet at home.

Groceries...... this is something I hate spending money on.... I am not that good at couponing and our stores limit us to 10 doubles per receipt. I do wish there was an easier and less time-consuming way to coupon! CouponMom doesn't do match-ups for my grocery store (Piggly Wiggly). Is there any other good sites that post match-ups?

Cigarettes, yeah I know....

QM · 10-20-2011, 05:49 PM

I need to get better at lunches. I send DD1's lunch to school every day (she's in Grade 2), but her lunches aren't too exciting. I need more ideas too. Here's a link I found that has good info... School Lunch Ideas - 10 Healthy Kid Lunch Box Tips & Ideas After going down the points, look to the left and there's more info that might help (such as "5 Easy Lunch for Kid Ideas")

If you plan the lunches out ahead of time and get part or all of it together the night before, it makes it SO much easier. I know this from experience.

Oh...BTW...Is there a friend of family member that could possibly cut your family's hair for free. You could return the favour by babysitting their kids for a couple hours, giving them a $10 gift card each time (saving your family LOTS of money) or running an errand for her.

This is the thing with frugal living. If you plan ahead with a little creativity...you can save so much money. Trust me...I'm still learning this!

**Sumacaroni** · 10-20-2011, 10:03 PM

Thank you, QM, great link!! It's perfect and gives great tips to spice things up a little so maybe I should just make sure I have some good lunch staples on hand and change it up with different wraps or breads, even crackers perhaps. I am going start by just making a *lunch shelf* in the fridge and making up a pasta salad on Sunday nights. I have to think it through to make sure we're actually saving money doing it this way.... somehow incorporate with my meal planning - things that have same ingredients... Hmmmm... thinking.... Gosh if I could just spend $60 instead of $125, that would help monthly.

Is it really true that if you heat something up at 7am, it will still be hot in a thermos by 11:30am?? I always have reservations about sending leftovers but this link says the thermos is the answer???

**mango** · 10-21-2011, 01:10 AM

Suma I'm hear you wanting to be debt free, me too! We will get there!

I make school lunches every day except for once a fortnight when the school does a fund rasing BBQ. I don't particularly like doing it but I know how much it saves each month. I make up ham/corned beef/beef and cheese breadrolls and freeze them and then every morning (or the night before if I'm really organised!) make up grated carrot, lettuce and cucumber in a separate plastic container that goes on just before they eat it. I pack a piece of fruit, some crackers and a homemade muffin/oat cookie and that's lunch done! I also pack leftovers if it's something they like to eat, leftover pasta bake or chicken legs are always a hit!

There's not much variety but I figure I grew up on vegemite sandwiches every day and it didn't hurt me!

QM · 10-21-2011, 07:48 AM

Originally Posted by Sumacaroni

Is it really true that if you heat something up at 7am, it will still be hot in a thermos by 11:30am?? I always have reservations about sending leftovers but this link says the thermos is the answer???

I think it's true. I bought DD1 a small thermos for her lunch but haven't sent leftovers in it yet since I just bought it last week. I plan on sending some of her favourite hot meals...such as chili and Kraft Dinner. If I don't spice up her lunches with meals she likes, then there will come a day when she is begging for paid lunches. I don't even buy the 70 cent milk cartons each day. We can bring our own!

**Sumacaroni** · 10-21-2011, 08:17 AM

Originally Posted by greekislandgirl

Lunches... seems crazy high to me

Yes, we budget about $125 for each of 9 months = over $1000 for the year UGGGHHHH. I looked back for the school years of 09/10 and 10/11 and each were around $1000. It costs us $2.70 for the middle schooler and the high schooler has a bigger appetite so his is $3.70 because he takes an "ala carte" item every day. $6.40 * about 20 days per month runs us about $125. A little less in December when they have a week off, a little less in March when they have a week off. And there are seemingly-random days off periodically throughout the year, of course.

And oh, yes I agree, I can't believe how much we spend in school lunch every year and the truth is, I've seen the lunch calendar and it's not that great nutritionally IMO (chicken nuggets and hot dogs), it's not all that fillling (kids always come home hungry and immediately want a bowl of cereal or other snacks), and it takes them a long time to get thru the lunch line so they have to wolf down their meals!

Okay, made them lunches for today = $6.40 savings!

I've found a couple other sites discussing the hot thermos and cold pack issues that seem to be my stumbling blocks. So.... they even took HOT soup in thermos containers today - and they picked chicken noodle which is their favorite so I'll be waiting to see what they thought of their lunches and see if they are completely hungry when they get home today.

I think I'll start another thread about our lunch savings challenge and share the links with QM's site posted and other websites I found.

**Russ** · 10-21-2011, 08:37 AM

34 Umbrella Insurance (I wonder about this)

How big is your home and property?

I pay about $12/month for an umbrella policy for a small home on 10 acres.

**shoiji** · 10-21-2011, 08:47 AM

I think the 19 year old is old enough to make their own lunch. They can also pay for their own cell phone. If they get bored with what you offer for possible lunch then they can pay for their own lunch.

Try to build up a good stockpile. Once that is established you will spend less on groceries and HBA. HBA can be really inexpensive when you start using coupons and sales. Right now is a good time to stock up on baking supplies.

**nuisance26** · 10-21-2011, 08:54 AM

~I think you're doing good with groceries and HBA.

What I see immediately is that you have a phone & insurance for an adult in your house who could pay but isn't paying. You need to make him pay for those things now that he's a big boy. I hope you aren't paying for his gas too.~

**low-1** · 10-21-2011, 09:01 AM

Cigarettes should go completely, as you already know, but during the transition, have you ever thought of rolling your own? My parents used to do that when they smoked, saved quite a bit I think. They bought the tins of tobacco and the tubes, and used the little slidey-machine. Could save a bit while you try to kick it for good. Plus making it a little bit of a hassle might help with getting rid of it altogether.

Just a thought.