So what have you cut out of the budget to done to save recently???

**madhen** · 03-02-2011, 11:01 AM

Last month, I was able to get my electricity usage down from over 70 kW/day average to just over 40 kW/day average. Working on getting it even lower this month.

**jas** · 03-02-2011, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by nodmicks

Are you finding it a big savings over the bagged food? Ours is a full sized doxie. She is 27.8 lbs (was 29.8 in jan). She is really fat! they want her at 18-19. I feel like i am starving her to death at 1/4 cup 2 x a day.

You know i'm thinking I could figure out the cals in the whole batch of what you make and check the cals on the bag of Evo and figure out the serving size! thanks for sharing!

I am back to edit as I noticed your siggy. I have a little yorkie ? mix and he is about 6.6 lbs. I noticed yours is named Lexi. Ours is Dexter but we all call him Dexi.

It seems to be cheaper by a little bit, I still have room to make it cheaper, I guess I could buy whole chickens and cheaper brand of rice ect. The whole chickens may be cheaper but there is more fat with the dark meat. With the chicken breast it is all lean and the time saved for me is worth it. The food she was on from the vet was 2.05 a can and it would last about one day. 1/2 in the morning 1/2 at night. So for 30 days it was about 61.00 with this it is just a tad bit more than a dollar a day. When the serving goes down a bit that will make it even less. Dexi is by far smaller than lexi she could lose about 5 lbs I would think but she is not going to be 6 lbs I don't think with her size. And I am just guessing at the 5 because that is really a lot for a small dog a few lbs for sure though.

**nuisance26** · 03-02-2011, 12:03 PM

~I've cut back on coffee.
I've drastically reduced baking goodies. Chocolate and butter are outrageous.

We're having a couple of meatless meals a week now beside me eating meatless or leftovers daily for lunch.
Not shopping online, at department stores or specialty stores unless I have a coupon even if it's been on my need list for a long time.
I've been shopping 2x a month for food and 1x for other errands. I'm going to cut out 1x food. If there are good loss leaders DH can pick them up on the way home. Gas is getting too high to justify me time by running errands even if we are close to the store.
We've had to spend so much lately on necessary purchases that I feel the need to economize even further to make up for it.~

**monkeywrangler71** · 03-02-2011, 12:18 PM

I feel like I'm starting all over again. I've gotten really lazy over the past year; lazier and lazier every month. So, I've been spending and wasting a lot.

So, I'm back to cutting out the obvious: take-out. Starting buying easy to make/ready made foods to try to break the habit, again. Hopefully will work back up to scratch cooking (still doing some) faster than the first time.

When no one else is home I leave the heat off throughout the house and just stay in one room and turn it on there. Or, I stay in the livingroom, which will warm up to 70º without the heat on if it is sunny.

All the thermostats in this house are in fahrenheit, I don't even know what the numbers on them mean. Some of them need to be replaced though, as the heat comes on in some places even when turned to the lowest setting (55º - is that cold?)

We went through all the various points programs and cashed in everything we could for either gas or grocery certificates.

**nodmicks** · 03-02-2011, 12:23 PM

Jas she is really cute! The vet thinks Dexi is yorkie and chihuahua but not sure. He is a hyper hyper. I'd say that is a good savings!

**imagine** · 03-02-2011, 12:25 PM

Originally Posted by monkeywrangler71

I feel like I'm starting all over again. I've gotten really lazy over the past year; lazier and lazier every month. So, I've been spending and wasting a lot.

So, I'm back to cutting out the obvious: take-out. Starting buying easy to make/ready made foods to try to break the habit, again. Hopefully will work back up to scratch cooking (still doing some) faster than the first time.

When no one else is home I leave the heat off throughout the house and just stay in one room and turn it on there. Or, I stay in the livingroom, which will warm up to 70º without the heat on if it is sunny.

All the thermostats in this house are in fahrenheit, I don't even know what the numbers on them mean. Some of them need to be replaced though, as the heat comes on in some places even when turned to the lowest setting (55º - is that cold?)

We went through all the various points programs and cashed in everything we could for either gas or grocery certificates.

55 F would be about 13 C

Fahrenheit to celsius conversion

About link along with other info says this "Your thermostat in the winter is ideally set to about 69°F or 20°C. This saves on your heating bill and also helps saving the environment."

We keep ours at 60 which would be about 15 to 16 C People complain about out house being cold

**Momto5RN** · 03-02-2011, 12:28 PM

well i have to redo my budget today with 500 a month less coming in .
not sure where i will cut - my phone cable and internet is a package and no cheaper to cut phone ( plus i need it for faxes for work ) its basic cable - which since we dont go to movies etc is our entertainment -

my oldest sons cell is up for renewel and i told him he has to pay for his own when we renew it so he can stay with us or go to another provider . that should save me about 50 $ on his phone costs and since i can put my 16 yo phone onto our fam plan another 20 having him on family plan rather than oldest son ( cell phone companies are anti large family IMO youc an only have 5 lines on a family plan even if you can prove you are all immediate family - mom and kids etc )

we dont spend alot eating out - maybe 20$ a week on pizza or take out due to a crazy schedule day a bad fibro or a migraine day for me - but i can remove that if i have to but i would rather see an extra pt a week to have that $$ and have that available for my crazy days .

i will research cell plans with our provider and see if they have a new cheaper one i will do the same with cable .

trying to keep gas bills down by only accepting pts near my home .
my food bill is already pretty low
i will probably just put some of the funds i was using to pay down bills faster from my paychecks into the actual budget rather than have it be extra .

then i have to pre-make up a budget that will start in july when my kids tuiton changes will occur - ugh !

**madhen** · 03-02-2011, 12:32 PM

I am a member of a bulk-meat-buying group for dogs. They have similar groups around the country, where a bunch of people get together and buy large quantities of meat (as in, grocery-store-sized orders) and get it quite a bit cheaper than an individual could. For a while there, we were getting turkey at about .25/lb. Also, they typically have free-range and organic available. I had to stop buying because I shut down my extra freezer (old and energy hog) so nowhere to store cases for the time being, but it is a great benefit to getting your prices down on dog food, especially if you own three big eating machines like I do!

**jas** · 03-02-2011, 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by nodmicks

Jas she is really cute! The vet thinks Dexi is yorkie and chihuahua but not sure. He is a hyper hyper. I'd say that is a good savings!

Thanks. Lexi is a pretty mellow dog especially for a Yorkie, I have heard that a lot of them are yappers. She is not. The only time she barks is around 5-6pm when the other dogs get their walks past the house. We have dogs on all sides of us and they bark quite a bit sometimes and she just shakes her head (well at least it looks like it). We cut her 3-4 times a year, not the best job but it saves over 30.00 a pop. Near my sons wedding in July when we will have a lot of out of town guests we will spring to a proper cut as not to embarass her or us. He he.

**chowder** · 03-02-2011, 12:39 PM

I have cut satellite back by $20.00 a month.
Got internet service which is unlimited so no surprises any more,fixed rate.
Had my bank account changed to "plus status" saving $10.00 per month,bank fee waived.
Will be cutting my phone bill by giving up features and buying an answering machine-saving $25.00 month.
Have saved alot already and I make sure my savings go into the "savings account",which I am seeing it growing at a faster rate now.

**ladykemma2** · 03-02-2011, 12:49 PM

i cutoff my cell phone 45 + taxes = 60 a month for basic ATT service. and got a tracfone.

so far, so good.

**moasmom** · 03-02-2011, 01:31 PM

I have cut back/trimmed/completely eliminated so many things in the past year, that I won't bore everyone with the long list. But there are a few things we have changed recently to save even more money.

- I just started cutting my husband's hair.
- I am now making most of our bread.
- We finally got rid of our landline last week, keeping only a low-cost cell phone plan for each of us.
- Eating even more vegetarian meals each week.

And on the flipside of saving money, my side jobs (on-call catering server for a couple of different places) are getting more frequent, so a bit more money is coming in.

Kara

**Jeanna** · 03-02-2011, 01:51 PM

I haven't been around in a while but am glad to be back. We have done so much cutting out and cutting back over the last 6 months it is really amazing. I can't even think of everything. The main things we have done is buy an old car from my mother so that my Landrover gets parked most of the time to save on gas. We also got rid of paying for TV. But more than anything we have learned to just live with less. We /I can go to town now and instead of secretly wanting everything I instead think about how much I already have or something I have that will do just as good. I have been able to get a almost new dryer on Freecycle when mine went out and I had made the mistake of getting a living room suite from Aarons which I gave back (stupid mistake getting it in the first place, I know) and now have been able to get a sofa and glider rocker for free to replace it.
I also have stopped eating out almost completely. If I/we eat out once a month now it is a miracle, and you know what? We don't miss it a bit.
We are still struggling to make the ends meet but we are learning everyday and I think that is the main point.

Sorry if I ramble between the fibro fog and just being me I think I get worse all the time.

**bumplett** · 03-02-2011, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by frugalwarrior2

Good thread but we just got hit w/ possible layoff in 2 weeks so I have to think about it. I paid garbage service thru June so it won't be that.

most will reimburse you the overage -

thought that may help

**daylily** · 03-02-2011, 02:17 PM

I honestly don't know how to cut back any more. Let's see..our phone (local and unlimited long distance) plus hi-speed internet is $84 a month. I can't cut that back. We need the Internet for our nursery website and DD's 3 online stores plus DS maintains our church web site and another site for someone else.

We never eat out. If we go anywhere and expect to be out at mealtime, we pack a meal and water.

We don't have cable. We are on a cell phone plan with DD and DSIL that costs us $32 a month. I would be afraid to do without it because our vehicles are old and not in the best condition.

As for food, we mostly eat what we grow and what we can buy locally in bulk to can, freeze, or dry. Every Fall, we make a nut order, getting almonds and walnuts from an orchard in CA. I get together orders from church, family, etc.

Our trash service is from the county and it's $156 per year. We have no choice and would be billed even if we didn't use it. It's added to our property tax.

I am trying hard to limit trips to town which is 23 miles one way. I aim for one trip per month. It seems like something always foils my plans though! DH will have to go for some reason.