With the economy slowly circling the drain, I thought I'd write a post about cutting back and making things work for less money. It's not hard. Okay, it is kinda hard at first, but once you train yourself to do without, it does get easier.
This is a test month. You know, just to see if we can do it and how much we can lower our expenses.
First things first, I've already cut out a lot of stuff. No more bottled water, for one. No more snack cakes. (Sorry, Little Debbie, but your shit is expensive.) No more KFC. Slashed the book budget WAY down. I mean, I was spending like $300-$400 a year there. I think one year, I spent $600 on books. Last year I spent $105. Go, me.
But that was then and this is now. To start, I took stock of what I was currently spending money on. Decided what's necessary, then what's next to necessary. Those shouldn't be things I have to cut unless we somehow find ourselves a hair's breadth from living in a box under the freeway.
I'm working to cut all the not-necessary. Ruthless bitch that I am. If I don't need it, why am I paying for it? Derp. For instance, I think DirecTV is on its way out this month. That won't be easy, but more me than Hubs, and I think I can wean myself off. I mostly watch reruns anyway. And Hubs can watch sports online. If we find we can't live without it, I can always switch to DISH.
Of the necessary and almost-necessary, I looked for places I could trim. For me, and the safety of the free world, cigarettes are necessary. You really don't want me going without. Trust me on that one. But name-brand cigarettes have jacked up to nearly $70 a carton here. Hubs and I smoke about 7 cartons a month between us. (3 for him, 4 for me.) $490 a month. Blerg. So, we switched to an offbrand. $25 a carton. That'll save us $315 a month. Cha-ching.
Food is, of course, necessary. And food prices are rising to GAH levels. I'm trimming the budget by buying pork instead of beef, chicken thighs instead of breasts, pre-packed lunchmeats instead of deli sliced. Cheaper cheeses. No more M&Ms. I didn't need those anyway. And I'm trying to make snacks instead of buying them.
I made my own bread. It is a cost savings, kinda. But it's inefficient. And I'm saving less than 30c a loaf (saving almost nothing if I can find the loaves on the day-old rack) so I'm back to buying bread. Plus, buying it requires no effort on my part with the kneading. Saves the wrists. Yay. Good to know I can make it if bread becomes scarce, though. Unfortunately, about the time bread becomes scarce, so will flour and yeast.
I've been making my own french fries. Those aren't hard at all. Cut up potatoes, fry them. To mix things up, I cut them different ways - regular fries, wedges, circles, thin and thick. I've also done sweet potato fries, but I bake those. Depends on whether the sweet potatoes are on sale. Otherwise, regular spuds are cheaper.
Head lettuce instead of bagged salad is also cheaper. And big carrots instead of baby. I'm still hoping to have a container garden and cut out the need to buy veggies, but last year was a bust. We'll see how that goes for this year. I need to buy dirt... but that's a whole 'nother story.
Anyway, it's amazing how much I can cut when I stop being so damn lazy. I wish I could show a savings in the food budget, but right now, I'll have to be happy saying I'm holding the costs steady, even with the rising prices.
What are some other ways to trim a budget? Got any tips or tricks? Feel free to share.
I compare prices. Store brands vs. name brands. Bulk vs. individual. For instance, buying a 4-pack of tuna is sometimes more expensive than buying 4 individual cans. I've switched from Diet Coke to Pepsi Zero Sugar. Getting used to the taste and I originally did it for political reasons but I've also noticed that Pepsi is cheaper. Also, two 12-pack sleeves is cheaper than one 24-pack cube. Go figure. Soda pop is my cigarettes, since I quite smoking 30 years ago but LG feels your pain. He's gone to a brand made here in Oklahoma--cheaper and made in Oklahoma! I've switched to some local brands as well, like Griffin's and Shawnee Mills. Cheaper or same and supporting locals. Plus supply chain. LOL
ReplyDeleteAlso something to consider is cost vs. usage. We don't use enough fresh potatoes to buy in bulk. They often sprout before I get around to using them. Throwing out spoiled supplies goes against my Scotch Mother's sensibilities. (Mother was super tight with money. Sometimes. LOL Lots of stories there.) Anyway, I take that into account when buying.
I'm trying to think what else... Oh, I cancelled my Kindle Unlimited. Since reading is hard right now, that was $10 I could spend elsewhere. And we did. It went to Discovery+ streaming, which we use quite a bit and always when Stormy is here. It streams Mythbusters. LOL With gas prices, I've cut back on my Starbucks runs. Now I only drop by when I'm doing other errands and there's one on the way. Since they've raised their prices, this saves both $$ and gas.
I'm sure I do other stuff but it just gets done without me thinking about it so it's not floating around on the top of my head. Good on you for cutting back. We all do what we gotta do! Hopefully, things will shift to the better in a year or three. We can hope.
Later, tater!