Changing your financial habits?

[schro]

Given the recent downturn in the world economy, I was wondering how people were adjusting their spending habits? Although the Lovely Mrs. Schro and I are pretty efficient with our $$ (no large debt other than a mortgage), we're still trying to make sure we're not over extending ourselves in these times. Also, we've decided to draw names for Christmas gifts this year (with a $$ cap) as opposed to buying gifts for everyone. The Lovely Mrs. Schro & I will probably not exchange gifts this year either.

I know one thing is for certain, we won't be dining out all that much. We were never big on going out anyway (mainly because we both love to cook), but I can guarantee we'll be cutting out on such luxuries. Other than that, we are really business as usual.

So, any creative ideas on how to save a few $$?

[The Zook]

If you really want to save a few $$$ switch to classic wet shaving using a double edge razor, quality blades are $.10-$.15 a piece instead of $2 or more.



That, along with taking the bus to work is about all I've done to save some moola.

Unfortunately collecting razors has pretty much evened my feeble attempts out.
http://sites.google.com/site/shavelog/slideshow

[schro]

There's a bunch of little ways to save, some of them aren't really that much of a sacrifice.
One that we've always done is avoiding Starbuck's (or any other coffee place). In his book "The Automatic Millionaire", David Bach calls this the "Latte Effect". Set aside the $ you waste at Starbuck's and watch what happens over time.

Little tricks like that are valuable, especially in these times (and especially if you have kids).
Every little bit helps.

[D.A.L.U.I.]

We were already getting into the econo mode--having paid for a wedding this year--but the downturn is out there and we know it.  I'm trying to max the extra income from rentals, etc. and minimize any unnecessary expenditures.  Odd Bro. Schro should mention the trimming back on eating out.  That seems to be a general problem for our restaurants in the Crescent City according to the alternate newspaper, The Gambit. That and the increased cost of ingredients are hitting our restaurants hard.  They are trimming back too.  That may be a national response to this.  We also like to cook, and I can assure you I can deliver a pretty fine meal to the family at far less than a white table cloth restaurant and have a better wine rather than paying a multiple of retail of 4 to 5 as the restaurants are now charging.  Our restaurant dining trips are pretty much expense account entertaining now.  

[IRONHORSE]

We were pretty thrifty to begin with, so we're just cinching the belt a bit tighter - not that big a change. The big thing for us this year is finding an alternative heat source to natural gas - we kept this house pretty dang cold last year and still had some pretty ridiculous gas bills. In our area, natural gas has almost doubled since last year - so this becomes a pressing matter. I don't want to freeze this winter, but neither do I want to go broke!

[herronm]

The Herrons are a pretty frugal bunch already.  I just cancelled Rhapsody (I can listen for free on LaLa and other sites), also consolidated my phone into my Cable/Internet provider (goodbye Verizon).  The next thing I really need to do is brown bag my lunch more often.

Max

[hammerdrill376]

Just a few things we do

1. Set the thermostat on 68 and keep it there.

2. Brown bag lunches everyday.

3. Wife is a coupon shopper so money saving there.

4. Cook larger meals that can be utilized for leftovers.

5. No unnecessary driving.

6. Paying off small bills and not using credit cards at all.

[Alexander215]

Just a few things we do

1. Set the thermostat on 68 and keep it there.

2. Brown bag lunches everyday.

3. Wife is a coupon shopper so money saving there.

4. Cook larger meals that can be utilized for leftovers.

5. No unnecessary driving.

6. Paying off small bills and not using credit cards at all.

Bro check out coupon sites online, the woman and I save about 60 a month just from those.

[Razor X]

Just a few things we do

1. Set the thermostat on 68 and keep it there.

My thermostat never sees 68.  I usually keep it at about 62.  I'll bump it up to 65 if the house is really cold, but once it warms up, I cut it back again.  I can't stand it when a room is too hot.

[Razor X]

There's a bunch of little ways to save, some of them aren't really that much of a sacrifice.
One that we've always done is avoiding Starbuck's (or any other coffee place). In his book "The Automatic Millionaire", David Bach calls this the "Latte Effect". Set aside the $ you waste at Starbuck's and watch what happens over time.

I saw something on Yahoo today that Starbucks' profits are down something like 97%.

[Mike]

Like alot of farming families we try to raise enough to eat. We have a few huge freezers that are filled with beef, goat, chicken, pheasant, and peafowl that we raised. I also hunt and since we have the perfect land for deer and such we get a few deer a year. We have a large garden that is maybe 2-3 acres that produced well, we froze most of the produce from that. We also have a small orchard with 8 apple trees, a few cherry trees, and a pear tree. We take most of the fruits and either can them or put them in the root cellar with the potatoes and onions. Overall we are pretty self sufficient. My wife is amazing and can cook up a storm. We go to costco and buy alot of foods that we cant make. My wife makes bread all the time and she bakes alot.
 As far as cutting back I have sold about 200 breeder birds. Some sold for a few dollars while I was able to make alot from other birds. That money went to buy feed for them and the rest went into the bank. We are down to one phone line, we used to have one in the barn and one in the shop/brooder house and two lines in the house, one for internet and one for the home use. I figure since I have my cell phone I really dont need phones in the out buildings.

[andrew]

Given that we're buying a house on Friday, with a higher mortgage and expenses than our last house, we're going to have to do some serious budgeting.   

I've already cut out the water delivery we had in our last house.  The water is terrible in our town, so we have to get bottled, but I'm going to get at the grocery store. No reason to power a separate water cooler and pay the higher price for water delivery.

Also, we're going to start buying groceries online and having them delivered.  Even though the delivery and tip will be about $12, I'm expecting to still save money by not giving in to all the temptations when walking through the grocery store.  Friends of mine love this service.

We're also going to cut way back on dining out.   We've typically gone out for dinner/lunch  2 - 4 times/week, and that's going to stop. 

[Timmay]

We have cut way back on everything.  Christmas this year is going to be Christmas.  The kids have all agreed that we would buy a Wii ( if i can find one) and that was going to be the big thing.  Other than clothes and stocking stuffers...thats it.  My kids have toys they do not know what to do with , so why add to the mess.

[GASlick]

Sounds like everyone is weathering things pretty well.  We started our business 4/2007 and just as things were taking off, the economy started sliding.  Our business supplies other businesses.  YIKES!

Oh well.  I told my wife that if she heard the tow truck in the middle of the night, don't worry.  Things aren't that bad, but we're making some tough decisions right now.  We used every financial resource we had to get this thing off the ground. And now, we can't take any money out of it (salary) as it is barely paying it's own bills.

Things will turn around though, they always do.

[ChallengeMe]

There's a bunch of little ways to save, some of them aren't really that much of a sacrifice.
One that we've always done is avoiding Starbuck's (or any other coffee place). In his book "The Automatic Millionaire", David Bach calls this the "Latte Effect". Set aside the $ you waste at Starbuck's and watch what happens over time.

I saw something on Yahoo today that Starbucks' profits are down something like 97%.

My son writes for his college newspaper and two weeks ago he interviewed a coffee house for an entertainment article. Last night he found out they will close in two weeks due to the turndown in business. Those $4 coffee's are the first thing people will forgo when things get tight.