<p>This is a great time to be doing home repairs and renovations as you can probably strike a good deal. A lot of contractors out of work and needing money. Unfortunately, we need to hold fast as well, so it isn’t happening at our house.</p>
<p>Yep, for the past few years we were all urged to spend, spend, spend to help the economy, and look where it got us.</p>
<p>There’s going to be a painful readjustment period, I’m afraid.</p>
<p>We’re pretty frugal, and lately when we have a meatless but yummy meal (maybe black bean chili) I like to calculate how little it cost to feed the 3 of us, versus the same or another meal at a restaurant. Not that we eat out much anyway.</p>
<p>I hate buying new clothes for myself but love cruising consignment shops for bargains. And DH and S don’t care about clothes either.</p>
<p>OTOH, we are going ahead with plans to redo our old kitchen. The money’s there cause we lived frugally and the kids worked hard and got scholarships. Thank you, kids! :)</p>
<p>I too, calculate how much dinner costs…and are more careful not to cook too much for our shrinking family. Some leftovers never make it back to the table, so I try to choose meals that will get eaten again.
I don’t care whether or not I have new clothes, so we can skip me. My daughter, on the other hand is still growing , and seems to be doing so at a rapid rate.
I used to give her outgrown clothes to her friend’s little sisters, but I am thinking about selling some on Ebay…the nicer, higher demand clothes.</p>
<p>Oh, and I love leftovers! My schedule usually allows me to eat lunch at home, and I’d much rather heat up the leftover black bean chili than make a boring sandwich!</p>
<p>I guess in tough times, the formula should be to work hard and keep the expenses down. I have been doing that all my life and still have not done very well financially. I have got quite a few years to go to normal retirement age, but I am discouraged with the economic downturn. Some people might be thinking of delaying retirement. I am thinking about moving it up instead. I seem to just lose ground in the current rat race. Even when retirement comes, I will be forced to move to a much lower cost area of the country. Except for medical, I think I could leave now, be able to enjoy a few more years of retirement and not be much worse off financially.</p>
<p>I do not believe so much in shopping at the consigment stores. Some of the prices there are sky high too, considering that you are getting it used. Clothing in this country is very, very inexpensive compared to food.
Ross, TJMaxx are my staples, plus I buy a lot of clothing at Dillards and Gap when it goes on sale. Kids are in the rapid growth period now, so every few months they need new pants , new shoes etc. Just the other day I stopped at Gap and was able to take advantage of a huge clearance. I bought a corduroy jacket for my son and for my girl: a pair of jeans, two school skirts, a dress, two tunic like shirts, two t-shirt. Paid $52 - for 8 or 9 pieces of clothing! You can’t beat that!
Food is a dfferent story. For the past couple of months I have been looking into reducing our groceries budget and have not been too succesful so far. I cook from scratch, so already some savings in there. We eat well, meaning no processed foods, no hot dogs etc. A couple of nights a week we will have very inexpensive meals, like latkes or apple pancakes , but on others i am still spending quite a bit of money as I shop for quality ingredients. We like fish, but fish is very expensive around here. A good serving of cod for our family of four costs me around $15-20 . Even making a soup, that calls for some nice, fresh ingredients is not cheap. I should probably start planning my meals more carefully, but I generally decide what to cook for dinner in the morning, when I stop at the grocer and see what is looking good, fresh, what is on sale.
We do not eat a lot of meat, generally trying to follow mediterranean diet, but it still ain’t cheap 
Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Kelowna, I shop like you do. I prefer going to the stores that my kids and other family like and look for good markdowns, rather than looking through unending racks in discount stores.
I do find that shopping in the warehouse stores for groceries save a lot on our regular staple items. Milk at out grocery store is over $ 4 a gallon, vs. $2.72 at BJ’s …same with eggs , cereal , meat and a lot of other daily food items. We eat a lot of chicken breast and it is so much cheaper at BJ’s than the grocery store.</p>
<p>What is BJ’s?
I shop a lot at Costco, but you have to go there with a shopping list in hand, no impulse buys :)</p>
<p>BJs is the back east version of Costco</p>
<p>Kelowna, one suggestion is farmer’s markets depending on where you live. Even living in NYC we have some great ones! Our family eats with the season. I also cook from scratch and use whatever produce is fresh and abundant. Tons of corn and tomatoes during the summer and now we’re eating lots of spinach and other greens, winter squash, broccoli, etc. Everything is cheap when in season and the freshness and therefore nutrients much more likely to be intact. Same for fruit, we only eat what’s in season.</p>
<p>for my sister who lives in small town CA, this works even better. She also buys her fish from local fisherman, her milk from a local dairy and her eggs and veggies from local farmers.</p>
<p>Kelowna- I cook like you do. I have been trying to make menu’s. I also am forcing myself when I am at the market to think what I am going to make for the next 3 days. It has cut my marketing down. I try hard not to impulse buy but I think by shopping less I am saving money. I also have been eating the leftovers for lunch at home.
I also have begun buying more staples at Costco. Or buying beef and trying to make a few different meals around the large packages. My family is particular about their chicken so I still buy that at an upscale market.
I also have been trying to calculate cost of meals. On the weekend D3 wanted steak. She wanted me to go to one certain market for the meat. Instead I went to Ralphs (a large chain) They had New York steaks on sale for just over 5 dollars a pound. At dinner she could tell the difference but I was so pleased that I had made dinner for 3 about 12 dollars. I figured for 12 bucks it was a great meal. The steak was fine. H and I are not big fans of red meat to begin with.
Also the opposite of buying in bulk- I hate to throw fresh fruit or produce away. I have started buying less. I would rather run out then throw away. The same with lunch meat.With my kids one week they love bananas and the next week no one touches them and I end up freezing them for smoothies.</p>
<p>I have been busier in my work than ever and am probably accepting engagements that I might have turned down in anticipation of the recession – and two prospective clients have deferred work because of the economy. We’ve always been big savers, but our spending has gone up over the years – we have had one kid in private school since 2001 (the kids have alternated) plus we have taken increasingly elaborate vacations over the years. We were supposed to take our honeymoon bicycling in France but couldn’t do it because of visa problems. So, we have been planning a 25th anniversary trip with the kids bicycling in France in June – we’re wondering whether to scale down or cut back. Also, we have done much more extensive landscaping work than we used to do. Not sure if that can easily be cut back.</p>
<p>With two teenagers, we’re big shoppers at Costco. The fruit is fabulous and they have more and more organic stuff. Plus Mystic Pizza, lots of cheese, whole wheat bread that the kids will eat, and amazing luxuries like chanterelles for $9 a big container and wild tuna (we’re having both for dinner). With food like, we go out a lot less than we used to.</p>
<p>We’ve also stocked the house with teenager food (from Costco) so that the kids will spend time with their friends at the house. We’d rather pay for food and have them at home then have them elsewhere. This cost has gone down since most of my son’s cohort is now off at college while he’s taking a gap year.</p>
<p>About a year ago, H and I started eating breakfast out once/week to have a nice quiet conversation, and to celebrate the fact that dd is now older 
but that restaurant just closed. I have friends who eat out every Saturday morning; sometimes I meet them. The restaurant they frequented closed. So that’s two places nearby that have gone out of business in the past 1-2 months.</p>
<p>We’re watching our costs, but we’ve been feeling pinched since the Y2k/Dot.com bust/outsourcing losses in the computer world. It’s been increased medical costs or some benefit cut every year. H had no raise for 7 straight years. No summer vacation this year, and I don’t know about next summer. Maybe. No new car as of the stock market meltdown. The one we’ll eventually replace has about 140K miles on it. I think I’ll keep dd home this summer and make her help me paint the house interior. Because I think things are going to get worse before they get better.</p>
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<p>Edad, we feel the same. We actually already bought the house in the cheaper area, (three hours from where our jobs are). If we “retired” we could sell the old house which has no mortgage and with that pay off the new one. Each of us could work part time, which should cover the much lower property taxes, utilities and food (and food we can grow and forage for–last weekend we had clams one night, fish another, all free courtesy of the local waters, with veggies from the garden). but the health insurance stops us.</p>
<p>(Edit: and we can’t find full-time work in that area yet.)</p>
<p>Law firms are laying off and closing like crazy, so I’m very anxious. We don’t eat out anymore, and I’ve been packing my lunch. Actually found that I enjoy the leftovers more than a sandwich in the cafeteria. I’m seriously considering switching from the express bus to the ferry, which is a savings of $120 per month, but I so despise taking the ferry that I’m not yet desperate enough. Soon.</p>
<p>I have also considered moving up retirement. If my husband gets laid off next year as we think he might, we will definitely be looking to go somewhere less expensive. My boss has already said she would be willing to let me work from home, and I am in an industry where that would be possible.</p>
<p>Finding a less costly place to live would be our first step in planning for retirement.</p>
<p>It has impacted a major decision for me, that of investing money in a retirement house/condo.</p>
<p>I was very keen to begin looking at condos in Boston (where I would love to retire/teach courses part time at one of the schools/and continue being involved intellectually by taking courses in my retired life etc). I have put a hold on my plan for now. I just don’t feel as confident with the 401ks dwindling down significantly.</p>
<p>We were planning to move ahead soon with the cheaper home in a cheap location, too, but it does not seem like a smart time to commit to that extra expense, at least until I see how everything settles out. Of course, had we taken SEP funds and used them for the place, as discussed, we would be feeling brilliant now that the market took it’s dive! Timing is everything</p>
<p>Nope. My family has always been extremely frugal.</p>
<p>The good thing we did was pulling estimated college expenses out of the market about over a year ago. We did miss some ran up from Dow 12000 to 13000+ but we avioded this 13000 to 8000 drop.</p>
<p>We had to replace our bed, had to do a medical treatment outside the insurance, and purchased a direct flight for DD, etc. We saw our checking account came down to near -0-. So, we are pushing back the purchasing of a large LCD TV, we downgraded our resort selection from an applevacation 6 golden apple to 4 red apple for our caribbean vacation. Cash is king now.</p>