<p>I have gone to great lengths to slash our expenses in the las several months. I have cut down our cable tv service , been very consciencious of keeping the electric bill down…sort of drivig the family nuts with my obsessive nagging. I have unplugged some things that are not in use. I have kept the heat off on our second floor , which also heas the third floor. We have an open ceiling that sends the heat up anyway…it is a bit cooler than we like, but I put some very cozy and soft flannel bedding on our beds. We went a bit more basic with phone service…used to have two lines for the times when I work from home
As a result of my frugality , our utilities are down…and enough to be noticed. I think too that we will open our pool later than usual his spring and perhaps not use the hot tub at all…
My grocery bill is really slashed…partly because we have less people living here and part because I do the bulk of my shopping at BJ’s. I buy lesser quality food for my outdoor cats since they don’t have a cat box.</p>
<p>I do less laundry and air dry some of what I wash now…also all cold water washing</p>
<p>I drive my daughter’s economy car while mine and other daugher’s are off the road until she is home for college…saving gas and insurance
It has been an eye opening experience and a little embarrassing when I think of the money I used to waste. If anything good comes out of it , it would be the realization that we can get by on less and still be okay.
This past Christmas was one of practical gifts…there were years when we were extravagant…particularly my husband buying for me. I got really useful things that I like. Even a crockpot !!
I don’t think I will go back to my more wasteful, extravagent ways again, no matter how much things improve</p>
<p>We cancelled the country club, cancelled the lawn service, cancelled the cleaning ladies, cancelled the newspapers, cut out all extra cable channels, and lowered the thermostat, among other things. We are keeping a receipt bowl of every dime spent and I track it monthly in Excel to look for other savings opportunities like trying to eat less expensive food from the grocery store. We have never enjoyed eating out, movies, or shopping so those are non-items. All of our books have always been library books. S2 cuts H’s hair and vice versa. I use great clips; no color, no make-up, no jewelry. We don’t own a flat screen TV or fancy phone (mine won’t even take a picture) or expensive cars and don’t want those things.</p>
<p>Our house is very large because we had to have live-in help for years when I worked and the house is a money pit. Water damage on S2’s ceiling implies the need for a new roof may be more urgent than we had hoped. The swimming pool needs major repairs or should be filled in. The wood floors and carpet are pure trash due to mistreatment by cleaning ladies and pets over more than a decade, and so forth. We had planned to downsize the house the minute the youngest graduated from high school this June, but probably have $50,000 worth of repairs that should be done before we could sell it and don’t believe it makes sense to sell it into this market anyway.</p>
<p>Our biggest luxury expense right now is probably H’s running shoes. He goes through them at a prodigious pace, but he has agreed to switch from 350 to 450 miles before throwing out the old ones and see if that works without causing him injury. </p>
<p>For the most part, our cost cutting has not impacted the kids. S2 has friends who work at golf courses and can play for free when desired. We have a membership at the YMCA so he has a place to lift weights. Nobody watches the TV anyway and luckily all the college money was in cash equivalents so not affected by this market. What has been affected is our retirement savings and since I just retired, that is not good.</p>
<p>When I go to THE MALL, which averages about once per year or so, I find that most people seem to spend a lot on clothing. In fact THE MALL seems to be little more than a collection of clothing stores. I guess this would be no surprise to most of you but the amount of interest on clothing is hard for me to understand. I would guess I “save” a lot compared with the average person. Fortunately, I am able to get by with a pretty simple work outfit. My typical is black shoes, khaki pants, blue shirt and tie. I would doubt that I spend $300/year on replacements and about a third of that is probably ties I get as gifts.</p>
<p>I don’t buy clothing at Old Navy, or the Gap or any other stores in THE MALL. First of all I avoid 100% cotton clothing. Anyone who lives in the North knows that in truly cold weather cotton clothing can kill you. Well most of us are not regularly faced with survival situations, but 100% cotton is uncomfortable in cold weather. I used to think it was great for hot weather until I did some experiments and found that lightweight blends are clearly more comfortable. Then of course there is the main point of this thread - costs. Cotton clothing just plain falls apart. It makes little difference who makes it or the weave of the fabric. I have 60:40 blend shirts that have been worn and washed hundreds of times and are still in great condition. Even an expensive 100% cotton flannel shirt is unlike to last more than a couple of winters and a few dozen wash-wear cycles. I think most people could save a small fortune by buying clothing from a more functional perspective. But then it does seem that most people buy clothing for fashion reasons and throw out the clothing in a very short period of time.</p>
<p>I don’t buy a lot of shoes because I am an odd size. I can only find shoes to fit online (zappos) and thus I am not even tempted by department store shoe departments. But a few years ago, my daughters started getting into shoes. Husband finally said, “What’s with women and shoes?”</p>
<p>I stopped buying clothe for myself and my H. I use some of my D’s when she dispose of them. I do not need to dress up for work, neither my H, and we keep various sizes in case of weight going up / down. I always hated shopping anyway, not big sacrifice.</p>
<p>We did not buy a car that was due to buy. However, I am not sure if this is a saving on a long run since we are stuck with repairs now. </p>
<p>We did not spend on house rennovations.</p>
<p>I started cutting my H’s hair, but he refused to cut mine. </p>
<p>We never go to movies and rarely go out, since it takes so much time. But it is not new.</p>
<p>We would not give up certain things though. Still plan on expensive vacation and other entertainment, like concerts, visiting NYC, hobbies and having cleanning lady.</p>
<p>How much do you tip your hair stylist? Years ago, I just added $5, which (back then) was in excess of 10%. Now I tip 20% like at restaurants, but is that really too much? Can I get by with 10%? If it was just me it wouldn’t be a big deal, but the two teen daughters also get their hair cut at a real “salon” so the bills can add up.</p>
<p>We have a group of friends in our immediate neighborhood with a variety of interests some of which over lap. We all wrote down the magazines we subscribed to and realized that we could still have access to almost all the magazines but only had to have one subscription if we passed them around. </p>
<p>Since there are 4 couples involved, we each cut out 3 subscriptions.</p>
<p>When all insurance (house, car, health, which I paid for myself) ran up to 23% of my income, and my health insurance company squiggled out of a fourth reimbursement, I gave them the heave-ho. With the way insurance companies dodge claims, he who has the least insurance wins.</p>
<p>Re: haircuts. I always tip my stylist 20 % at a salon. My hair is pretty much my one indulgence and I want it done absolutely correctly.</p>
<p>That being said, if you find a stylist you like, you can ask her if she does cut/color at home. That way, if you go to her house she might charge you a bit less & you don’t have to tip (100 % of the $ goes to her). My gf does my hair at her house (she’s got 20+ yrs of exper at high-end salons) & it’s a big savings.</p>
<p>Edit: toadstool–don’t you have some sort of ‘catastrophic coverage’? What would happen if you got into a really bad accident or needed something super-expensive that you couldn’t afford out-of-pocket? Just wondered. 07DAD–my friends & pass around mags too.</p>
<p>I’m thinking about giving up our home phone line and just using our cells. We pay about $38 a month to keep a residential phone line and we don’t make long distance calls. Mostly, we just get annoyed by solicitors! Anyone here tried it yet? (I know students do this all the time, so I’m looking for parents’ experiences).</p>
<p>Although I just took a small pay cut, I do still have a job, and a good one at that. I can’t help but think about the effects of my frugality on others. If everyone has the stylist come to their home, the salon goes out of business, the salon can’t pay the rent, the building owner can’t pay the mortgage, the bank forecloses, etc. I know that lots of people in a lot worse shape than I am are by necessity doing whatever they can to scrape by, but I do feel a bit of an obligation to support the local economy.</p>
<p>Just a cautionary tale: A lovely 29 year old woman I know was diagosed last summer with a very aggressive form of breast cancer. She had health insurance through COBRA, but that lapsed a week before her mastectomy. The surgery went on as scheduled - I assume her parents got a loan. Imagine paying for a mastectomy out of pocket! Lots of young folks let their health insurance lapse, but young people are not immune to expensive health problems.</p>