<p>Full Disclosure: These sorts of articles make me a little nuts. That said, if anyone has ways for me to reduce my major expenditures (college expenses for two, taxes, healthcare, and transportation — in that order) I’d be really appreciative. The total cost of all the “unnecessary” bills mentioned in the article doesn’t come to even 20% of any ONE of my four biggest expenses.</p>
<p>I love how he says…“if you live in a more rural area…” and how you’d save on this or that bill cause you have your own septic and well and so on. We live in a rural area and we do have our own septic and well. But we have to pay to get the septic tank pumped out every year or two. Also, we have to have cable TV just to get TV reception. We also have to pay for snowplowing as a truck with a plow has to come in to do a very long drive. While we don’t “have to”, we also have lawn mowing service given the size of the property. We also have to pay to have our garbage picked up. Also, there is no public transportation and a lot of driving is required for a job and also for kids’ activities. My husband commutes 50 miles each way to work. When our kids lived at home, we each easily put 100 miles per day on each of our cars. I also cannot imagine not having the internet in the home. We don’t exactly have internet cafes here.</p>
<p>The bill that my parents did not have to pay was health insurance. It was included in their job. </p>
<p>Actually the cellphone family plan is cheap compared to landlines for everyone back in the old days. We don’t bother with cable, but I do like my DSL for internet. Water, sewer, electricity - my parents paid for all those - at least when htey were stationed in the US. Our commuting costs are similar to my parents.</p>
<p>Soozievt, while you have have to bring your own laptop, mathson spent every day for a week in one of your downtown cafes, using the internet access. :)</p>
<p>I regularly go over expenses to reduce repeating costs. We don’t have Cable TV. I spent a bunch of time installing an antenna. We get shows over the air or on Internet. We do have cell-phone but they are of the pay-as-you-go variety and total cost is $25/month for three phones. We have the cheapest landline service at about $5.50. Of course the actual bill is about $16+ after all of the fees and taxes are added and I’d like to do something about that. We have DSL internet service which is dirt compared to Cable Internet. If I didn’t have DSL available and had to pay cable rate, it would probably bother me quite a bit. Those that want TV service in my neighborhood have been going to DirectTV in droves.</p>
<p>We live in a very small place, have only one car. It keeps heating, fuel, water costs down. We put in a new HVAC and roof many years ago which cut our heating and cooling costs in half. I like the approach of making capital expenditures to reduce repeating payments. Repeating payments kill wealth-creation.</p>
<p>I need to do more work on the income side these days. I have a lot of money in cash
and squeezing yield safely is hard today. In the past I made a good amount of money
trading. That’s a lot harder to do with my current schedule and just leaving it making 3 or 4% with little risk is harder to do today.</p>
<p>^ D attends school in NOLA. She was home for Christmas break and went out for a drink with a friend. She arrived home a half hour later. “Dad, we got to the bar at 9:35 and it was CLOSED.”</p>
<p>We could all cut expenses by living in caves and hunting and foraging, but it probably wouldn’t be long before the state took our kids away. The writer takes his childhood as the starting point (or returning point) for obvious reasons, but why go back just one generation? </p>
<p>There are certainly choices that can be made for t.v. and computer, but these ‘how to reduce your expenses’ articles have forgotten one lesson of 9/11 and the 2003 power outtage - keep a land line with a telephone (not a portable) plugged in. If the power goes out or cell phones go down, the land line might be the only way to communicate.</p>
<p>NewHope…I can relate. When my older D turned 21, she happened to be home for a few days including her birthday. So, I wanted to take her out for her first legal drink. It was a weeknight. We drove to every place in town…bar or restaurant and it was just 9:30 at night and every place was closed already and we were laughing at how nobody who lives in a more populated area (such as where she went to college) would believe that we could not even go get her first drink at 9:30 PM! We finally found ONE place still open. We got there and they didn’t even card her as they recognized her from growing up here (everyone knows everyone).</p>
<p>NewHope, I had to go on a cost-cutting rampage these past few months because my husband is making about 1/4 of what he used to. Don’t know if any of these things will apply for you, but here’s what I’ve done:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Refinanced the car, getting a lower interest rate and a longer payoff period. It’ll cost me more over the long term, but right now it’s all about lowering the monthly expenses. Knocked $100/month off the payment.</p></li>
<li><p>Called the cable/internet company and asked about lower rates. (I’ll cancel the cable if things get worse, but the internet has to stay for my husband’s freelance work.) Got $20/month knocked off the bill for a year.</p></li>
<li><p>Cancelled the landline phone. Saves about $40/mo.</p></li>
<li><p>Chose the “budget” health plan at benefit re-enrollment time, vs. the “gold” plan I had before. Savings on a plan for our family of 4: $200/month. I’ll try to bank some of that as safety net against the new, higher out-of-pocket amounts.</p></li>
<li><p>Dropped the additional (optional) life insurance I had through work, since I’ve got a decent sized term insurance policy through my regular insurance agent. Savings of $15/month.</p></li>
<li><p>Completely quit buying lunches and beverages at work; started brown-bagging leftovers, granola bars, fruit, etc., and brought a supply of teabags, sugar & cream to work. Savings of $25+/week.</p></li>
<li><p>Started driving the gas-saving 55mph highway to work instead of the 70mph freeway. No idea how much difference that makes in gas consumption, but I have a 30-mile commute so it probably adds up.</p></li>
<li><p>Changed my grocery shopping habits…stopped going to our favorite gourmet grocery store (except for a few special treats), began buying more bulk foods and off-brand and store-brand items, watching for sales on things we use a lot, cut out extravagant nonessentials like bottled Starbucks frappucinos and fancy cheeses, and generally started being more price-conscious about every item. Savings: I’d guess about $30-50/week.</p></li>
<li><p>Started using the bread machine that had been gathering dust. </p></li>
<li><p>Switched Netflix to the one-DVD-at-a-time plan (we’ve mostly been watching the Instant Watch movies anyway, and those are still unlimited). Saves $9/mo. Netflix keeps us from going out to the theater, so keeping a minimal plan seems worthwhile.</p></li>
<li><p>Started making sure we’re eating several really cheap meals in the weekly dinner menu: soup & biscuits, baked potatoes with broccoli, tuna melts, bean burritos, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Cut out most of our dining out.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>And the stuff I’ve thought about but haven’t done yet:</p>
<ul>
<li>Seeing how much the car insurance premiums could be lowered by upping the deductible.</li>
</ul>
<p>*Selling the car & getting an older/cheaper one.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Cutting back on charitable donations.</p></li>
<li><p>Donating plasma for money. This one squicks out my husband, but at least it’s sort of a good cause. Just wish I knew a) how big the needle is and b) how much the payment is.</p></li>
<li><p>Refinancing the house. I’m only hesitating because I doubt we’d qualify for a new loan with our lower income and the drop in value of the property.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Cable TV. If you told me 30 years ago that I’d be paying $50 or $60 a month to watch TV I would have laughed at you. And internet access pushes that bill up past $100/mo. Ouch!</p>
<p>I recall the triple-play deals that came out many years ago: cable, tv, phone for $100. I thought that was insane. Now it’s pushing $150. Most of the people that I know with ComCast are disgusted with them trying to push through price increases. Many that I know are trying to push back.</p>
<p>I make my own starbucks frappucinos! The bottles they come in are very thick and definitely reusable. I put half an inch or so of sweetened condensed milk in 5 bottles, then pour my own costco-purchased-home-ground-drip-filter coffee on top. Pop them all in the fridge with the lids on and they are “coffee on the go” for a week. Yummy and about 45-50 cents a pop, plus you are getting that much needed calcium (and sugar!). Re: the bills we didn’t have; AC, two-car families, expensive vacations, pedicures, manicures, hair coloring/highlighting, makeup and $40 an ounce antiaging facial lotions. Mom made do with 1 tube of lipstick, and dropped dad off at work if she needed the car.<br>
We can be VERY frugal here in my little household, but don’t always choose to be. The problem with frugality is that , if everyone is doing it, there are a lot less jobs for people. In my perfect world everybody ELSE is not frugal, thus contributing to a booming economy, while I maintain my frugal ways, thus having a comfortable and secure lifestyle. ;)</p>
<p>In deflationary times, people crank up their savings and that savings sets the stage for the next boom. There’s also a lot of pent-up demand for savings.</p>
<p>When I was growing up, entertainment was simple and inexpensive. We might have a local carnival or school-sponsored fun-day. That’s a long way from a trip to disneyworld.</p>
<p>It’s a stupid article. Health care and life insurance wasn’t needed? The well pump never needed to be replaced? The septic system didn’t get pumped out? Yeah, right. Bet no one got braces, either; my family couldn’t afford them, so my bros and I grew up with the alignment God gave us. (It’s obvious in my generation who grew up financially comfortable, and who grew up on the lesser side of cash flow – all those adults you see sporting braces now grew up in families who didn’t have the money for them.) And I suppose the doctor made housecalls and took produce from the garden for payment?</p>
<p>I pay for dental, vision, legal, life, medical, homeowner, and car insurance (all taken immediately from my paycheck save the homeowner’s). My first couple of jobs out of college gave me medical insurance for which I did not have to pay at all. There is a small bit of life insurance that my employer pays for, but I need to carry more than they offer for free, so pay for it. The dental, vision, and legal insurance are good buys; they save our family quite a bit, and yes, my son got braces when he needed them!</p>
<p>I now commute via subway most days, not because it’s convenient (it’s not) or the fares are low (they aren’t), but because my employer subsidizes its employees’ mass transit use. It’s a pain in the neck and time-consuming, but it does save me some money. (H has the same deal; his commute isn’t as time-consuming as mine and he doesn’t especially like driving in the city, so for him, mass transit is a more attractive option than it is for me.)</p>
<p>We now buy many more store brands than we used to, and take advantage of free entertainment; H is going to a freebie concert tonight, in fact. </p>
<p>And now the weather is beautiful so I’m going to stop playing on the web and get my own freebie entertainment – a nice walk or bikeride!</p>
<p>My parents lived very frugally. No credit cards or loans other than the mortgage. Modest home. Rarely ate out, rarely spent money for entertainment. We went to shows and other things when we could free or discounted tickets. One car and my dad always calculated the cost of gas to make any trip. Very few prepared foods at home, or carry outs. </p>
<p>A notable big difference is laundry. We did not have a dryer so we line dried. We did not wash clothes after one wearing. Used cold water to wash. We let the beds air out with the covers pulled back and would make them in the evening so the bedding was not washed as often either. Home washed the car. Had the same car for a long, long time, and spent little on repairs because it was so well maintained. Did not buy paper towels or garbage bags. No designer clothes. Used the library, rarely bought books.</p>
<p>My mom had a neighbor who used to collect paper napkins from restaurants, drive thrus and would cut them in half or in thirds and use them herself. She also saved envelopes and junk mail to use as note paper. My mom throught she was crazy because she didn’t do it for financial need.</p>
<p>My parents had no car/home maintenance costs because my dad did it himself. Remember having to drive a new well point and pay the guy to come in with the big drilling rig. Remember laying a new drain field for the septic line ourselves when I was a kid. Reroofed the house with my dad when I was about 10. He had a big garden and canned and froze fruits and vegetables.</p>
<p>Tango, your mother may know my MIL, LOL. She stuffs her purse with stuff from restaraunts and uses them at home. She cuts napkins in half for use, and reuses aluminum foil, jars, plastics, bags…you name it. She goes a bit too far for me, as the hygiene and clutter issue is a problem at her house, and I don’t think you are doing others a favor taking more of those condiments than you need for the food you purchase. You are actually stealing. </p>
<p>But old habits die hard. We have to keep an eye on her in restaraunts. If she wants to cut my napkins in half, that’s fine. Some of her recycling is great, but there is a point where it makes no sense.</p>
The bottles they come in are very thick and definitely reusable. I put half an inch or so of sweetened condensed milk in 5 bottles, then pour my own costco-purchased-home-ground-drip-filter coffee on top. Pop them all in the fridge with the lids on and they are “coffee on the go” for a week. Yummy and about 45-50 cents a pop, plus you are getting that much needed calcium (and sugar!). Re: the bills we didn’t have; AC, two-car families, expensive vacations, pedicures, manicures, hair coloring/highlighting, makeup and $40 an ounce antiaging facial lotions. Mom made do with 1 tube of lipstick, and dropped dad off at work if she needed the car.<br>