what are some painless (or relatively painless) ways to cut costs in your budget?

[ProudGrandma]

We are finding ourselves needing to start cutting some costs. We aren't in the poor house by any means, but we would like to save more money than we are. So what are some ways that you have found to cut costs that wasn't too hard or too painful?

 

 

[whitestavern]

I just read a Suze Orman article that discussed this. Her advice was to first separate the items in your budget into wants and needs. Then take all your wants and cut each by 10%. If that is not enough, cut by another 10%. I'm going to give this a shot myself as we are looking at increased expenses in the new year and will have to make some cuts to our budget.

[Trilliums]

Stop shopping as much. :) Seriously. DH and I had gotten into a shopping routine where we were both going to the store a couple times a week. We organized shopping lists better and our grocery bills dropped. I also avoid going to Target for just one or two things. I wait until I have a significant list of needed items and I also tend to stock up on the things we regularly need. Fewer trips to stores means less money spent overall for us.

 

So much depends on where your money currently is going. We cut back on extra curricular classes because of my kids' school schedules and it has resulted in a lot of money saved. Not only are we saving the monthly class costs, but we drive around less and have fewer incidental costs (stopping on snacks to or from a class because of poor planning, or extra costs associated with the class/activity).

 

We are dropping satellite. We just do not watch it enough to justify the cost. We have not had cable/satellite most of our married life though, so it is not a big change for us.

 

Cook more crock pot meals -- makes a lot of food for little costs.

 

Do not eat out. Never buy drinks away from home. I cannot believe how expensive they are.

 

Have money automatically put into a savings account so it is not available to be spent. Be careful, of course, of not ending up with overdraft fees though.

 

Shop at consignment shops or thrift stores. We have some very nice second hand shops around here where only decent and clean items are sold.

 

Use the library. I love books, but I hardly ever buy books. I am a huge fan of public library systems.

 

 

Those are just the things that come to mind.

Good luck!

[Brilliant]

You've already been given some good advice.

 

I like to look for the BIG things that we are spending on and cut there. For example, I realized we spent a FORTUNE on a couple of categories in 2012 that I didn't even notice - clothing and dining out. These had not been big problems for us previously, so it was a shocker for me. So we are going to go with a strict budgeting or envelope system for these categories in 2013.

 

One thing I've found that has a huge impact on our budget is re-evaluating insurance. Right now for all property (home, personal property & cars) we are paying about $500 a month. That seems like a lot, but I can tell you that there is NO WAY to squeeze another penny out of that. I re-evaluate it regularly, getting quotes every 6 months to a year, to make sure we are getting the best deal. If I didn't, we might be spending twice as much. Yes, some auto insurance companies charge twice what others do!

[Ottakee]

Insurance is a good one to look at---but make sure you are comparing the same level of insurance and have a reputable company.

 

We save quite a bit on our electric by turning off one mercury vapor light we had. We don't need it for safety where we live so off it went.

 

For food, try to shop only once a week or less if possible. I now shop Walmart as they are so much cheaper than the other 2 options in town. The other 2 might have a few better sales occ. but Walmart will price match and the hassle of multiple stops (and more temptations) was not worth it. Eat more simple foods and stock up on them when they are on sale. If don't don't know how to cook, esp. using a crock pot, try to learn. Crock pot meals are easy to do and can be very inexpensive.

 

For clothing we go with hand me downs first---we take everything offered to us and then keep what we can use and pass on the rest. Even if it is just 1-2 items out of a bag it saves money. Next stop is a low cost thrift store where most clothing is under $2. After that is Goodwill. Finally if we still need more we shop sales. Sometimes buying QUALITY stuff is cheaper in the long run. We have LL Bean boots, Carhartt barn gear, etc. as the quality is so good and now that the kids are done growing it will last for years. Try to go with a basic mix and match wardrobe with a few nice accessories.

 

Going out to eat can make a huge difference in your budget. I would see about seriously cutting that back if that is an issue for your family. If you do go out to eat, try to pick places that have coupons, specials, or are a good value for your money.

[DawnM]

We cut $200 by getting rid of satellite TV and ditching the cell plan service for pay as you go service.

 

I was doing great with everything else, but have let myself slip a bit. I need to reign in the food bills, including eating out, and cut some other spending.

[jujsky]

It's an up-front cost, but I recently bought one of those food saver things (that vacuum-seal food) and I'm sure I've been saving money in groceries in a couple of ways. I use a lot of chicken broth in my cooking so I've been making my own in huge batches, portioning it out according to the recipes I typically make, and freezing it. It really doesn't take much time. I'll get it going one night after dinner, let it simmer unti I go to bed, pop it in the fridge, and deal with portioning it and freezing it over the next couple of days. I've also been doubling-up my crockpot recipes or soups and freezing half. We're very busy, so it's not unusual for us to get home from an activity at 7:00 or 8:00 and either be too tired to make dinner dinner or realize cooking whatever we planned for that night will take too long. A frozen soup or chili thaws out very quickly. If we didn't have something quick and easy, we'd be more likely to go out to eat and spend a lot more money.

 

Also, I try to limit the trips I make outside the house. If I can hit the pet store on my way home from an activity, I do that. I don't know how much it saves in gas, but it save something!

[lailasmum]

If you have an older printer out of warranty then use compatible ink cartridges. You can even get unchipped compatible ones that are another few pounds cheaper. I do this and is takes my ink cartridge costs from between £40-£50 a few times a year to about £6 so it saves alot.

[MrsBanjoClown]

When we decided that I would quit my job to homeschool, we had to make some cutbacks. We dropped satellite, turned off long-distance on our home phone, dropped ds's violin lessons, and we are eating out less. Dh and I don't go out together as often (mainly due to his new hours at work) and that helps as well. We don't shop for things like clothes unless someone absolutely needs something.

[DawnM]

I will add that I am a huge yard sale and thrift store shopper! Some disagree, but for us, 90% of our clothing is 2nd hand.

[gingersmom]

Coupons!

 

I never thought I would be a believer in coupons. I don't live in a neck of the woods with giant Walmart's with food stores inside, no mega food stores, just regular sized foodstore that only allows 4 coupons for the same item at a time.

 

I am buying the same products (same brand shampoo, toothpaste, laundry detergent, paper towels, toilet paper, deodorant, razors, etc) just at a lower price.

 

Last month I took the time to really search out coupons and I think I saved around $200. I did buy a lot extra (Target was having crazy good sales and giving you $5 gift cards) so that will last me for about the next 4-5 months.

 

I have declared January a no-eating out month so we will save about $150 which I am going to use to buy new bath towels (we really need and I want).

 

Check out your local thrift store. I never stepped foot into a Goodwill until several months ago. I am now addicted (and so is my teenage daughter). I only buy name brands that I know (my thing) and we have saved so much $$$ its crazy! Its become this fun thing to do and see how much we can find for as little $$$ as possible. I found dresses that sell for $100+ at the mall store for $2.50.

[KrissiK]

I think the first thing you should do is keep very detailed track of absolutely everything you spend. Take every single receipt and itemize and categorize. Just by doing that, you will probably find that you spend money on things you don't even want or need and can just cut that out. For example (and I'm not saying you do this but.... for the sake of the example) you may or your kids may be throwing gum or candy or whatever into the shopping cart and you just buy it. If you put your spending under a microscope for a while, you will probably discover some things you buy mindlessly and cutting those out will not be painful at all. Then, when you've analyzed that, go on to bigger things like.... how many Starbucks or other fast food trips do you make? Stuff like that. Then, you might want to analyze your cell phone plans, etc. Start small, then go big.

[Brilliant]

I will add that I am a huge yard sale and thrift store shopper! Some disagree, but for us, 90% of our clothing is 2nd hand.

 

The clothes I get the most compliments on are things I purchased at thrift stores. My dd finds a lot of cool things there, too. One of her teachers asked her, "Where do you get your sense of style from?" and she said "I didn't know how to answer her." I told her she should have said, "Goodwill!"

[Audrey]

We are finding ourselves needing to start cutting some costs. We aren't in the poor house by any means, but we would like to save more money than we are. So what are some ways that you have found to cut costs that wasn't too hard or too painful?

 

Just a few relatively painless ideas:

 

Shop less often and with a list that you stick to, no matter what. :) That is the easiest way to cut some spending. Just commit to no unplanned purchases and you might be surprised at how much extra $$ you have at the end of a month.

 

If you eat out often, make a concerted effort to do so much less often.

 

If you are in the habit of running errands whenever, make an effort to do so only on certain days and consolidate your errands into one or two trips a week instead of little trips here and there every day. This saves quite a bit more on gas than you might think.

[KungFuPanda]

We cut out cable and a home phone, and don't miss it at all. Cooking at home saves a lot. If i keep them full, they dont even WANT to dine out . . . just keep a step ahead. Skip using the AC as much as possible. Also, wearing wool socks and layers will allow you to keep the thermostat way down. In my house, I'm the only cold person, so I wear silk long johns and everyone is comfy in a cool house. (I DO warn guests that we keep a cold house.) I try to limit errands to one day a week and plan my shopping efficiently. This cuts out impulse buying and saves gas.

[thebacabunch]

We dropped cable. We use amazon prime, netflix, and hulu plus for about 18 dollars (average with the prime yearly membership) a month instead of 65 dollars a month on cable. We dropped our landline. We coupon and bought a chest freezer to take advantage of good sales at the grocery store. We don't buy second hand because of where we live ( most things are at least 3rd and 4th hand here and used hard, lol) but I only buy on sale. I make my dh a bag lunch. We drive our cars until they die.

[justme824]

One thing I do is save purchasing any wants until the end of the month. I've got a running list of things we want - books mostly, but also art supplies, home improvement projects (that don't require immediate attention), photo books I'd like printed, random fun things that I discover while reading the boards, etc. After our needs are met I'll take a look at what is leftover and decide how much to save and how much to spend. I tend to save more this way because I pause a moment to decide if I really want something, or if I can go another month. I'll also think ahead to future travel or experience opportunities at this time and earmark some of the leftover money for that.

 

My goal is to have as much left at the end of the month as I can. To do this I try hard to menu plan (this is my biggest weakness and my big goal to fix in 2013), shop once a week with my list, I only go to target every other month with a list, I shop for clothing on my Target days (really this is a big errand day - I keep a running list of needs that aren't immediate and go down the list every other month), limit/combine trips out to save gas, limit eating out to special occasions and bi-monthly errand days, keeping simple meals on hand to keep from reaching for the keys to go out, avoid shopping, and keeping the want lst rather than just buying.

 

This was my first year doing it this way and I did great. There were months of struggle, but also months of awesomeness. I saved a nice chunk of change, bought several items on my want list, stacks of books, and we had lots of experiences and travel. I had less stress this year than in years past because this not only helped my budget but kept us from running out for the little things. It was aso fun to splurge on sonething at the end f the realky goid months knowing i ad workec roy hard. I hope to improve this coming year by really working on my grocery budget & menu planning.

[Punks in Ontario]

There are some great ideas here. One more thing that I do that takes a bit of time is the grocery shopping app. I can keep tabs of the prices of groceries. I work out how much the cost is per unit to combat the ever changing sizes at different stores along with who has the best price. Then when I spot a sale, I can quickly find out if it's a 'real' sale or not. If it honestly is a great deal, I buy 6 months to a year of product (of course only if it's non perishable). So many sales are either no savings over another store or only ho hum savings. One of our local stores always puts on the sale sign, "You save $---." Most of the time it's pure carp, but sometimes there are some amazing savings.

 

Since I live in the country, I make sure I figure in fuel when shopping. It doesn't make sense to save on the food, and spend more on fuel. I rotate stores and cities that I go to unless I know there's a special I don't want to miss. I also do a lot of price comparisons online for non grocery purchases.

[Mrs Mungo]

We are finding ourselves needing to start cutting some costs. We aren't in the poor house by any means, but we would like to save more money than we are. So what are some ways that you have found to cut costs that wasn't too hard or too painful?

 

It depends upon what's in your budget in the first place. Do you eat out a lot? That isn't a bad cut, assuming you can cook a little.

[ProudGrandma]

There are some great ideas here. One more thing that I do that takes a bit of time is the grocery shopping app. I can keep tabs of the prices of groceries. I work out how much the cost is per unit to combat the ever changing sizes at different stores along with who has the best price. Then when I spot a sale, I can quickly find out if it's a 'real' sale or not. If it honestly is a great deal, I buy 6 months to a year of product (of course only if it's non perishable). So many sales are either no savings over another store or only ho hum savings. One of our local stores always puts on the sale sign, "You save $---." Most of the time it's pure carp, but sometimes there are some amazing savings.

 

Since I live in the country, I make sure I figure in fuel when shopping. It doesn't make sense to save on the food, and spend more on fuel. I rotate stores and cities that I go to unless I know there's a special I don't want to miss. I also do a lot of price comparisons online for non grocery purchases.

 

tell me where to get this app...that would really be helpful, I think.

[idnib]

All my ideas are posted above. The last thing I have is to set aside a small amount of "fun" money for each person that they get to spend on whatever silly or meaningful things they want. Or they can save it. Like an allowance, but for adults. Otherwise it can feel tedious and that can lead to slippage. We do $40/month each for DH and me. But it's been less when things were tighter.

[happyhomemaker]

Others have posted some great ideas. I just wanted to add that I buy all of our clothes off season. So I bought little dd some shirts for summer from Old Navy a little while ago for $2-$3. I try to do the same for dh and me. Getting rid of cable has been a huge money saver here, and sometimes if your current insurance company hears you are looking around they will *suddenly* realize you are due for some kind of discount. I also stick to grocery lists, seldom eat out, and try to group errands according to where they are in town in order to save gas (and time). I stay away from sites like Amazon unless I specifically need something. I don't have time to do much shopping around town, but I can rack up quite a bill shopping from home.