Adjusting to a tighter budget

[GMODC2]

Anyone dealt with this, having to deal with having less money?

Either through a pay cut, having a child, being the "breadwinner", any situation that makes your budget tighter... I need tips.

[pangaea]

.. how big a budget cut are we talking here? i've got a couple teensy shortcuts..

cook massive amounts of food at one time and freeze it instead of buying tv dinners. there's even a cookbook ("the freezer cookbook") for this...

don't clip coupons because coupons make you wanna buy shit you don't need... and even if you do need it, it is always more expensive than buyin generic...

get a clothing rack/line so if you do your clothes in a laundromat you can just hang them to dry when you get home...

go to the library to check out dvd's/music/books instead of buying.. or to get internet access..

sell plasma.. sell your body ... j/k .. ;p

sorry, i'm not sure where you're coming from but does this help at all?

[dazed]

hey gmodc2!

i have cut down on some expenses that i've seen people with more money not care so much about. i'm not stingy but i'll cut stuff here and there and it will eventually add up. i buy groceries and cook at home. no tv dinners. if i do order in i'll go pick up instead of having it delivered. you get a little exercise doing that too. i buy generic brands for some household supplies. i try to do things on the weekends with friends or without that don't require too much money (bookstore, museums, coffee shop). i'm trying to read (that's a nice free activity - minus the cost of the book - unless it's from the library or borrowed from a friend). for movies, choose netflix...good deal for the number of movies you can see.

btw, how much of a pay cut are you taking? good luck!

[wordsmith]

In my volunteer program, as you might imagine, we got to be pros at this. Living on a stipend will do that. It's easier, though, when you're living with more people and pooling resources for shared stuff.

The ways we lived more simply may not work for you. Regardless, here were ways to live on less $$$. And some are more extreme than you may need, but, anyway...

-Walk everywhere that's walkable.
-Don't own a car, take public trans when it's not walkable.
-Don't eat out.
-Make your own coffee.
-Bargain shop for groceries, don't be tied to name brands.
-Make a list and stick to it. Do not be taken in by endcap displays of things you weren't going to buy anyway, special deals. Only get what you already determined that you need.
-Shop in bulk for nonperishables.
-Decrease the meat you eat, if you eat meat. Cooking meatless is less costly.
-Seek out mostly free or very inexpensive ways to entertain yourself.
-Dollar store and generics for all cleaning products, toiletries, incidental items.
-Seriously cut down on clothing shopping, and when you do get new items of clothes, go with simple mix and match classics, rather than trendy items, for more bang for your buck.
- Honestly ask yourself if each expenditure, no matter how small, is a want or a need. Not that you can't go ahead and go with something if it's a want, but it's good to get in the habit of asking yourself, and at least being conscious of it.

[embrassezla]

-Seek out mostly free or very inexpensive ways to entertain yourself.

Develop a Netflix habit.

[wordsmith]

Yeah, I do that too, b/c it's cheaper than the late fees I was accruing...but, when was living on a volunteer's stipend, there's no way I could have afforded it. And had I gone in with my housemates, picking out movies would have been a nightmare. Not that Netflix existed then.

[embrassezla]

the 2-movies-at-a-time Netflix deal pretty much guarantees that i won't need to seek out entertainment during the week, and it kills time on weekends.

[GMODC2]

This stuff's great! I'm talking specifically about a potential pay cut, in which case I'd get maybe 10-20% less, but still want to save the $$ that I do.

[SmilesSoSweet]

I'm all for the generic equavilant of cleaning products and other household uses. I do shop with coupons, but I only cut the coupons of stuff that I use. I look in the weekly grocery ads (you know, the junk mail people just throw away) to see what's on sale and just go to certain groceries to buy certain things. I bring my lunch almost every day - maybe once or twice a month I'll go out to eat - usually when our head boss from the other office is in town, he takes us all to lunch so I don't even have to pay. The lunch I do bring is usually a frozen meal - but I only buy them in bulk when they're on sale.

I'm not one to do a lot of clothes shopping, but right now I need to buy more because my current work clothes aren't fitting well anymore. Before I go to the stores I shop at (usually just Lane Bryant and Old Navy) I go to their websites to find any coupons they may have. Most cases, it's just 10%, but still, it's saving some money.

If you're expecting a pay cut soon, now's probably the best time to keep track of all your spending to see what you actually spend your money on. Then you can look and see what you can eliminate or buy less of and hopefully that'll help you save up a bit.

[lonestar]

I volunteer two hours a week at the State History Museum...there is an IMAX theatre in the museum...as a volunteer, I get to watch any IMAX movie for free. Also as an employee of a university, I get into any sports event, movie on campus, musical production for free. I can borrow CDs for free at the library (and henceforth burn them into Itunes)...Also, as a university employee, I get to take Austin's bus system (Capitol Metro) for free. I got the market cornered on free entertainment.

[wordsmith]

I used to volunteer usher at plays and musicals in Chicago, because you can watch the shows for free.

[drdeadringer]

I was actually tweaking mine myself. Even if you already have your budget worked out in an Excel sheet or whatever, search for articles on making your first budget. They'll have a table of suggested % of what each general item should be [housing, utilities, food...]. You can compare what really exists for you to their suggested % and then think accordingly.

[sundaycomics]

Get a membership to Costco, Sam's Club, etc. You only need a membership to one of them because they're all the same. It's true that you have to pay for it, but it shocks me how much money I save there vs. the 5 regular grocery stores near my place. Those savings will pay for your membership in no time.

[Cole]

I just altered my monthly budget in order to put away more $$ toward traveling next year (though I've never had a terribly expensive cost of living) and I find setting a very specific budget helpful.

I have a Sam's club membership as mentioned above. I also cook with a lot of canned food - tomatoes, beans, etc. I'll mix those with a fresh vegetable, so it's cheaper but still tastes good. And also as mentioned before, I cook a lot of things like lasagnas and soups and freeze them. I always make an extra portion of whatever I'm cooking and put it in a tupperware, so it's easy to grab for lunch instead of going out.

I go to a LOT of free entertainment, and have people over for boardgame nights pretty often so I'm still being social without spending money. I bike everywhere. (I don't even own a car.) I don't put things on credit - if I can't pay cash, I can't afford it.

I do most of my clothes shopping at resale and vintage stores. it takes more time to dig through, but I've found great, label clothes for less than $10. Actually, I buy pretty much everything used with some good research.

I take care of my health so I don't have to deal with expensive medical stuff often - $10 a week for yoga is a lot cheaper than chiropractor visits, for example.

In general, I just pay a lot of attention to what I'm spending. And I do a lot of research to find free or cheap stuff, whether I'm talking about activities, entertainment, or a TV. :)

[drdeadringer]

Ah yes -- free stuff. Look up 'FreeCycle'. It's all free -- ignoring what it costs you to go pick it up or whatever.

Also... return those bottles. Five cents off grocery, baby! Or just five cents if you grocery at someplace that doesn't accept bottle returns. Who knows what having 25 Thomas Jeffersons running around will get you :eek:

[winneythepooh7]

I live on a modest salary in NYC so it is very do-able. Everyone has super great suggestions already. A big thing I recently started to do as well, was open an ING account. I have $250.00 deposited every two weeks. And it is harder to take it out as well. I don't count this as "income", I lump it in with my "bills" category.

[SmilesSoSweet]

I live on a modest salary in NYC so it is very do-able. Everyone has super great suggestions already. A big thing I recently started to do as well, was open an ING account. I have $250.00 deposited every two weeks. And it is harder to take it out as well. I don't count this as "income", I lump it in with my "bills" category.

Same here. I think of it as the same way. Right now I have $70/wk that goes to two different ING Direct accounts. Since it's deducted from my checking account, I look at it as a weekly expensive even though it's going to savings account I don't "see" regularly. I have another account that takes $30/wk from my savings account to another savings account that matures in a year. The interest rate isn't that great (this was before I heard about ING Direct) but after a year is a good sum of money to have and when that matures, I'll transfer it to my ING account and put it towards my house fund.

[pangaea]

i've got 2 savings accounts with ING but i heard HSBC pays even better! oh well... i like ING because their brochures are not written in legal-ese.

you can go to morningstar.com and shop around for banks that offer the best rates on savings accounts and open one there. they also have info on mutual funds and other investments.

i opened an account with ING because my roommate did and she is familiar with the banking industry... however, she's a rookie, lol, and i figured out it pays to do your own homework...

[winneythepooh7]

I had an unexpected expense over the weekend that I had to charge on my credit card. So I really need to buckle down. A big thing is I am just going to have to start bringing food to work more often. This is where the majority of my money goes. I could stop depositing money into my savings and have more "play money" but that just doesn't seem like a good idea to me............