July 24, 2007

Cutting Out

We are working on saving for a large goal. And we are trying to reduce expenses. I believe I am a pretty darned frugal girl already. So cutting more is worrisome…where? We live quite sparse already. What do you cut next?

We don’t have car payments, therefore our car insurance is quite cheap. We don’t have a Starbucks in town so we have no latte factor. We don’t pay for cable. We do pay for internet. But I dare someone to cut that from my cold dead hands. I bet I would still fight!

I don’t get mani/pedi's because it weirds me out to have someone do that for me. I don’t buy new clothes. I come home each day for lunch and cook nearly every night at home.

I unplug a good amount of appliances already. We could turn up the AC a bit and sweat more…

We could cut my cell phone, but we don’t have a home phone. And I drive a car with nearly 180,000 miles. I feel much safer having a life line should my beloved car go kaput.

One area where I refuse to cut anymore is on food costs. I am way behind on my Quicken updates and since we haven’t combined our finances yet, it is hard to get a real feel for the grocery costs, but trust me, I do quite well in this area. I buy generic, I load up during sales. I shop at different stores to get cheaper prices on certain items. So I refuse to go down to ramen or macaroni and cheese or beans. Nope, uh uh.

Help! What other extreme ideas do you have? What problem spending areas do you have that you know you should cut? Where do you try and cut small corners? What do you try and do when you can’t cut anymore but need to?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll kick this one around a bit and write you a post on it.

Librarian Girl said...

Hey Fianna! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'll be back!

Dallas Diaries said...

Lurker!

I dont know how else you would cut costs besides not eating. Honestly. There has to be something else thats causing this. Maybe you live in a uber expensive town?

Anonymous said...

I was going to suggest ebay, but I see you've already done that. Next, I'll suggest selling plasma, sperm and extra organs. No? :)

Like the blog!

Sauntering Soul said...

Wow, I don't know. I'm actually thinking of starting a part-time business on the side because I want to travel and don't want to change my current spending habits in order to do so. I know you already do e-bay on the side. I don't know what else you could possibly do.

If something comes to mind, I'll contact you though.

Sheila said...

First time visitor here.

Along the lines of what Megan said, I hear you can get quite a bit for your eggs.

I couldn't imagine doing it, but its a chunk of change... :D

Fianna said...

Wow....I am gonna start talking money more! Look at all these new peoples.

Jag: Thanks a bunch...I will respond on your site. We have already been doing some listed, but many are new and great ideas!

Prianna: We live in a pretty cheap area...except for anything health related...I am about to go for my own eye appt...and boy is it costly. But...we are just trying to cut expenses so we can save $$.

Megan, Sheila: My eggs are staying where they are. We aren't desperate enough yet...call me in a year!

We haven't done anything new yet, and we are soon going on a vacay...so now may not be the times to talk about saving money...but keep on thinking folks!!

 
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