Austerity Measures -- Suggestions?

Bailamosdance

Forum Master
Hulu plus, and Netflix... all 14 seasons of your show are on Hulu plus... I find that no cable at all (just my on roof antenna) gives me all I need). If you look at the price you are paying for basic cable, you could have an antenna installed for about 4 months of basic, and then you are in profit mode.
 
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yup. There's a subscription thing, plus pay-per-view for other higher-demand things. I don't know how the selection compares to other streaming sources, but could be worth investigating.
 
If you do decide to ditch the cable, you can also hold off on top-of-the-house antenna installation until you're sure you need it. That'll get you the best reception of the most channels, of course, but amplified rabbit ears could be enough -- they are for us.
 
For me, the single biggest budgetary line item that has actual give in it* (particularly since I got rid of my satellite tv a while back as well) is food. It's fairly stupid on my part. I'm a perfectly decent home cook, which means that for the most part, making my own food is cheaper, healthier AND tastier than eating out ... but I still do the latter more often than I should. And even within the realm of cooking my own food, there's always room in my own budget to trim a bit of fat. So to speak.

* Well, ok. I suppose my pro-am lessons and competitions are technically the biggest place where I could cut back. But that's just not going to happen to any significant extent right now.
 
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One that you know and are probably already doing -- attention to the thermostat, especially in the summer (for Texas). I am amazed at how cold many people keep their summertime houses. We don't deprive ourselves of comfortable temperatures, but we make sure that that comfort is dependent on season-appropriate clothing. Based on the utility bill estimates that the previous owners of our house gave us when we bought, I think we spend about half as much as they did on summertime electricity.
 
I tried going with cable once. I lasted about a week before I called the cable company to restart with just basic cable.

I discontinued the long distance service on my land line, as I can make long distance calls on my cell phone.

I keep a close watch on the thermostat. In the winter, generally I turn the heat off or way down at night, and during the day at best it's around 70 degrees. If no one's home, the temperature will be lower. In the summer, I don't run the air conditionining unless it's really hot. Most of the time I can get by with the ceiling fans and the cross ventilation between the sunroom sliding doors and the main door. Or, I'll pull down the fan from the attic.

I go grocery shopping once a week, with a shopping list and a box of organized coupons from Sunday's newspaper.

I called the newspaper when I received my yearly bill that I thought was a little high, and I was thinking of cutting back on my service. The representative gave me a special promotion rate for a year so I'd keep the daily service. It never hurts to ask.
 
I earn reward points on my Sears Mastercard, which I redeem for gift cards or merchandise on the Sears rewards website.

I also use my K-Mart rewards card when I shop at K-Mart and Sears, and the rewards card earns money which can be used toward future purchases Yesterday when I bought a Land's End jacket, I applied about $4.40 of rewards money towards the jacket. FYI, the jacket was originally $60, then marked down, then 40% off the mark down price. With the $4.40 added, I ended up paying a little over $21 for the jacket.

Another savings is buying gift cards at Kroger or Giant Eagle, which runs nice promotions toward fuel purchases. Kroger sometimes has quadruple gift card points, and that's when I stock up on gift cards for places I'll shop anyway.
 
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Another austerity measure I do is pack my own lunch for work, instead of buying it. I draw the line at making hot tea at work, though; it's easier, and less messy, to just buy a large tea at cafeteria. I don't want to deal with dirty tea cups at work.
 
You might want to look into websites like Groupon, which offers a lot of specials.
 
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I limit myself to one trip per week to the grocery store & twice a month to target. It is amazing what I save on impulse buys. I also look at me grocery store ad online on Wednesday & plan my menus around what meat/poultry/veggies are on special. Also, my .02 is that w/ Netflix, Hulu plus & amazon prime I don't need cable.
 
Most of my suggestions (Netflix, Hulu, menu planning, strict shopping, evaluating need v. want, bringing meals from home) have already been covered. One thing to note, however, is that you will often end up spending just as much, if not more, if you cut out your cable service--if that's how you also have your internet. Around here, packages with basic cable + internet are either less than or equal to just internet. (Ask me how I know.)

I find coupon shopping to be dicey. We used to do it, years ago; it's why we started getting the Sunday paper. But we've changed what we eat, and I really just don't find the coupons particularly useful any more. Instead, we buy certain things in bulk, and go with El Cheapo Brand for them (toilet paper, dish soap, hand soap, mouthwash, Windex, laundry detergent, etc.). I find that some cheap/generic brands are OK, while others are definitely not.

One thing that we spent some money on a while ago, but it's saved time and money in the long run, is to invest in dish cloths and a lot of dish towels. We have a lot of them. A whole lot. I keep them in a shallow basket on top of the fridge for easy access. This cuts down on sponges and paper towels (you already know my dislike of paper towels). For most things, it's just as easy to grab a towel or dish cloth to clean something up...and then we can just throw it in the laundry with other stuff.

Oh, and speaking of laundry, we wash everything in cold water and air-dry as much as we possibly can.
 
I'm not doing anything extra. We are a pretty frugal family. I do my own home maintenance when I can. I enjoy cooking, so we eat out quite infrequently. And as much as I'd love to do the whole "organic food only" thing, I buy regular meat, produce, and other staples in quantity from the local restaurant supply. I like buying sirloin for under $3/lb. :-) I work in the city, so I always brown bag the lunch, I cringe at the notion of paying $9 for a sandwich.

Right now we have both Netflix and Amazon Prime (trial version). What I really like about Amazon Prime is that I can rent the movie if it doesn't stream free for me. With Netflix I don't have that option. So we are going to be cancelling the Netflix in favor of Amazon Prime.
 
Yep, this is another rotisserie chicken week. White meat for curried chicken salad, thighs and drumsticks for DH's dinner the other night, and the carcass gets frozen for when I eventually make stock. All for $5.
 

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