Extreme budget cuts

[RunningBum]

.8 x 1,000,000 = $800,000


.008 x 1,000,000 = $8000


Pretty sure that's what I was trying to get at...(?)


B-Man

But you said .008%, not .008. That's a 100x difference.

 

[EarlyBirdly]

But you said .008%, not .008. That's a 100x difference.

Birdster

 

[SecondCor521]

I'd be in the same camp with Koolau and look at the big categories first. Looking at my spending records I could cut out Christmas and Recreation. That would be a pretty bare bones existence but I'd be alive, healthy, and not need to go back to work.

Doing so would reduce my spending to about 70% of what it is currently. What I spend currently is right around a 1.25% WR, so I am sort of in the same "learning to blow that dough" category as someone else posted (W2R maybe?) rather than worried about cutting back at the moment.

I could probably trim another couple percentage points if I stopped eating out.

My tax return got bigger (11 pages vs. 10 pages due to the reorganization of the tax forms). My tax refund got smaller, mostly because I voluntarily gave up a portion of my APTC in order to fully utilize the other dependent tax credits by a larger Roth conversion and a 30% higher AGI. The tax refund will just go into my checking account and get spent.

 

[Retiredmajor]

This is a fun thread! We retired just over a year ago and enjoy so many things! But, if needed we could cut or reduce:
- Eating out
- Travel (last year 3 trips including 10 days in Italy), 3 planned this year
- Sirius XM in both cars and the house
- Shopping (purses, jewelry, etc.)
- Cut the cord on cable and go to Hulu, Youtube TV, Netflix
- Drinking wine

Just reducing those costs would have a BIG impact on our budget. But we enjoy all of them! I guess knowing we could cut if needed is nice.

Regarding taxes this year, we just got ours done and it's a wash for us. We pay some Federal, and get some back from State. That's fairly typical for us so I see no big change. It's all relatively minimal dollars and a tax refund (or payment) would NEVER change my lifestyle. The dollars involved aren't large enough to matter.

 

[audreyh1]

I think I can cut down to 50% and still live in the same home, eat basically the same food. The home is paid for, and I am not in the routine of eating foie gras and black truffle. My donations and gifts are completely discretionary, and can be cut to zero any time. No more home improvements and DIY home projects, and more Web surfing and being couch potato. I drink so little anymore, and the existing cache of gifted XO Cognac will last me a while. When that runs out, I can get drunk on moonshine. No big loss.

My basic living expenses are fairly low. I would just sell the 2nd home, and can fund travel with that even.

Good point. Our current wine stash could easily last us 4 years probably longer if I couldn't buy another bottle of wine.

But it would be hard to give up on the top quality produce and meats/seafood we enjoy. We're not really into rice and beans.

 

[NW-Bound]

Our food cost is not that much, and at 7% of total expenses, we could stop eating altogether and it would not make much difference.

 

[travelover]

.......... we could stop eating altogether and it does not make much difference.

Darn and here I was thinking's this strategy might be a winner.

 

[NW-Bound]

Well, eliminating this category by itself would cut my expenses down to 93% of the regular spending.

If you normally eat caviar, lobster, foie gras, filet mignon, truffle, jamon iberico every day, your result will certainly be different.

Most of the food we eat daily and enjoy are ordinary stuff we get at Costco, Safeway, etc... And my wife eats so little on top of that.

 

[GravitySucks]

[emoji23] Darn and here I was thinking's this strategy might be a winner.

Don't worry about the food budget. Aldi Frank's are $0.79 a pound, but you'll have to burn some of that sterno if you want them warm.

 

[NW-Bound]

Perhaps this info belongs in the "Food Shopping" thread, but as we talk about food costs...

Just came back from a grocery run with my wife. She wanted to go get the boneless/skinless chicken breasts at Safeway, which was on special for $0.99/lb.

For contrast, the other day at Sprouts, another chain where we often shop, I saw beef marrow bones for $6.99/lb. What!!! Yes, I took a photo with my smartphone for the record, and I just looked it up now to refresh my memory.

And right in the same frozen food section, they had wild caught large shrimp for the same money.

Well, I'd rather pay that money for 15/20-sized wild shrimp than beef marrow, so we bought the shrimp.

What would you choose?

PS. If I wanted beef marrow, I knew where I could get it for less.

 

[RobbieB]

I just paid $5/lb for a pre brined, seasoned and butterflied Spatchcock chicken.

Delicious and easy.

 

[audreyh1]

I just paid $5/lb for a pre brined, seasoned and butterflied Spatchcock chicken.

Delicious and easy.

Hmmmm - I’ve always done the brining and spatchcocking myself.

But the chicken is already expensive as I usually buy organic. I notice a real difference in flavor.

 

[NW-Bound]

Free-range chicken do taste better than mass-produced chicken, although my brother-in-law once served free-range chicken that was tougher than any chicken I had ever had.

PS. Come to think of it, could it be the "woody" chicken someone talked about in another thread? The one I ate was just very stringy, and no, it was not overcooked. I thought it was just a well-aged chicken. The meat was flavorful, and would be wonderful in a soup, simmered for a long long time.

 

[W2R]

Free-range chicken do taste better than mass-produced chicken, although my brother-in-law once served free-range chicken that was tougher than any chicken I had ever had.

I'd so much rather eat fish than any kind of chicken anyway. Losing weight, I have eaten so much chicken I could cluck. Honestly I wouldn't mind if I never ate chicken again. But fish - - that's another story! Fish is so good, and so good for you too. Yum....

Growing up in Hawaii, we had more fresh caught fish than anything else. So many different kinds were easily available, so fresh, and utterly delicious. Here people don't eat as much fish as they did in Hawaii, and they just don't know what they are missing. And at the supermarkets they rely so heavily upon salmon, catfish, and tilapia which is kind of stupid given the many delicious varieties of fish.

 

[NW-Bound]

Don't worry about the food budget. Aldi Frank's are $0.79 a pound, but you'll have to burn some of that stereo if you want them warm.

Burn a stereo to warm some hotdogs?

How about something as simple and "green" as this (from the Web)?

 

[daylatedollarshort]

And right in the same frozen food section, they had wild caught large shrimp for the same money.

Well, I'd rather pay that money for 15/20-sized wild shrimp than beef marrow, so we bought the shrimp.

What would you choose?

I like shrimp so I buy it on sale on $5 Friday at Safeway. We're trying to follow more of a Loma Linda / Blue Zone kind of diet, which is more beans and less meat. I don't think we will give up meat completely, but we try to eat less meat than we used to, more seafood and have some vegetarian meals. And lots of beans. I cook up a big batch often from dried and then freeze the rest. I soak them overnight and then cook them in a thermal cooker so they even cook frugally.

 

[GravitySucks]

Burn a stereo to warm some hotdogs?

How about something as simple and "green" as this (from the Web)?

Dang autocorrect. It's ducks up all the time.
Sterno.
And that green grilling wouldn't work here. I'd be eating hotdog-cicles.

 

[WestUniversity]

Fly business instead of first class

Only buy a new Mercedes every other year, instead of yearly.

Buy self winding Rolex to save on battery costs

Cut maids' and butler's salaries

[emoji23]

 

[terry.albery]

Another way could be to join a crowd funding platform and receive * donations* which dependin on your state are TAX FREE ...im in Pattaya Thailand and tge $ has dropped against the bhat so i can use that method...call it a Pension Booster...
I love it.[emoji3][emoji16]

 

[upset264]

What do smaller tax "returns" (I assume op meant refunds) have to do with budgeting? I thought budgeting was income vs. expenses. Tax refunds are only refund of an overpayment.

 

[rk911]

Another way could be to join a crowd funding platform and receive * donations* which dependin on your state are TAX FREE ...im in Pattaya Thailand and tge $ has dropped against the bhat so i can use that method...call it a Pension Booster...
I love it.[emoji3][emoji16]

others might call it modern day panhandling.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I don't need to cut back right now, but I often think about how I would do that if the need ever arose.



1. Basically, whenever possible don't spend money! I know that sounds overly simplistic but that worked better than anything for me in the past. Spending on cheaper stuff, or spending on stuff to save money on other stuff, doesn't work as well for me as just not spending at all.



2. Delayed spending is sometimes possible, and often becomes spending that doesn't happen. That helps too. Sometimes the perceived need for something is not as urgent as one might think.



3. Enjoy life! Not having any fun leads to feeling deprived and spending more. Do something that is 100% free, and fun.

• Play a video game that you already own (on a console that you already own too).
  
• Go for a walk.
  
• Rearrange the furniture or reorganize your closet.
  
• If and only if you already have a microscope or binoculars, get out there and use them to discover and appreciate whatever you can.
  
• If and only if you already have a musical instrument, practice on it and learn to play it better for free.
  
• If you have flowers in your yard, pick a few and learn about flower arranging.
  
• Spend more time chatting about life and the world with your sweetie.
  
• Go fishing from the shore of a nearby lake or river with gear that you already have, using bait that you can dig up in the back yard or find elsewhere for free. (So what if you don't catch anything, if fishing is fun for you; and if by chance you do catch something, so much the better, free dinner!)
  
• Read that book that you bought way back when and never got around to reading.
  

Or whatever. Do something 100% free that floats your boat.



4. Write down every single penny that you spend. Compete with yourself to see if you can spend less this month than you did last month. Trust me, it's fun after a while and you will find ways to economize that you never thought of before.



I am already doing many of the things people have mentioned in prior posts, but I could push a little harder to do more of them. Right now I am pushing harder to spend more, not less.

These are the best suggestions so far. Also search the internet for great recipes. Amazing ideas out there! Lentils are dirt cheap. With spices and onions they become a feast.

 

[dasranger]

Just tell your employer to give more of your paycheck to the IRS. Heck, you may get “more” next year and you’ll feel so good about things.
Sorry, but the people who’s taxes went up and are bringing home less, are not cutting back and are not in this forum.

 

[mckittri2000]

OTA Antenna for TV
2 Roku boxes (1 for each floor)
Use the library more often.
Cut vacations down to 2/yr
Digital coupons for grocery shopping
Still eating out often and hitting the links whenever the weather permits

Enjoy your life....live it to the fullest.

 

[Dynaflash]

Is this a joke?

The tax rate went down. You have more money under the new system. Either you got more each payday or you got a bigger refund. Either way, if you need to quit opening your garage door to save money because you got less of a refund, then I suspect that maybe you need more help than that.