Ways to reduce budget

[Major Tom]

I enjoy looking at ways to cut costs

We're a funny lot aren't we?

 

[justplainbll]

Take some lessons from the way you ancestors lived.

 

[Major Tom]

Take some lessons from the way you ancestors lived.

I am not going to run around in a bear-skin for anybody.

 

[palomalou]

That is to ruthlessly cut any recurring expenses, no matter how small. Cut back to the cheapest cell phone contract available, if you have to have one. No newspaper or magazine subscriptions,

I will say that magazine subscriptions are so cheap, especially on discount, that they are a lot of pleasure for little money. We stopped them though because I hated how often Dear Spouse had to take the bin to the recycling center. It's often enough just with junk mail!

 

[Mulligan]

I will say that magazine subscriptions are so cheap, especially on discount, that they are a lot of pleasure for little money. We stopped them though because I hated how often Dear Spouse had to take the bin to the recycling center. It's often enough just with junk mail!

They seem like they are just giving them away anymore. Too cheap to pass up. I get Money, Kiplingers, Golf, and SmartMoney for about $10 a
piece per year. They make excellent " distractors" while Im walking on the treadmill.

 

[meierlde]

How about the following:

1) Compare life insurance cost through employer vs other life insurance provider. I've found I can do better than my employer's prices. This is of course assuming you are employed!
2) Get rid of 3rd car I did not need.
3) Raise auto insurance deductible to $1,000.
4) Axe cable/SAT TV; get high definition TV for free over-the-air.
5) Stream programming from Hulu to my TV; I'm watching the Daily Show right now through Hulu on my TV.
6) Make full use of flexible spending accounts.
7) Mail order prescriptions.
8) Do own home repairs.
9) Change own car oil, brakes, etc.
10) Drive cars longer (both are over 7 years old).
11) Refi mortgage to 4 1/8 % (that is if you have a mortgage).
12) Cancel land line and use Ooma instead; works great!
13) Shop around for best internet; U-verse is quite competitive.
14) Change filter on furnace/AC.
15) Cut back on watering lawn.

Hope this helps.

One item here check the $10 or equivalent list of generic meds at Wal-Mart or your favorite grocery store. Its possible that they may be cheaper than the co-pay thru mail order. In addition insist that unless there is a strong reason to go with generics in general. (My thinking here is that if bad reactions were to occur they would have shown up before the drug had become generic)

 

[justplainbll]

I am not going to run around in a bear-skin for anybody.

How about beaver, raccoon, deerskin, or some wool longjohns?

 

[tapper]

My recommendation is to not become chronically ill.

Health insurance and medical expenses now impact my budget to the tune of almost $20K a year.

 

[happy2bretired]

One item here check the $10 or equivalent list of generic meds at Wal-Mart or your favorite grocery store. Its possible that they may be cheaper than the co-pay thru mail order. In addition insist that unless there is a strong reason to go with generics in general. (My thinking here is that if bad reactions were to occur they would have shown up before the drug had become generic)

Very true about the meds. I found that my thyroid med would cost me 3X as much through my mail order source than my local pharmacy. It's such a low cost med that the minimum cost through the mail order source is way over priced.

 

[pimpmyretirement]

My experience has been housing, taxes, transportation, food and insurance are all that really reward optimization.

We live in less house than we can afford and will downsize when the time comes to sell.

My wife and I share one car that was bought used for about $6500. We did not have a car for about 5 years.

Insurance rates have been shopped and sized apprioriately for our income and net worth.

Investments and participation in company benefit programs is setup to maximize long term tax savings.

Most of our food comes from Aldi and consists of basic wholesome ingredients that combine together easily.

You can waste an awful lot of energy chasing that last $1000 in savings on the little stuff. I have in the past, but no longer do. Much better to focus that time on earning more, IMO.

 

[FANOFJESUS]

What pimpmyretirement said is so true house, car and taxes are the big ones. It would take a million little ones to equal one of these. When you go hunting in the forest shot the big game not the squirrels.

 

[kcowan]

And when something breaks, I used to just go buy a new one without much thought. Now I consider can I fix it, can I do without or substitute something else, buy used, share with a neighbor? If not, buy new but there are often other options.

Amen! We find that things can be fixed! It takes some work to find a local but it seems that something fixed always seems to last longer than something new.

We finally replaced the 19" Trinitron in our bedroom with a 32" Sharp but the picture in the Trinitron was better (just hard to read). We also found a ready home for the Trinitron (less than 2 hours) by placing it in a cart with a sign in the condo garage.

 

[ziggy29]

Amen! We find that things can be fixed! It takes some work to find a local but it seems that something fixed always seems to last longer than something new.

We finally replaced the 19" Trinitron in our bedroom with a 32" Sharp but the picture in the Trinitron was better (just hard to read). We also found a ready home for the Trinitron (less than 2 hours) by placing it in a cart with a sign in the condo garage.

If you are really handy yourself this is still an option in some cases, but too many things today are designed to not be repairable. Also, in generations past the goods were very expensive relative to the cost of labor, so repairing was cost effective. These days, many of our gadgets are cheap enough that a couple hours of professional labor to repair them would cost more than buying a new one, so out the old one goes.

 

[kcowan]

Do most of cooking from scratch, and much from garden.

And save the extra health problems from too many additives, packaged foods, etc.

 

[kcowan]

These days, many of our gadgets are cheap enough that a couple hours of professional labor to repair them would cost more than buying a new one, so out the old one goes.

I don't mind spending a bit extra to keep something good out of the landfill. But that is just me!

(As an aside, my friend used to find fantastic bargains for his kid at flea market sales. We investigated what was going on. The guy was buying Radio Shack toys for pennies a pound and then discovering the critical component that had failed in each case and would remanufacture with a teflon part. The resulting toy, bought for $5 instead of $25, would last forever.)

 

[Wrirya]

Wow

Thank you all so much, keep the great ideas coming....