Extreme budget cuts

[Live And Learn]

I'm in Florida and know what you mean about cost of watering your lawn. Check out Rain Machine or Rachio as replacement irrigation controller. They are smart controllers. I have RM and paid for itself in 6 months.

Or just go with native plants that don't need irrigation.

 

[dawz0r]

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

I will rimembor this!

 

[Nick12]

This is my absolute favorite idea, Create GOFUNDME account .

You will be amazed that some people donate to the cause.

 

[bobandsherry]

Or just go with native plants that don't need irrigation.

HOA won't go for that. [emoji3]. And honestly I don't think I'd be happy with that type of look. But know that works for some people.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Of course it depends on what PC you have.

I measured my late model iMac with a KillAWatt and it only uses approximately one watt when sleeping. Set a low sleep time (like after 5 minutes of inactivity) in the Engery Saver control panel and you won't be using much at all. Without having to reboot.

You are right. I didn't word my post carefully enough. We put our PCs to sleep during the day, not shut them off entirely.

 

[Doribe]

I already do a lot of frugal living. If I needed to cut I would
1. Cancel Cancel Amazon Prime
2. Cancel Netflix
3. Cancel cable TV (keeping internet for now)
4. Cancel local paper w/digital
5. Cancel random app subscriptions
6. Cancel gym membership
7. Not renew opera subscription
8. Not renew play subscription
I'll stop here. If things got even worse, I would downsize so I will still be able to travel.

 

[JJpop]

??

I have to say most of the list of extreme budget cuts is pretty ridiculous.I also do not get the fact you said smaller tax returns then mentioned something about a lay-off at the end.
If you have to cut your spending use common sense.It is not that difficult.

 

[NW-Bound]

I have been here a while, and every so often posters have a thread like this for fun.

Don't believe that all the suggested ideas are made in seriousness.

 

[RobbieB]

I believe it, I really do. There are lots of "doom & gloomers" here you being one of them.

Sell the houses and live in the RV says you. Tell me you didn't say this many times.

 

[NW-Bound]

Well, that's an extreme budget cut that I do have in my back pocket.

People without an RV to fall back on talk about living in a car or under freeway bridges. No, not this guy.

 

[NW-Bound]

Think about it, even in an RV down by the river, I am still sheltered from the weather, have hot showers, and hot meals. My budget would be so low, all the suggestions made here got nothing on me.

And recently, I read that there are 1 million Americans currently living full-time in an RV. Not all of them are doing it to save money. In fact if you do it to travel, fuel cost can be a big factor.

However, it can be a very low cost of living, if you know where to park for free, and do not drive around much.

 

[RobbieB]

That's what I'm talking about.

Living in cars, under bridges, eating cat food...never even occurred to me. I don't know anyone who thinks about these things except for people here.

 

[NW-Bound]

People who think about this stuff know how not to become one of those people.

If you ask people who are living under a bridge if 10 years ago the thought of becoming homeless would occur to them, I bet the answer is no.

And people here are the people who know how to retire early, or aspire to do so. They think beforehand of all the possible worst cases, and how to deal with them. These most likely will not happen.

It's the same reason people here often talk about preparing for winter storms, hurricanes, etc...

 

[REWahoo]

If you ask people who are living under a bridge if 10 years ago the thought of becoming homeless would occur to them, I bet the answer is no, they were thinking about how to blow that dough.

FIFY

 

[audreyh1]

Think about it, even in an RV down by the river, I am still sheltered from the weather, have hot showers, and hot meals. My budget would be so low, all the suggestions made here got nothing on me.

And recently, I read that there are 1 million Americans currently living full-time in an RV. Not all of them are doing it to save money. In fact if you do it to travel, fuel cost can be a big factor.

However, it can be a very low cost of living, if you know where to park for free, and do not drive around much.

Hot showers and hot meals? That requires hookups, or at least someone to fill your propane tank. And you will eventually need to dump your tanks.

 

[NW-Bound]

Don't your propane and water tanks last for a few days? I do not need hookups and waste dumping every day.

In our travel through Alaska, we ran across a few gas stations that had free fresh water refill and waste dump.

I pointed it out to my wife, and our eyes lit up. I immediately found a place to pull over to park the RV. Then both of us took turn to shower, then drove back to the station to dump the tank, then fill up with water and gas.

In one Alaskan town, I parked for 2 nights in a parking lot right between the town library and the city hall. Nobody came out to chase me away. Heh heh heh...

 

[audreyh1]

Don't your propane and water tanks last for a few days? I do not need hookups and waste dumping every day.

In our travel through Alaska, we ran across a few gas stations that had free fresh water refill and waste dump.

I pointed it out to my wife, and our eyes lit up. I immediately found a place to pull over to park the RV. Then both of us took turn to shower, then drove back to the station to dump the tank, then fill up with water and gas.

In one Alaskan town, I parked for 2 nights in a parking lot right between the town library and the city hall. Nobody came out to chase me away. Heh heh heh...

Sure it’s not a problem if you are on the road and pull off for a few days here and there. But if you are really trying to save money you’re not likely traveling - fuel costs a lot. You gotta park it somewhere. You can’t just pull off next to the river and sit around for months enjoying the amenities of your RV. You’re going to have to find a cheap campground somewhere or get setup as campground/park hosts for months at a time.

I thought we were talking about the RV as long-term cheap housing.

 

[skipro33]

All I need do is post my political views on Facebook. I'll save a fortune on Christmas gifts alone when at least half of 'em unfriend me.

 

[NW-Bound]

Sure it’s not a problem if you are on the road and pull off for a few days here and there. But if you are really trying to save money you’re not likely traveling - fuel costs a lot. You gotta park it somewhere. You can’t just pull off next to the river and sit around for months enjoying the amenities of your RV. You’re going to have to find a cheap campground somewhere or get setup as campground/park hosts for months at a time.

I thought we were talking about the RV as long-term cheap housing.

Well, when you are living in an RV to save money, of course you are not traveling. Traveling takes fuel, and RVs are fuel hogs.

I was trying to say how I managed to stay out of commercial RV parks and save money on top of that, while traveling.

And if I were down on my luck, I would look even harder for freebies.

By the way, the last 3 times we went to the local library, and these occasions were about 1 or 2 weeks apart, each time we saw the same fairly new Sprinter-based class B in the library parking lot. My wife asked "Are they boondocking here?". I said they probably parked elsewhere for the night, and came here during the day to enjoy the library.

Forgot to go look at the license plate to see if it was a snowbird, but I am fairly sure it was. During the night, they may be able to do like Tioga George, meaning driving to a quiet residential area and parking for the night. Then, leave early in the morning. The residents would assume that a neighbor had a visitor from out of state, and if they caused no problems in their stealthy mode, what harm does it cause?

In a few years, I will downgrade to a class B to be as stealthy. Heh heh heh...


PS. The class B I saw was one like this.

 

[travelover]

Here in Greater Portlandia there are junk RVs all over the place with homeless people living in them. It is pretty obvious when you see one parked in a big box store parking lot. I’m not sure how they dump their tanks - maybe they don’t use the plumbing.

 

[mystang52]

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! ...

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....... 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....

This. DW retires this November so we are not yet in SWR territory. I always thought that if we have another 2007-2008 recession, we'd just cut back a bit on our discretionary spending (purely for emotional security, not financial). There are so many things DW and I like to do that cost virtually nothing, or literally nothing. We'd have no problem switching to crisis mode, in an instant.
(as an aside, other than a few Bridge books which I continually refer to, I don't think I've bought a book in 30 years. That's what libraries are for).

 

[NW-Bound]

Here in Greater Portlandia there are junk RVs all over the place with homeless people living in them. It is pretty obvious when you see one parked in a big box store parking lot. I’m not sure how they dump their tanks - maybe they don’t use the plumbing.

I suspect so. People would go into the stores to use the toilet, or to give themselves sponge bath.

My worst case scenarios do not run down to that level.

... In a few years, I will downgrade to a class B to be as stealthy. Heh heh heh...

PS. The class B I saw was one like this.

I should have written "downsize" instead of "downgrade", as these class B's are quite pricey. Even used ones cost more than my roomier but cheapo class C, which looks like one of those Cruise America rental thinggies.

I can see myself continue to travel using a small motorhome in my 70s. Still want to make long trips across the US, and go back to Alaska, the Yukon.

And I have not been to the Northwest Territories, nor go as far north as the road goes in Labrador (Cartwright?).

 

[ncbill]

I read of one guy who solved the dump problem by installing a macerating pump.

He'd just find some quiet country road, activate the pump, and drive slowly while spraying everything out of his waste tank along the side of the road...

 

[FinancialDave]

Lol. I keep reading or seeing and hearing of all these arrixles about people being surprised by tax changes and the actual effect.

My question has to be since the government lowered the withholding calculation at the start of last year, what is everyone doing with the extra few dollars in their paycheck, or pension?

Reviewed about 40 tax returns so far this year and haven't really seen anyone having to pay more. Pretty small sample of mostly 50's and older population, but tax rates aren't higher they are lower (except in the eyes of the reporters who always like a good story!) Also, granted I'm not looking at returns for NY or CA with largely undeductable state income tax.

 

[robnplunder]

If (and that's a huge if) I am forced to cut my budget big time, I just need to stop our golf membership and rely on playing discount golf a few times a week. Good thing that I ran firecalc a thousand times before retiring 3 years ago. I don't ever, knock on wood, have to cut my budget. I may even have to increase my budget at a higher rate than inflation.