Extreme budget cuts

MichaelB said:
If the budget gets tough and the going gets rough, it's time to put the kids to work. A double benefit - they stop wasting their minds and electricity on crappy TV, video games, texting, instagram and facebook, and they earn some money for the household.


Time to start working on those pesky child labor laws ..:)
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Hahah, is there anything against vacuuming the floors? My 3 year old insists HE do the vacuuming, which is fine by me, a little slower but it gets done.


+1 for creativity...delegate, no need to work harder lol!
 
With about the same income that we had while working a 20% reduction in spending wouldn't be too tough. After all we were saving well over 25% for retirement for over 15 years. Also my wildly variable income while working really forced us to adapt and stay flexible.
 
Most things that could easily be done to cut costs would only cut a relatively small amount. Yes, we could eat out less. We could give up some online subcriptions to services we enjoy. We could buy less organic and give up the pasture raised eggs. I could quit coloring my hair and give up my keratin treatments (truly life altering for me). I could buy fewer books.

These are the things that so many articles talk about in terms of cutting costs. They are relatively easy to do. Despite this, I think that many of these both have a negative effect on quality of life and don't really save much money. I went on a kick a couple of years ago of really cutting out dining out. We saved a couple of thousand dollars a year...but I was unhappy.

What really cuts expenses are the two or three things you can do that massively cut expenses. I used to spend much, much, much more on housing than I spend now. We lived in a house that was twice as big as our current house. It was energy inefficient. We also lived on almost 3 acres. It was just really expensive. This was some years ago before mortgage rates were low so our mortgage payment was high by today's standards. And, so on.

Right now we spend much less on housing than we did then. But if I needed to make an extreme budget cut, the absolute most substantial way to do it would be by selling our current house. And, then rent either an apartment or a house. After we sold that big expensive house we rented a house for awhile. And, you know, it was great. The house was fine and I wasn't really invested in the aesthetics of it since I didn't own it. If something broke, I called the landlord. My costs for rent and utilities was far, far, far less than it would have cost me to actually own the same house.

So -- if I really was hurting for money, I would sell my current house and most likely rent. Possibly I might take the equity from this house and buy a townhouse or condo where I wouldn't have a yard to maintain. But I would save more by renting.
 
We have 4 cars and only need one. Then I could rent out a parking space.
 
I see just a few folks around here who perhaps didn't quite have enough to retire. They start trying to sell things on the side, get involved in small business dealings, etc. Yuck.

I think most folks who come up short start working a bit again. Maybe they already cut the budget as much as they could and realized they were going to have to return to at least part time work....
 
Three things. Use the camper more. Take a driving vacation down south in the winter instead of a more exotic destination. Then drink cheaper booze (heaven forbid). Lastly cancel the $300/month golf membership. When it gets to that I have already done #2 and drinking wine in gallon jugs
 
Bir48die said:
Three things. Use the camper more. Take a driving vacation down south in the winter instead of a more exotic destination. Then drink cheaper booze (heaven forbid). Lastly cancel the $300/month golf membership. When it gets to that I have already done #2 and drinking wine in gallon jugs
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Gasp! Life’s too short for drinking bad wine.
 
Yep, TV/cable would go, along with meals eaten at resturaunts, sell a few toys (dirtbike/4 wheeler/utilty trailer.

Home cooked stews, and roasts in the crockpot, or on our woodstove, and no more wine/beer.

It would suck for awhile, but be worth it not to lose the house/investments.
 
Bir48die said:
Three things. Use the camper more. Take a driving vacation down south in the winter instead of a more exotic destination. Then drink cheaper booze (heaven forbid). Lastly cancel the $300/month golf membership. When it gets to that I have already done #2 and drinking wine in gallon jugs
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Camper?
Booze?
Golf?
:cool:
Apparently I have been implementing extreme budget cuts without even knowing it. :2funny:
 
We already implemented these (and more) recommendations during the Great Recession. It’s hard to cut much more. Two buck Chuck and no cable tv are the new normal. Majorly Downsized housing. Never buy new clothes. Health insurance has gone up 40% but it’s not an option to cut. The only place we could cut is the IPhone bill (but they are used for a business and thus a write off) and sell the cute VW convertible which is only driven seasonally.
 
Our travel and eating out is between 15-20k/year so eliminating that would save the day.
 
I'd stop investing. I have enough from my DBP to live on. I'm actually investing to increase the amount my kids and grand kids inherit. So if I had to cut back that would be the 1st place I cut
 
I cut down the thermostat on the upstairs furnace. I don't use the downstairs heat pump, and stay warm in the bedroom with a space heater.
I do all the grocery shopping at Aldi's because the wife spends too much at Publix.
We only eat out once weekly, and it's usually one of the $5 specials at KFC or Captain D's or the $3 special at Krystal. We never "dine" out any longer.
WalMart is only 2 minutes away, and I refuse to buy toys or other stuff for the grandkids on any trip there. We enjoy their $.98 milk and chocolate milk, however.
We're driving a Camry Hybrid getting 48 mpg, and the Explorer just sits. Need to sell it, but it's the family road car.
While all of our friends spend $2800 a week renting Gulf Coast condos, we spend all vacations in our camper in the NE GA Mountains--less than $40 for a week.
I'll try to not leave the house one or two days per week--to save the $ I'd be spending.
I do everything myself and never pay for mechanic work, plumbers, electricians, painters, yard work. I do all maintenance sometimes using YouTube as a guide.
 
W2R said:
Camper?
Booze?
Golf?
:cool:
Apparently I have been implementing extreme budget cuts without even knowing it. :2funny:
Click to expand...

Join us on the “Golf Talk Tuesday” thread, and you’ll see that the better order is:

Golf
Booze
Camper

:LOL:
 
Our retirement income is 60% of the pre-retirement income. We have already done many of those items the OP listed. DW cooks usually, we downsized to one car, we reduced out of state travel to specific places we really want are interested in instead of going here and there because we could. Instead of more travel we are trying to visit every brew pub in the area. Because we are home more we did beef up our TV and got another dog. Dogs are expensive, and OP did miss 'getting rid of the dogs'.

One note about the OP list, DW's aunt, a great depression survivor from Kansas, did indeed wash and reuse plastic bags. As endearing as that is, her habit of hoarding meat in the the freezer until it was inedible was not so endearing.
 
Learn to live a it out AC
Cut out cable,cell phone and instead use a landline
Use portable heater in winter
Eat at home
Wash with cold water, hang dry
Drink tap water
Go to food banks or similar for food
Get up your butt and work and second or third job that provides you with free food even better
Cut your own hair
Learn to love rice and beans
Take public transportation of possible instead of using your vehicle
Shave or shower at work to save on hot water
Use candles instead of lights
Sell all unnecessary things
Create GOFUNDME account








C
 
We are quite frugal. The only 2 somewhat major expenses we could easily remove from our budget would be travel (few thousand dollars per year) and car purchases (we buy new every six years or so).
 
I would have to agree with others who have expressed this sentiment:


If you are controlled by relatively minor changes in finances (A Tax Return?!) that require adjustments to such things as thermostats, travel, eating out, plastic bags, garage doors, etc., etc., etc....Well, then one isn't really Financially Independent are they ?


:)
 
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I would work a little bit rather than make most of these cuts. I don't mind working that much.
 
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