WOW!!! Momadadapaige, U did a great job!!!

For me:
House & cars are paid for.

We got HD tv boxes for the conversion, instead of buying organic TV's. We have not purchased a blue tooth DVD yet.

I just purchased a new Viking Pro range hood Monday. Found a deal due to the recession, it was $1000 off!!!!!

We're not cutting back, we just aren't sticking our necks out either. :0)

wow -you are on the ball already! When my son (now 17) was in pre-school we were still in Northern Calif. At the recommendation of a trusted friend, I signed him up for a cooperative pre-school. Turned out to be some of the best days our our lives. I have such, such great memories of sharing his days with him there (like you about 6 hours per month). The funny part was this was a very child-focused school and you could never just say "No!" to a child, of "Stop!" or anything like that. Always had to be very patient, very gentle, very empowering. All good things of course, but we moms felt so stressed out when for example we might be supervising the paint station and one child swung around with a fully loaded red paint brush... I hope you too end up with some tender memories...

Now onto the advice...When I first decided to stay home with my son, we gave up fully 50% of our income. We weren't paupers but needed to rein it in a bit. The BEST thing I did was stay out of the stores. Sounds so simple, but truly, a few 29.99's here and there, and lunch while you're there, and 'this is too good to pass up' -it all adds up over the course of a month. Also, toss out the catalogs the second they arrive. If you are in the stores, you can end up feeling very deprived constantly telling yourself no. But if you just don't go, oddly you don't miss it. So go to the library instead of the bookstore, and browse through decorating magazines instead of home accessory stores! And lucky you, your gorgeous kitchen remodel is done!

Finally, the other thing that will help is that it is now 'cool' to be thrifty. I'm taking advantage of that. Our situation has not particularly changed with the economic downturn, but it just seems like a good reminder to cut back a little. When so many people are doing it, it is somehow empowering, to me anyway... Today I am headed to the library to pickup an SAT Math study guide for my son that is $23 at B&N. Then I think I'll stop by Goodwill just to see if they have any neat overstuffed chairs I could recover for my daughter's room.

One last thing I might add is there is a fellow on the radio, Dave Ramsey, who has made it his mission to get people debt-free. I find just listening to his show to be very empowering as well. Keeps me on the right track. You can google him to find out when and where he is on in your area.

Lynn

We gave up our cleaning lady a couple of years ago - it would be pointless now anyway with our house in renovation. I'll probably miss her more when the house is done and we have a lot more bathrooms to clean, but the kids are big enough to be a big help now.

My kids are all in public school now: 1st grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 6th grade. Our public schools are wonderful, and it is a real blessing to be able to send them there and feel good about it. Yes, we pay high property taxes but with 4 kids using the school system, we get our money's worth!

We rarely go out to eat anymore. We used to bring the kids out to dinner pretty much every weekend as a matter of course - nothing fancy, just a local pub type place, but for a family of 6 the bill would still be high! And the food wasn't very good. Now we cook together on the weekends (in our makeshift basement kitchen.)

Only one car, which we paid off last month - yay. People always say, how can you survive without a second car? Well, dh commutes by bus into the city. We live on the main street in town and the bus to NYC literally stops at our driveway. So during the week, a second car would just sit in the driveway anyway. Weekends are tougher, because we have 4 kids in lots of different activities. What we do is , we sit down during the week and map out our weekend. If we are going to have conflicts and need a second car, we rent one from Enterprise right in town. We pick it up on Sat. morning and return it on Sun. night. We've been doing this for years and Enterprise gives us a good rate. Plus no insurance or maintenance costs. And some weekends, for example if we are going somewhere as a family, we don't rent at all. So definitely we are saving here.

No more babysitting! We used to spend a fortune on babysitting - hey, you have to have a social life, right? Well, dh and I still go out but this year my oldest babysits for us. And usually we are going to a cocktail party or dinner at friends' houses, so the night might cost us nothing more than a complimentary bottle of wine.
I think this alone has been our biggest savings. Mamadadapaige, I realize you are not there yet, with your children so young. I feel for you: I remember those days, paying ridiculous preschool tuition (although mine was never quite like yours!!) and having to pay a babysitter every time I needed to go to a school function. Hang in there! By the way, does your dh buy lunch at work or bring it? This is another good way to save money, although we have yet to implement it. Dh is spending a small fortune on lunch at the office in NYC.

We do a lot of the same things as victoriajane. We're a one car family (DH uses public transportation, heavily subsidized by his job), I pack his lunch every day. We rarely eat out. Cooking at home is so much cheaper, better for you, and fun in my new kitchen! Every Thursday I mix up a batch of bread dough and and every Friday is homemade pizza night (I bake the bread dough from Thursday in Friday's preheating oven). We don't have cable TV. No cell phones either. Very few new clothes...although I think some of what I wear all the time is looking pretty raggedy.

I'm eager for spring to come so I can plant veggies. I figured out that I save at least $20 a week last summer with my seeming endless supply of lettuce and peas (early), tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchinis, beans, herbs, melons, and that was during the craziness of construction! This year I'm hoping to put in lots more stuff and do some preserving rather than giving all the excess to the neighbors. Wine is one thing that kills the budget...we drink inexpensive bottles, but a few of them every week. A girl's gotta have some fun though, yes?

Bringing your lunch to work is a huge savings. I bring mine four days a week and eat out one day a week with friends. Around here, "to-go" lunch costs $7 - $12. It amazes me that some people are spending $35 to $60 PER WEEK just on lunch!

Check out your local library for FREE movies. I have access to both my city and county libraries (both of which I'm already paying for with my tax dollars) and I reserve movies on line. They transfer the dvds to my branch and I visit once a week to pick up & drop off. They notify me by email when my reserves come in, but I can also check on line as well as renew on line. They do have new releases, some of which I have to wait a couple of months for until my name comes up to the top of the list, but who cares? Between the two libraries, I always have a stack of movies waiting to be watched at no additional cost to me. I can't remember the last time I walked into Blockbuster, it's been years!

Just wanted to say that when my son was in preschool, I sent him to the beautiful school that everyone raved about. For a variety of reasons, including finances, I moved him into a smaller more humble preschool. My affluent friends were apalled, but it was a great move, the new school was a much better environment-- at a fraction of the cost. I hope that you will have a similar experience. I still drive by the other school and though it's beautiful, I know my son wouldn't have been as well-adjusted or academically prepared had he remained there.

Mama, your savings are impressive! I also let my cleaning lady go, for a savings of $125 per week. I set up a schedule for chores on the calendar of my Mac. For each task (e.g., setting table, cleaning powder room, dusting and vacuuming a room, etc.) I decided how often that task has to be completed (e.g., every 3 days). Then I rotate the kids through the tasks, using the repeat function on the calendar, and color-coding for each kid. So far it is working great, since what the kids have to do is explicitly on the calendar-- no arguing. And the chore calendar regenerates itself in perpetuity.

I always try to trim my grocery bill by making things from scratch and using leftovers creatively. Also, this year I will expand my vegetable garden.

I keep my vehicles as long as possible. My SUV has 120k on it, and I would like to take it to 250k at least. I know, it's a gas guzzler, but with 7 of us I need the space. Plus we take it skiing so I need the AWD. I try to reduce my mileage by bundling my errands as much as possible. Besides, if I sold it, it would still be on the road guzzling gas for someone else.

I work out at home using exercise tapes-- great variety and no gym fees. Anybody else do the Firm tapes?

And hooray! I too have a 13-year-old who can babysit, at least when we are out locally.

The simple truth (no judgments or criticism intended) is that we already don't do a lot of things people cut, but I have been looking at refinancing our mortgage. It doesn't seem to pay unless we can get an interest rate cut of at least .5 to 1 per cent, because of closing costs and the resulting loss of equity. I'm wondering, Mamadadapaige, how that worked for you? Didn't you have any closing costs...appraisal, recording fees, title insurance, etc? I can get a no fee loan, but not no closing costs.

Thank you for all of your encouraging words of wisdom and support... much appreciated!

There is still a lot of fat that can be cut from my family... I still belong to the gym and don't use it as much as I should. We are a two car family, but at least both are paid off. DH buys lunch everyday. I spend $85/week on babysitting. I have stopped shopping at my favorite little cheese/gourmet shop, but have tried not to mess too much with buying organic, all natural stuff which costs a fortune.

I realized a while back that if I made larger meals and portioned some off to the freezer for left overs that it kept me from ordering take out or buying prepared foods on those nights that I didn't have enough time/energy to put a meal on the table. This, I think, has saved us a lot of money and has also helped me lose weight. I rarely lunch out, and mostly eat dinner at home.

The library is a great tip... I have a penchant for buying kitchen/decorating magazines and let me tell you, it adds up. DS loves new books. I recently signed him up for his own library card. He is thrilled. This will become a way of life for us and I look forward to it.

All of these moves are taking me to a way of life (and associated value system) much more similar to the one I grew up in and than the one I have been living and there is comfort in that.

As for the nursery school, I am ready to move on and DS is a very happy kid who adapts quickly to new situation. Give him a truck and some tools and he is happy (the new school had this adorable little building area built by some parents with some real tools and some play tools... he was in heaven). The current nursery school, in addition to the high tuition is fundraising in the fall with the annual fund and in the spring with the auction and requiring lots of volunteer hours... over the years I have become increasingly disgruntled. This will be a very good move for us.

Geez, maybe I ought to try working out at home.

Thank you, Thank YOu for all of your posts.

OK really, someone has to stimulate the economy, so I'm trying :oP

But, I will admit that we've had a pretty good savings week this week. Both my car and DH's froze up and are parked out front, wth the repairman too busy to even talk to us until tomorrow. I've saved a lot of money just staying home :oP

And since we started spending 300 a week on baby forumla, we cut back to cheaper wine. :)

Mama if your kids are in preschool you're probably in the same boata me. I keep handing DS (3) a mop...but he does nothing but swing it around like a sword...When do they start cleaning bathrooms???? sheesh

Really though mama, I have to compliment you on a great budget! Those are huge savings, and hopefully will all turn out to be rewarding as well. Nice work!

I Menu plan and try to stick to it at the grocery store. And I just go once a week (most of the time). Less trips means less money spent.

I drive my son to preschool that is an hour and a half away 3 days a week and I take my lunch instead of eating out.

Our cars are paid and we have enough in cash to nearly pay off our mortgage, so we're doing fine, but you can still find ways to save!

I wanted to share one more idea, because in this economy I worry about money for charities drying up.

Last Christmas, instead of giving neighbors and teachers a small gift, I gave them each a Christmas ornament from El Salvador, along with a note saying that we were making a donation in their name to a school in El Salvador. Each book purchased is affixed with a bookplate honoring the donor.

Personally, I would love to see more people make charitable donations as "gifts," because really, so many of us do not need one more thing. Often, you may have a sense of what charities would appeal to the recipient. For example, if someone has a relative with MS, they may appreciate a donation to the MS Society more than say, a scented candle. It would be really great if I could figure out a way to give the tax deduction to the recipient!

igloo, you make me laugh! (which is FREE, thank goodness). I have this image of you as a one woman economic stimulus program. We haven't quite gone to cheap wine yet, so there is a little more fat that could be cut as well (or in this case, carbs)

My DS loves to "clean" too. :)

shelly, I have a friend who menu plans and shops once per week. I haven't done it, but it isn't a bad idea. any tips? what if you are not home some of the days/nights you thought you would be. Is food going to waste?

Having just finished putting my kids through college, my belt has been tight for 6 years --cleaning my own house and cutting my own grass -- and silly me was looking forward to a time when I would be rolling in dough (Ha!) without those college bills, but thats not whatÂs happening! I thought IÂd be finally able to hire a cleaning person and maybe replace my 15-year-old car (a Volvo 240 with 250,000+ miles on it). My business has taken a hit and DH, a carpenter, has been very slow for several months now, and has had no work since November, so we have very reduced household funds even with less expenses. IÂve been pretty diligent at looking at the grocery store specials on-line, and do my weekly shopping at whichever store has the deals on what I need to buy that week  and now I go only once a week  that has definitely made a difference. I donÂt use coupons very often since we eat very little packaged food, but I do look through the Sunday papers just in case. I also get a kick out of the 5-cent discount for each of my cloth grocery bags, LOL. I bought an elliptical trainer years ago and donÂt belong to a gym  I tape Oprah on an old VCR and work out after work  nice to not have to talk to anyone after a long day. Now that the kids are on their own, weÂve been able to reduce our cell phone plan and are paying less for that now. We rarely eat out and always pack our lunches, so itÂs hard to cut back any more there. I wonÂt give up my wine, but look for deals and have made it my quest to find the best cheap wine out there. And IÂm staying out of Target!

I know people might have to, but how does it feel to let your cleaning people go? Same with the lawn service, and the coffee shops and restaurants  what about these small businesses? Whenever I see Suzie Ormond telling everyone to pay off their debt and stop going out to eat, I think about the wait staff and cooks, not to mention the owners, and I think what about them -- how will they pay their bills? I hope that if anyone is financially able to continue to employ their service people or go out to dinner will do so.

Mamadadapaige,
Great going on the cutbacks. DH's boss told him last week that full-time work may not be available as of March. So we panicked!
* I am going to let the cleaning people go. $85 dollars every other week. I decided I'd rather do that than give up the Pilates classes I just started.
* I applied for about ten jobs, full-time, part time, whatever I can get. I haven't worked full-time outside the home in years, but am fully capable. A new restaurant is opening and I'd love to waitress/tend bar there. It will mean BIG changes around the house, but we can do it.
* We've laid off the gourmet foods...simple is good! I started baking bread after reading the thread on the conversation side, the kids love it. Soup, salad and bread has been big here lately.
* We're still skiing on weekends, as we own that house, but we're bringing lunch to the mountain, packing food for the ride North. We always cook in and go to bed early, so that is good, just not as much fancy food.
* We are paying off all debts and extending our mortgage out to 30 years to be sure we can make the payment. We can always pay that off early if the money rolls in, but having that expense lower helps a lot.
* We've got another house that we rent seasonally here on Cape Cod. It's been on the market for a while and I'm going to pressure DH to way lower the price and just get rid of it. Maintenance, insurance, utilities on that place just add up. Nevermind the workload all Summer long keeping it "rent worthy". Then I think we'll hide that money in our mattress.
*Menu planning would be key, Shelly, thanks for the reminder...Anybody ever see SavingDinner.com?
* DD is back on the home lunch plan. She goes to a Charter School and they don't have a Caf. Most of the kids go to local lunch places to eat, to the tune of about $10 a day. She already gave up her Starbucks habit on her own, thank goodness! I don't even buy MYSELF a Starbucks coffee. Luckily the restaurant owners are happy to have the kids who bring a lunch sit with their paying friends.
* I'm NOT cutting back on the wine...much. :)

I can't wait to see what everyone else is doing. In a way it feels really good to be mindful again. We've always been hard workers and it is time for us to come together again as a team. I'm ready.

Beth

We have definitely cut back since I lost my job at the end of October and our 401K's tanked. Fortunately, we own our house and cars, so we do have that safety net. Here are a
couple of things we have done to cut expenses.
-I would say we order in food maybe once a week now, if that. Used to be pizza every week and going out to eat at least once a week.
-For the most part, I try to buy grocery store brands for both food and non-food items. I have found that most things taste and function exactly the same as name brands.
-We cut the cleaning lady to once a month instead of twice a month. I probably should get rid of them altogether, but that's one of my "splurges", for now!
-The kids bathroom was already demo'd when I lost my job. DH wound up doing the renovation himself instead of hiring out the job. Cut back on what I normally would've spent here. I found floor and shower tile for a total of $300(took alot of shopping) instead of the $1800 for a similar look. Bought a smaller tub on craigslist for $175 instead of $600 and a different toilet than I had been planning.
-Use Redbox $1 video rentals instead of Netflix which we had cancelled a long time ago. Have started using the library as well.
-I work out at home(and do have The Firm tapes, but haven't used them in a long time). Have a treadmill and stairmaster, free weights in basement. Would love to join a gym now that I'm not working, but don't want to spend the extra $70/month.
-I don't go shopping and try to cut back on the "it's only $10" items. As bestyears said, it all does add up.
-We have conversations with our kids(ages 12 and 10) about the economy, that I'm not working, and how we all need to cut back. DD(12 years old) has really cut back on what she asks for. DS(10 years old) is working on it. Although he does say, "It's alright Mom, I don't really need it. I know you lost your job."
-DH and I have been bringing our lunch for years.
-No more stops at Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks
-I've been trying to not "stock" up on perishable items from the grocery store that I may wind up throwing out because I didn't use them. Makes me crazy to toss food. So I might wind up in the store more frequently, but I'm probably saving some $.

Good luck to all!!! Hopefully more people will chime in with some cost cutting ideas!!

If you are committed to buying organic produce, please consider joining a CSA (community supported agriculture) in your area. If there are none available or you don't want that kind of commitment, look into frequenting a farmer's market. The link below can help you find resources near you. (There are other sites, that's just the one that comes most readily to mind.) Heck, even if you don't really care about organic/not/etc., you should still check them out.

We've been cutting costs for a long time now. Sadly, our county (and particularly our neighborhood) was and still is being hit hard by the foreclosure mess. (County is either highest or second highest in the state for foreclosures.) That means housing values have plummeted and we are in negative equity so refinancing (which we need and would be a huge help) is not an option for us.

We don't eat out anymore at all. "Luxury" food items are a thing of the past. I haven't bought new clothes in close to a year. We never go out at all unless it's free and even then only rarely. The house is kept at barely tolerable levels (and that only because of my bird). We just had to cancel our plans to go to Hubby's seminar as we just don't have the $. That was our one and only vacation opportunity. No gym memberships, no cable/satellite/etc. subscriptions. "Entertainment" is what we can find free on the web (hulu.com mostly these days). I don't know where else we can cut.

I'm sure a lot of you already try to save money at the grocery store, but maybe this will help someone.

It is really pretty easy to save 40-50 percent on groceries with minimal effort. Basically, when non-perishables go on sale for 50 % off, you buy a TON of them. You make your shopping list off of the 'loss leaders' (the items the store is selling at a loss to get you into the store.) So usually my cart looks strange compared to other people: I might have some produce and milk, and then 25 boxes of cereal and 15 cans of soup and 4 bottles of ketchup and 20 packages of chocolate chips and 6 boxes of crackers... (you get the idea.)

To save even more money, try coupons. A lot of stores around the country will double coupons, so that 40 cent coupon that doesn't hardly seem worth cutting doubles to 80 cents off. Pair that with a sale, and you can get that bottle of ketchup for pennies.

Most people don't know this, but you can actually 'buy' coupons in bulk on ebay. (it's actually not legal to sell coupons, but it is legal to put them on ebay and tell people that you are being paid for your time/effort to cut and collect them.) So, if use a certain grocery item a lot, you can buy 10 of those coupons, wait for the item to go on sale, and buy 10 of them at once.

A great resource for pairing up coupons/sales/etc is hotcouponworld.com. They have tons of stores listed, great tutorials, and you can really save tons of money. Before I moved to Alaska, where everything costs more, I got to where I wouldn't pay more than 50 cents for a box of cereal. :) Sometimes the store would pay me to take things.

My income has decreased by at least 2/3s since the summer of 2007. DH job is going well (fingers crossed) but his raises have not made up for my lost income. The amount we pay for health Ins through his company increases every year and the co-pays and deductibles also increase.

We have sold some stuff that was sitting in the attic on CL and also bought some things on CL that has saved us $. I ran out of the Litter Maid liners so I typed "Litter Maid" into CL search and found someone selling a new pack for $10 so I met her right by my house and saved $12. Now I am looking for a large dog bed on CL.

We rarely go out to eat anymore and I have been cooking like a fiend. I even started baking bread. I like to cook and I am a pretty good cook so it's not that much of a sacrifice but I do love to go out to eat. DH brings his lunch to work at least 3 days/week and I bring mine with me when I go in to the office on my 2 days at the office. DH drinks single malt scotch and he got 3 bottles for Christmas so that should keep him happy for awhile. We don't buy as much wine as we used to and we started drinking the Fish Eye in the box which is really very good (you get about 4 bottles in a box for $20).

We have not had a cleaning person for about 2 years so I just make sure I keep up so I don't get overwhelmed with mess. I am a clean freak so I clean something almost everyday. The dog (who for some unknown reason is blowing a coat right now) no longer goes to the groomer but gets a bath in my tub.

I have cut my hair coloring down to once every other month and only get a few highlights so my roots don't come in too fast. I never go to Sephora anymore (boo hoo!)and buy most beauty products at Target now.

I buy clothes for DS at the end of the season for the next year and also shop at a kids consignment shop for his clothes. I got 2 pairs of snow boots and 2 snow suits for $24 from the consignment shop and a winter jacket for next year at Target for $8.

DS used to go to pre-school 3 days a week from 9 until 5 and to a sitter 2 days a week for 5 hours. Since my work has dried up he only goes to pre-school 2 days per week and is home with me the rest of the time.

My car is paid off and I plan to drive it for a lot longer. It's a Honda CRV and gets great gas mileage and runs great. It has about 80K miles. I don't give a hoot about cars anyway so I am happy with my old-lady car. DH's car will be paid off this year too.

We have no mortgage but I do have CC debt that I hate with a passion. We already went through our emergency savings (it will be 2 years in July that the economy tanked for us). DH still has school loans too so we do have a debt monkey on our back.

I must admit that I did not see this coming and it hit me like a brick wall. If I would have had a few months advanced notice that my work would go from full speed ahead to dead stop I could have avoided some purchases (new HVAC and new windows) and been in a better position financially.

I never thought I would be in my 40's and see our income decreasing for 2 years in a row. It really sucks!

No more cable. Just selective viewing. I'll save money by cutting this back. I have too much TV. And bandwidth in general.

I joined a car-share service. I still have a car but I can imagine going all car-share one day when my current car konks out. Note This: It is Very Hard to get rid of a car if it is boring bland, because nobody wants to buy !! I put an ad in the paper and got not one single call. Now I know why I was lucky in the past. It's because all my other cars were more like specialty items that got at least two interested buyers calling me.

I don't buy anything that's a coupon item other than occasional things at Costco with their coupons.

robynpa: It's possible to get a hold/deferral on your DH's student loan - we had to do that with Hubby's.

Hubby cuts his own hair, I get mine cut maybe once every 3 months. No coloring, almost no beauty products, etc. I have also had to defer going back to school (for my Master's) as we just don't have the $. One paid-for car and we borrow one of mom or dad's cars when we need a second one.

robynpa - I agree with your comment "I never thought I would be in my 40's and see our income decreasing for 2 years in a row. It really sucks!". While I'm only recently laid off, I never thought we'd be in this position either. Or at least it would've been by choice. "Typically", I would've expected to be gaining at this point my life, not going in the opposite direction.

Here's a little "It's a Wonderful Life" kind of inspiration. We have two kids on the verge of college, and our own money concerns.

My daughter works with an immigrant who needed a place to stay for a while. He ended up in a finished room in our basement for a month. After that we helped him move into his very overpriced apartment. His belongings consisted of 3 or 4 plastic bags of things. He's a salt-of-the-earth kind of person, and we came to like him a lot. My daughter and I felt so bad after leaving him at his new, bare apartment: he didn't even have sheets or pillows. On the way home we told each other how we must look so incredibly rich to him. No pillows or sheets, can you imagine? But mostly we felt bad because he's going through a divorce and rarely sees his little boy b/c he works all the time. I said we were so lucky because we have a family that loves and supports each other. We don't have to be lonely and, of course, we don't have to face that kind of poverty.

It was one of the few times I felt so deeply how good we have it. I hope that applies to most of us here. I know it sounds corny, but it's so easy to lose track of the things that really are important to us. The rest is just stuff.

Several years ago my girlfriend and I started trading cleaning house days on Mondays. Every Monday we work together on one house. The next Monday it's the other person's turn. We started this as a way to catch up on each other's news without wasting so much time on the phone or 'just doing coffee'. Not only does this give us a scheduled time to visit, we have found that we've decluttered, organized and done many projects that seemed insurmountable to face on our own, or that we successfully procrastinated about forever. So much easier for me to throw away used wrapping paper she's been saving... etc.

We also bottle our own wine. Here in BC, it simply involves picking varieties at the wine store- they mix up the batch, and when it's ready, we bottle it. For everyday wine, it suits us fine- probably the equivalent of $10-$12 bottles for about $3 bottle.

I save coupons, and perhaps 5 or 6 times a year, sit down, and plan a 'coupon shop' to coincide with a coupon special at my local store. I will write down the grocery list (which I normally don't do), and will try and double up on store specials and coupons. We don't have the double coupon offers here in Canada, but on these shops I can easily save $50-$75. Definitely worth the hour or two of planning that it takes!

We haven't cut back terribly much, in part because we were not really big spenders to start with (though I've had my share of Target trips where I wondered how the heck I managed to spend $100 when I just came in for socks!).

We've never had cable, and our 2 TVs are really old. One is an RCA console TV that's about 25 years old. That saves us money on SuperBowl parties since no one wants to watch it on our TV. :-) We recently got our digital converter boxes and were delighted to find out that we get more channels -- lots of cooking and home shows all day, plus extra news, weather and cartoons. We really don't feel the need for cable right now.

We are big library users; I visit Starbucks only because I get lots of gift cards for it.

Our neighborhood has a baby-sitting co-op. Members sit for each other, and it works like a bank account. We have about 12 members right now. Babysitting times end up being like playdates, which is fun for the kids. I can't always find a free co-op sitter when I need one, so then I call a neighborhood teenager, but I spend way less money on sitters by using the co-op whenever possible.

My 3rd child is on his last year of preschool, hooray. Last year, I started working at the preschool (was a SAHM up til then), and spent 2 days working of the 4 he was at school. This year, I'm working there 2 days/week again, and wonderfully, the preschool has cut tuition in half for teachers' children. Yay! So I'm pocketing more of my meager salary. That's nice! Not sure if they'll be able to continue that next year if enrollment drops, but by then my kiddo will be in public school kindergarten. I hope for the other teachers' sakes they keep it up -- a great benefit to have since the pay is pretty low. (But that is where I get all the Starbucks cards from -- I would love it if someone would donate that $10 to a children's charity like St. Jude's or Make-A-Wish instead!).

When gas was very expensive last summer, my husband rode his bike to work every day that he could -- round trip of 20 miles. Saved a pile of money, and got great exercise, to boot. He already had a decent bike w/ headlights and all sorts of reflective gear. I think he's going to buy a nicer commuter bike this year, though.

We drive our cars into the ground, and DH changes our oil himself (it's not that hard; he taught me a long time ago when we were dating, and I thought it was fun...though I'm just as happy to let him do it now!).

We stopped renting expensive oceanfront beach houses a few years ago, and we rent a neighbor's older, smaller beach house that's a few blocks' walk from the beach. Saves us a few thousand a year and we still get a week at the beach.

And I've started baking some bread -- not all of our bread, but some of it. DH loves cinnamon raisin bread, the kids love cinnamon swirl bread, and I'm bound and determined to try trailrunner's challah sometime soon. I use my new food processor (that's cheating to some, but it allows me to skip the sticky mixing part that I don't like -- I still do some kneading by hand).

And I look forward to my little veggie garden this summer...tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, and herbs!

I couldn't give up Starbuck's but I did give myself a monthly allowance (I fill up my card at the beginning of the month - card saves me on soy and sugar free syrup when I want it). I also dug out my travel mug which saves me 10 cents, keeps my drink warmer and creates less waste. I am trying to keep my visits down to 3 days during the week.

I can't speak for anyone else but money just slips through my fingers so I am trying a weekly cash allowance for incidentals and entertainment (no debit card). I joined Weight Watchers so I am bringing lunch and staying out of the corner store and take out joints on the way home. I am allowing myself pretty reckless food spending this month while I lament the loss of junk food and other assorted staples of my unhealthy life but I think I will go cash on that as well in February. I lugged home a slow cooker (1\2 price at Sears - belated Christmas gift from my Mom who wisely told me to pick it myself) yesterday after work and I am going to start cooking again. Too fat to even want to try on clothes - there is always an upside. We are in a cold snap but I am trying to walk home from work.

Best of luck to everyone.

I'm with alaskangirl in that I'm a coupon freak. I make my menu based on what's on sale, not make my menu then go buy groceries. A list is imperative and I am NOT a list person. I subscribe to thegrocerygame.com - where someone compiles a list for you every week, telling what is on sale and where the coupons are. I don't have the time to garner this info on my own, so it's worth the $2/wk or something I pay for it. I save, on average, 40% off my weekly grocery bill. I never (or RARELY) pay for mouthwash, deoderant, hair products, makeup, pain relievers, etc -- and often the store pays me to take them. And the list tells me how to get these deals. I was spending over $150/wk before, so that's a huge savings for our family.

I'm a pretty frugal gal as it is, so some of your cutbacks still sound like splurges to me :o) Great thread, mama!!

OK really, someone has to stimulate the economy, so I'm trying :oP

On a serious note, I think that it is kind of important for people who have not had a change in income or jobs that are in jeopardy to NOT try to economize. When people who can afford housekeepers, manicures and eating out stop doing those things "because of the economy" it just makes the problem worse, because they are putting housekeepers, manicurists and restaurants out of business! I have always been a pretty frugal (okay, I'm cheap!) person. I don't buy things unless they are on sale or cheap to start with, I DIY most home projects, sew my decorative items, we keep our cars for about 10 years, do our own yard work and up until recently always colored my own hair. I just started having my hair colored at the salon. Part of my reasoning (other than the fact that my stylist does an excellent job) is the fact that my stylist has lost quite a few coloring clients, because of the economy. I can afford it, so I am kind of picking up the slack.

Mama, I've been thinking about your plan and I'm not sure I agree with your husband about not reducing mortgage debt in the current environment. Even with declining property values, equity in property seems like a relative safe haven to me versus the stock market.

Okay, now I'm contributing to the panic.

I just love this thread... so many good ideas.

rhome, will get details from DH on mortgage and post back. not sure what the details are... he is refinancing through a friend who is a mortgage broker. I do know that the savings per month is mainly because we are going from 20 year fixed to 30 year fixed.

morton, re: mortgage. I completely agree with you that equity is a good thing. We are fortunate to have about 75% equity in the house are aren't drawing on that, just lengthening the term of the loan for the same amount.

prisbar, we belong to a CSA. I love it. Vegetables, lettuce etc fresh from the field is just amazing. We have had a share in a farm in Ipswich, MA (Appleton Farms) for the past 4-5 years and while it is not cheap, I won't give it up (I split it with my MIL which works well). We fill a bag of produce in the barn each week and in addition can pick in the fields... the kids love this and eat vegetables right off the plant - in fact DD used to turn her nose up at veggies until picking her own from the field. I highly recommend CSA to anyone interested in organic produce (mine offers things that you don't see commonly in grocery stores as well as grass fed beef, local honey, local goat cheese). My split share is $300 and runs from June to October.

So agree with concern about charities in this economy. For DS's bday party, I specified no gifts, but if people felt obliged to do something to donate to a local food pantry. Only one person did this... everyone else showed up with a gift saying that they felt bad for DS not getting gifts on his bday. arggg. (he was still getting a gift from us).

Have been feeling terrible for the owner of my favorite little gourmet shop. This is an ordinary man with a quest for excellence which doesn't come cheap. he is very much hurting in this economy. I paid a visit yesterday and bought as much from him that was remotely close in price to the grocery store (apples, garlic, mushrooms, etc). Had to pass on the $25/lb. cheese and the double smoked bacon that would have elevated the carbonara I am making today.

On another note... here is one way that I am MAKING money in this economy (as a SAHM). I have this great consignement shop in my town. I buy from them and then sell on ebay. My most recent transactions have been selling off a huge set of china I bought. I paid $150 for the set and sold just the soup tureen for $125. I have been selling individual pieces or small groups of pieces and so far after selling about half the china have made $450 in profit. Yes, time consuming, but ebay is one thing I am good at so it is a way for me to make money while being at home. A huge score for me recently was purchasing a set of 6 Sid Dickens tiles for $35 and selling 5 of the 6 for a total of $850 (kept one for myself!).

I've gotten a tremendous amount from all of the responses... thanks so much!

this has been an interesting thread. Thank you kitchenwitch....my DS1's restaurant is almost finished...kaput...folks not eating out...so his servers...the dishwasher....the pastry and fry chefs....all out of work. Then the owner of the actual restuarant as my son is the chef not owner. Out of luck . And the suppliers...fish dealer in Hawaii...out of luck...linen supplier...out of luck...

Then there are the babysitters....not the teens in the neighborhood although I know there are many that NEED the money. I am talking about the pro sitters ,the ones that do this for a living. If you don't use them because you don't go out or because you have lost your job they have less income and thus are spending less and less too.

Also you are not saving anything at all by reducing your current house mortgage payment. You are increasing substantially your long term interest payment. In the short term if you are going to sell anyway 3-5 yrs it is OK , but if you are keeping the house you are going to pay dearly for the extension to 30 yrs from 20 yrs.

The only thing that trickles down is POVERTY. Nothing else. You spend less and everyone below you gets less. If tihs country had not bankrupted itself on this stupid "war against terrorism" that our current idiot administration cooked up ,we would not be in this situation. Also we have the greed of every single bank that lent money to poor risks. Thanks to them we are in the 2nd worst financial situation this country has ever seen.

Off my soapbox. c

Trailrunner - I often think how much better off this country would be right now if we hadn't spent the billions and billions in Iraq. If only we would've spent that money on our own schools, our own cities, rebuilding New Orleans, job training, etc., I think we would not be in this situation right now.

Sorry...I don't mean to hijack this thread and turn it into something else, but your comments really struck a chord with me.

And although I am currently unemployed and have cut back as a result, we will be doing our part to help the economy. We still have to finish(oh....I mean start) our kitchen renovation, (which has been downsized, but is still being done). Also, it is my DD's Bat Mitzvah this June, which will be a nice boost to my local economy.

I too don't understand why people who have stable jobs are cutting back. Unless it's because their investments have taken a nose dive and they are trying to make up for that. I do think alot of it is psychological and people are scared of the unknown. On the other hand, I think this "disaster" has been an eye opener for people. I think some are taking a step back, realizing they were overspending and are realizing alot of it is just "stuff".

Now I'll get off my soapbox!!!

I'll tell you why this stable person who owns their own businesses is (sort of) cutting back; It's January. Not because I don't have the money to shop, I don't have the desire. I have been to the January Sale at my favorite local antique store and have purchased several things online, DH bought a flat screen for the MBR and a few clothes, but also I don't really need anything right now! Not many are out shopping after living through December/the holidays. January is always a slow retail month....and I think many are "watching and waiting" to see what happens next. Not a lot of confidence right now.

I'm also at the age of Need vs Want. I'm sharing my wealth with our three young adult children who are working but don't make enough for extras....so I am helping the economy that way, even if I'm not out shopping.

Trailrunner, sorry to hear business is down. We go out two or three days a week for lunner (lunch/dinner about 3pm). DH said we're not participating in a recession. lol

Good for you allison. We too don't need anything. I have a 1998 Chevie truck that has 220K miles. My washer and dryer were my Mom's...they are over 30 yrs old. I ride a bike everywhere and have a trailer that holds 90# and that is how I do all my shopping.

{{gwi:763939}}

The restuarant is hanging in there. They had 47 last night and more tonight. I would be there but have had a terrible cold. It is a hard way to make a living in the best of times and of course these are not .

My big resentment is that the hard working people of this country are paying for the lies perpetrated by the people in power that we were supposed to trust and believe that they had our best interests at heart. Of course that is not the case and the greed of a few is going to cause years and years of suffering for the many.

Sorry...ranting AGAIN..I'll stop...must be the cold...has short circuited all my usual barriers that prevent social outbursts ! c

malhgold: "I too don't understand why people who have stable jobs are cutting back."

We're cutting back because:
- I'm VERY VERY risk-averse. While DH's job is stable, there is always a chance that he could lose his job. -->
- It's not necessary the loss of his current salary (we have a solid emergency fund). It's HOW LONG it will take to find a replacement job. The uncertainty of how long we have to stretch that emergency fund bucket that's driving me NUTS!!! I'm basically a SAHM w/ a part-time job w/ a tiny salary (basically get paid w/ wine/champagne) so we definitely can't survive on my salary.

Shopping/cooking:
- when something's on sale (like chicken leg for $0.39), I'd buy ~20pounds of chicken (for $7.80). Then I'd debone them to make chicken stock/soup, marinate it about 5 different ways, and freeze them. Then when something else like pork chops are on sale, I'd do the same thing.
So I always have something to defrost every day (like DreamDinners) instead of eating the same thing everyday.

Until the downturn in the economy, I didn't realize that it was a compliment when my girlfriends say that I could give seminars on how to save money and live frugally.

Being frugal, I'm able to prioritize my spendings. ie. for my DD's 3rd bday party, I saved by making the favors (homemade tutus and prince charming capes) so that I could spend the money on the champagne for the mimosas (w/ fresh squeezed oj (purchased at $3.29 for 12oranges).

Our story goes back to 2002, when my husband was laid off in the last downturn. We were living in a house that was at the top of what we were comfortable paying (though the banks thought we could afford oh so much more!). Fortunately, my husband was able to replace his income within a year by starting his own business, but it was a wake up call and we changed some things.

The big things:
-we live in a house that is about half of what we can afford and now have no mortage (we sold our more expensive house when we were at the top of our earnings)
-we buy gently used cars with cash and drive them forever
-we have catastrophic heath insurance and try to keep ourselves as healthy as possible through diet and exercise
-we never spent money on preschool or private schools - we homeschool (though not for financial reasons, that's just a bonus)
-we enjoy eating out, but we have potlucks with close friends more often. You can have an awesome potluck for what six families would spend eating at a restaurant!
-no cable tv, just Netflix. You can watch television shows over the internet or get the DVDs from Netflix.
-I purposefully cook to create leftovers. For example, my pot roast on Friday night became pot roast pasta on Saturday, so that stretched our meal over two days and saved us money.
-No Starbucks or anything like that. Though like many here, we do spend some of our budget on wine ;).
-I make a menu plan and a grocery list and I stick to the list when I shop. No impulse shopping! That'll get you every time.

Things we haven't cut back on:

-the housekeeper. They come once a week, and that will be one of the last budget items to go. It is a huge help to me as a homeschooler with a toddler, and I also don't want to hurt their business if I don't have to.
-quality groceries/ organic. There are somethings I buy that are important to me and I don't mind spending extra on it. For example I prefer to buy Organic Valley dairy products because I prefer their business model to other organic producers that are available to me.
-home maintenance. It's more expensive to replace an AC prematurely than to maintain it regularly.
-giving. The people who need charity need it even moreso now. We also keep money in the budget for my husband to go on international mission trips, and I'll be doing that again after the baby is a bit older.

Good thread!

We are generally frugal relative to our income but in these times I have pretty much quit buying anything I don't need and I don't really need much other than gas to get to work, groceries and utilities. We both still have a job but here's why I clamp down on spending at times like this. Our retirement investments have plummeted - makes you feel the need to save vs. spend on things you don't need. DH has experienced a few downsizings and companies going out of business and fairly extended periods of unemployment - in times much better than now. You just don't know what's going to happen or how long it's going to last.

There are a few things I've never spent money on that I've thought were frivolous - manicures, pedicures, spa treatments, health clubs, luxury cars, bigger houses, etc. But two extravagant things I do indulge in that that I've hung onto as long as I've had a job even when DH didn't - housecleaner every two weeks and hair salon as needed - which is more and more frequent.

No kids so have never indulged in the extravagant birthday parties, private schools, and all kinds of other expensive stuff that seems to have grown common during prosperous times.

I guess it's tempting to get a longer term mortgage to lower the monthly payment but we always resisted that temptation. Most of the times we refinanced we went from 30 year to 15 year - never took equity out - and happily have no mortage as a result.

Trailrunner and mahlgold, I'm with you 100% on your war on terrorism rants. It has made me crazy from the day it started. We were lied to and, unfortunately, a lot of people bought it. Have you been to the Hot Topics forum? You can express yourself on such topics there, without feeling you might be ruffling anyone's feathers.

Two more days.

Hey Debbie...nope no "Hot Topics" for moi ! I was congested...that is my story...!

Beware of the "2 more days" hope. I am sorry but this man....good intentions not withstanding... has more on his plate than he is able to deal with in 4 years . The solution is to make a sliding tax...40%...yes...at the top incomes...and work its way down...to no tax. There is no other solution. If we continue to borrow from the Chinese , we are DOOMED. He cannot, nor can anyone, rebuild the infrastructure of this country in less than 25-50 years. I have watched the work on I 85 between here and Atlanta for YEARS....one lousy section of highway...it is still only 1/2 done. Would you like to know what nationality almost ALL of the workers are ? In this country you are not going to see folks who have desk jobs and line jobs lose these jobs and then run out and apply to work on construction projects to rebuild our highways and railroads. Who built the last railroads ???? Anybody ???

OK ....I have gone completely out of character. I have not done this since 1967 when my boyfriend was killed in 'Nam. I'm sorry...must be the congestion...yep,,,,from the tears....c

I agree with you!

just wanted to post back with details on the refinance. We are paying a quarter of a point, and got a 50% discount in closing costs, so $1K instead of $2K. I have no issue with the longer term. DH insists that it makes good financial sense for us and we have most of the house (75-80% paid off). We can always pay it down faster if times change. I agree with others that it isn't a bad thing to proceed with caution in times like this even if you haven't been "hit"... although I can't imagine who hasn't. Our brokerage accounts are in shambles. Thank goodness we are staring retirement in the face. I feel for those who are.

I am finding silver linings wherever I can and when you look there are plenty to be found.

Mama,

excuse me for prying, but you wrote it, so I'm going to assume it's OK to ask... Do you mean to say that your mortgage rate is 0.25%??? Is that true? Is that typical of mortgages in the US?

oh goodness no, Raehelen. The rate is fixed at 4.85% for 30 years, with 1/4 point to be paid along with $1K in closing costs.