When Denise and I packed up everything and went to Italy with our two preschoolers, Kaley and Kassie, a lot of people would tell us what a great sacrifice we were making. It never felt like a sacrifice. It’s true that we gave some things up and there were the obvious things that we missed - family, friends and peanut butter – but God gave us new family and other foods. We never lacked for anything.
So far, it has been the same principle at work in our “financial sacrifices.” We are giving some things up, but our lives do not feel poorer in the least. It is actually kind of exciting.
Here are some more things that we did to help make the next two or three years easier financially:
· We dropped our cable bill and use antennas for our televisions.
· We dropped our telephone landline.
· I gave up my Droid for a little LG phone that my son-in-law, Luke, let me have.
The total savings here works out to be about $160 per month. Like I said, it has not been a sacrifice.
Here is what we have found: using indoor antennas, television reception in HD today is a lot better than back in the day when we only got analog. The reception is not perfect: we cannot get every channel without adjusting the antennas. But once adjusted, the picture is at least as good as what we got with cable. We have also found that some of the cable shows that we are interested in, like “The Closer” and “Falling Skies,” we can still get via computer with a cable that goes from our computer directly to our HDMI television input.
It has been annoying for some time to pay for our landline since almost all of our calls come to us via our cell phones. I asked around to others who had given up their landline and found no one who had regretted it.
Occasionally, I miss having wireless access and the apps I had on my Droid, but I have not missed it much. I never used my phone to play games or “kill time,” so I was never “addicted” to it in the first place.
So, what have you cut back on to save on monthly expenses? What other expenses should we be thinking about cutting?
Whew! There for a minute I thought you were going to say you were giving up the internet, and would be posting your blog updates from the library's computer using their free internet. Glad to see there's still SOME sanity left. ;-)
ReplyDeleteHow awesome! Good for you for not continuing in the rat race! One thing my family did...on top of cutting the cable...was cutting our GROCERY costs! We use to have plenty of food stamps for just about whatever we wanted, but eventually we made too much to be eligible for assistance! Sooo, we had to make some major spending cuts on groceries! We COMPLETELY cut out snack foods! No more gold fish, chips, crackers, cokes, juice, etc. Snacks, such as carrots, were ok, because they were nutritious and necessary, but if it was full of empty calories, we completely cut it...empty calorie snacks are NOT a necessity..and they arent healthy! We also cut paper towels; They arent a necessity either! Towels can be washed and used again, but if u use paper towels for EVERYTHING...the cost adds up!
ReplyDeleteEven though you dont have cable, you can still watch most of your favorite shows on HULU.com, ABC.com or other websites! Its great, because it prevents you from wasting time, mindlessly watching whatever is on!
Wash your clothes in cold water...it saves on electric with your water heater!
Call and renegotiate your bills:
electric - ask them if there are any lower rates
available
cell phone - ask if you are eligible for a
loyalty rate...brent called and they
gave him unlimited txts, etc.) or just
a better plan for the money, etc.
Car Insurance - ask about available discounts
or what they can do to reduce your
rate...put it on THEM to help YOU!)
Etc.
Be careful how you drive! Driving much more over 60mph really reduces ur car's fuel economy! Driving 50-60 mph saves u gas!
and SMALL expenses!! If it only costs a couple dollars, I ask myself ...TWICE...whether I REALLY need it or not! (ex: a coke, a pack of gum, an ice cream, etc. ...they just add up to quickly...and at the end of the month, I looked at my statement and wondered how I could have spent so much money on practically NOTHING!
Thats about all I can come up with right now, but I hope it helps!!!
Bob - you make me smile! Panera is safe from me being a constant freeloader for their internet access. BTW, unfortunately, Panera, along with all of our old eateries, are now much less frequented by us - in the almost-never category.
ReplyDeleteThanks Megan. We do pretty well on cutting out the unnecessaries, but I know there are some grocery buys we make that make the bill greater but our lives more healthy. For instance,we buy lots of fruit compared to most people that we know. We picked up that healthy habit in Italy. Thanks for all the tips. It looks like you are doing a great job cutting down expenses. BTW, Sparks electric gave us 8.8 cents a kilowatt last year. For continuing customers, they actually go up to about 9.2. Go figure.
ReplyDelete