Cutting Expenses, Part 1

We knew that it was going to be tough financially for the next three years or so while I worked part-time and went to school full-time. So we had some things in place and have tried to do some additional things that would mean lower expenses. Here are a few of those things:

·      We have no credit car debt.

·      We have no house payment.

·      We have no payments on any of our three cars (2007 RAV, 2009 Prius and 1999 Camry.

·      We have a new high efficiency air conditioning unit, radiant barrier, insulation and soffit vents.

About 20 years ago in anticipation of this time we refinanced our home on a 15-year note (yes, that’s right – we literally were thinking about this time, when our girls would have graduated from high school). It has helped a lot in paying for college expenses and getting car notes paid.

We buy low-maintenance, low operating-cost cars. We don’t want to spend any more money than we have to on transportation, but, on the other hand, we want as reliable cars as possible so that we don’t have to spend a lot of time maintaining them. There are a lot of good cars out there. Buying Toyotas has worked for us.

Our central air and heating unit was 25 years old. Over the years we had to make a few repairs, but the only major component that we had ever replaced were the coils. I figured that the compressor was due to give out at any time. Also, the unit had never cooled well during the hottest part of the summer. So, when there was a state rebate and a federal tax credit offered this past winter, we bit. I knew it was an upfront expense, but I also believed that we would make up the money eventually in lower electric bills and if we did not replace it now, odds were it would be breaking down at an inopportune time when we could not get the tax break and rebate - and might have to pay for the unit with credit. We also went ahead and got insulation, radiant barrier and soffit vents installed. These were upfront expenses that I am very glad that we made. Our last electric bill was $87.

Next, we cut our television and telephone expenses.

But what about you? Any places that you have cut expenses that could help the rest of us?