How are you cutting down expenses? Or are you not?

Where do I start lol? First off, we do all those turning off things you mention, but we've gone further and replaced all our conventional lighting with long-life energy saver bulbs. We have long-term drought up here as well as needing to cut costs, so we are exceptionally careful with water use, showering less often, hand-watering the garden from our tanks, and so on. That keeps both our water usage and water rates costs down significantly. With petrol prices being what they are, we sold one car and restrict ourselves to one shopping trip to the nearest big town every fortnight rather than weekly, and mostly hold ourselves back to one recreational trip to town per month. We find this also cuts down on shopping costs, because we aren't tempted to buy extras as often, and we don't end up with too much excess. We bake all our own bread. I was a professional cook for a good part of my life, so we keep poultry and make a lot of basically free egg dishes, but we also buy meat in bulk (cheaper), and either freeze for later or cook up into batches of stews and casseroles, portion up into meals, and freeze those. We both like soups, and while it's probably cheaper to cook our own it's also a lot of trouble, so we buy 14 cans of soup each fortnight and eat them for lunch, total cost no more than #3 a day for two people. A lot of the casseroles cost out at less than $2 per serve as well, so eating is cheap but good. I would like to have a vegetable garden, but neither of us is in good enough health toi handle the work, particulalry with hand watering, so we have had to abandon most of that, but we do still grow a few things, tomatoes, herbs, zucchini, potatoes, onions. That's another small cost saver. So, there are many ways of doing it. Lash

I coast in my car too to save gas, I also try to do things like walk to the store or post office or anything that's not too far. I've just started clipping coupons for groceries. I've also quit smoking and now do my own manicures and pedicures instead of going out to get them done.

OMG sugarplum, I've been cutting costs for so long there's nowhere else to cut and I don't know any other way to live, so I don't know what all I do. These things just become a habit. I turn my computer off and turn the power switch off at night, I unplug all small appliances that aren't in use, I watch very carefully about turning off lights when I'm not in a room. If I'm going to cook supper in the oven, I make sure I cook something else like bread or extra veggies for another meal while it's on. Even before I retired, I didn't make extra trips anywhere. If I had an errand to run or shopping to do I did those things on my way home from work. Now the garden. . .I do envy you. I don't know how many times I've tried to have a garden. The bugs always get it, and I won't use pesticides.

I got the old bicycle out and I use it for short trips. I try to combine trips as often as I can and even walk instead of drive when possible. I too grew a garden this year. Bigger than I normally do and canned all summer so my grocery bill will drop some this winter. I don't have small children in the house so I can cut the thermostat a degree or two and throw on a sweatshirt. We had two TV's both with satellite hookups and we eliminated the satellite in the bedroom and are using just regular antenna. Kind of makes for boring TV but we don't really watch it that much in the bedroom. And we winterized the house exceptionally well this year. Put some extra insulation in the attic and sealed around doors and windows to maybe save a little on the heating bill. Happy Saving!

It is great that you are so young and actually thinking of saving money. I have 3 teenage boys and they are far from worried about it. We try to hang our clothes out and when it gets colder I will probably hang them inside to cut out on the dryer for myself and my fiance. The boys still use the dryer though. I cook as much of our foods from scratch as I can. I try to can/freeze/dry quite a bit of our food. Unfortunately our garden did not good this year. :( We also try to save on the gas. No extra trips, no visiting family and such. I just make lots of phone calls but my plan includes free long distance. Keep on saving!

My car runs on water now We replaced old electronics with new one to get low usage of energy I Have shed on the top of my house to keep my house cool

well my family has been struggling for a while, we always catch up from being in the negative but for a while we were doing good. we got ahead of ourselves and now were in the negative again with NO money what soever. i know we can probably cut back even more, but we've stopped going out and spending money on ourselves. we still have 2 young children who need a lot. right now, i haven't even bought a birthday gift for my nephew who had his birthday last month. i feel bad, i don't think my sister minds all that much since they had the money to go to hawaii to celebrate it. we're a 4 person 1 income family and today's economy isn't making things better. the stimulus check helped pay off some bills but there's still a lot. my husband's car broke down several times taking a big chunk of money with it and sometimes we struggle to find decent things for my family to eat. i didn't get a chance to buy my kids new school clothes and i didn't buy my son new school shirts because i only have enough for both of my kids to last a week on even though my mother and grandmother gave me around $200 to buy them school clothes. we had to use it to keep our accounts in the green. i know things will get a little easier because they always do. we're just spending a whole lot less, i sacrifice some things and i have to work even harder then i did before.

I was already a penny pincher before all this happened. It has been frusturating to me that we were already scrimping and now the price of everything has shot up so fast that we cant keep up. I have been a lot more creative in my cooking. We are eating less meat and more foods from our well stocked pantry. I drive as little as I can and combine trips to fit it all in when I do have to leave. I think through our purchases more. And we are watching our power and gas usage. We have always watched our consuption but we are stressing it more now. We are getting by but I would like to be getting by a lot better.

I just recently downgraded my Internet, my cable tv and changed telephone companies to something more economical. I try to limit my trips. I used to go see my son who lives around an hour away, but I have limited that. I sometimes drive home for lunch (6 miles), but have found that if I just go to the park and read a book and eat a light lunch, it saves on gas and also wear and tear on the car. I try to watch what I am buying at the grocery store as well. Its not a lot, but every little bit helps now days. Best wishes!

I cut down my outings in order to cut down my expenses. If I am going out less often,I can save on petrol and expenses on unnecessary things because I tend to buy unnecessary stuffs when I go out shopping. This is the most wasteful part in my expenses. Besides that,I save on my eating habits. I try not to eat expensive food if there are others more economy food available. If I am free,I will try to cook at home and try not to get out from home. Lol.

My grandmother has taught me how to be frugal in everything. And it paid off I don't have to cut down on my expenses because I don't spend a lot.My priority is to save. I also had my vegetable garden ever since I had my own family.Learned to cook food for the family so we seldom eat outside the house.I cook our meal once what we had for lunch will still be for dinner.When there's leftover food I cook them in another recipe.I don't watch Tv often and listen to music once in a while. I don't have house helper it saves me a lot.We do our household chores.

Whenever I can keep it on my mind I have a few tricks to cut down on the bills, like not leaveing the water running while I brush my teeth, not leaveing lights or tv's and other electronics on when there not being used, takeing quicker showers and useing less hot water,..ect. Also like you said a garden is a great idea..why didn't I think of that sooner?

We save by conserving energy and making a list of important things only. We dont buy things that are unnecessary.We see to it that we dont waste our money by going to far places on weekend to save gas. We spend our weekend by going to a park that is near our place or by watching movie inside the house instead of going to the theater.

well some of them dont have enough income to save money i can see one thing abt US economy that as they have gone into recession so better to be careful becoz this recession will last for many years and upto 2012 US wont be having gud roads to walk so people must save something from their earning becoz there are more bank failures ahead which would lead to more jobless claims and the recession will go deeper and deeper nd big bank failures will lead to small bank failure...

I have stopped all my pleasure driving m,ostly to conserve gas. I would drive all over to parks and nature centers taking pictures. I also am now in the habit of turning off the lights and TV as well. I would leave for an hour or so and leave the TV and lights on. Not any more. I also shop in bulk now to save cash that way. I recycle a lot more than I have ever done. I compost my papers and food scraps as well for my garden. So I guess I do a lot to conserve cash, fuel etc etc. HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !!~

Well my wife and I don't eat out as often. That's great since I've been trying to get her to be willing to cut back on that for years. I don't drive my car anymore since we moved to Miami and there is a train that takes me directly from my house to my job. My wife has also stopped shopping regularly which I am oh so thankful for.

I loved reading all the posts! I am pretty much doing everything suggested. I am disabled so I cannot walk everywhere. My car is modified so I can drive it and I do try to schedule all my errands in one trip, or have my hubby do the errands. He is fit and loves to walk. My car is old, but small and gets good gas mileage. I make sure my tires are properly inflated and that I am not carrying excess "stuff" in my trunk. I also will turn off the ignition if I am sitting at a stop sign, or stuck in traffic for more than 30 seconds. Idling is a huge gas burner. I shopped for car insurance and found a company that cut my premium by more than 50%. I will do as much on line as I can (shopping/bill paying). I have cut way back on my magazine subscriptions and will be doing the same for my newspapers. I love to read and I am a news junkie. But anything for the/my cause right? I am eyeing the cable bill. I know I can cut back there. I have a pay as you go cell phone that I only use for emergencies. I have a cable internet land line phone that allows me unlimited local and long distance (US & Canada) calling for $19.99/mo. Weather stripping done. Lights off when not in room done. Shorter showers and turn off faucet when brushing teeth. Air dry my dishes (no dishwasher). Fill up watering can when waiting for water to get hot. Use cloth bags for shopping. Make my own coffee and tea. Try to buy store brands as often as possible. Have a veggie garden. Have learned the trick of going to the farmer's market around closing time when some of the vendors as selling their wares for hugely discounted prices. Garage sales and flea markets. Really think about buying something new, or at all. Clip coupons and actually use coupons. No more eating out. Have changed all of our light bulbs to the sqiggly looking ones. I unplug everything that is not being used. So far a cannot train my hubby to do the same. He insists on leaving his computer on and his cell phone charger plugged in. I should have him write a utility bill check! I will put on an extra sweater and/or add another blanket before I'll turn the heater on. No air conditioner. We have a ceiling fan. I will be buying insulated drapes that will keep the cold out in the winter and the heat out in the summer. I limit my garden wayering to twice a week early in the morning.

We are eating in more often. Also we have started purchasing food through the local food co-op. I try to walk more and drive less. And of course I havent had my hair done in months... poor me. When will it end. Thanks for posting and happy mylotting.

i will be just think how much it is required..and after that try to burgain and then buy it/....

In the economic situation is not very good,we have to learn to save on all fronts.be fighting for resources and cut costs,for example,discount shopping,you want to buy things.