I bet you know what is coming. Given our economic climate, I want to scale back not only on our spending but really determine a budget based solely on his salary. My friend talked of the 80/20 rule. Use 80 percent of the salary for expenses and debt and split the 20 between charity and savings.
I want for us to really build our savings and get our spending under control. Who knows how long our economy will look like this? While we should have seen this coming, I didn't. And I feel like that is saying something since in I lived when the silicon valley bubble burst in 2000 and seemed to take forever to recover. It was a few hard years and now the circle is radiating from NY out and hurting even more people.
I really hate the idea that we are bailing out big companies and hope that the ceos and executives who were among the problem are not compensated for what they have done to our economy. It's crazy to look at what these people make and then see what their decisions have done. I feel like they should have to give money back for those decisions. I know off on a tangent.
So again back to the reason I am here. I have tried in the past to do months of frugality and been successful but this time around, I really believe it has to change even more. And darn it, that means that I need to get creative not only with dinners, but with kids crafts, with my (lack of) exercise routine. Thank goodness the weather is changing and soon I will be able to take the kids on nature walks again after school. That will be a nice change from coming home and doing snack and then trying to come up with something to do that doesn't involve tv time but that usually wins out in the end.
Any crafty ideas, dinner ideas, any ideas at all from frugally gifted people?.......
I was just having this same conversation with a friend here at home a few days ago. She was asking me how much we spend for groceries, etc., as her DH was upset at her for spending $300 at the grocery store all at once. He told her it wasn't the $ he was upset about, it was the timing. Her argument (they fight a lot) was that if she didn't spend it then, the items she bought wouldn't be on sale the next time. I find it hard to give advice to people that I *know* do not cook the same way as me (she uses a lot of pre-packaged food, I don't), and who also insist on always buying things new (such as my friend) instead of scouring Craigslist or the classifieds.
ReplyDeleteThe best advice I have is buy in bulk, turn the heat down, shop only at thrift stores for kids items. Don't buy yourself any new clothes for a year. Cxl magazine subscriptions, expensive cable channels. Really think about where your $ is going and why and re-evaluate those expenditures. Our parents are both very frugal people. Their parents were even better at it. There's no reason why we can't do the same, despite the fact that our culture has changed so much in the last 100 years.
Sorry this was long. LOL It's tough to give advice you don't know how someone else currently lives on how to live with less. Maybe you already are living with less than we are. I wish you all the best with this nasty economy. We're right there with ya. :)
I'm really bad at saving money, but I too need to do a better job at it. The grocery store bill each week is still a complete shock to me.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I've been trying to do is make meals that have enough left overs for another entire meal. I seems like it's cheaper to cook in larger batches. Plus, the additional meal also helps save time later in the week.