ways to reduce your cost of living

[moonangel]

my house payment is about to increase so I need some good penny pinching ideas

[sanglee]

the first thing to do is to cut down on unecessary spending.

[Tresbn00]

You can boost the deductibles on your homeowners, automobile and health insurance...but be careful not to have any house problems, auto accidents or health issues.  You can look at what your dining out expenses are and aim to eat at home more.  Look at differen internet and telephone plans.  We saved over fifty dollars a month switching from Cable to dish, were given a one hundred and fifty dollar gift card for doing it and haven't noticed a big difference in service. We changed our telephone plan and reduced it by twenty five dollars per month. We unplugged all electrical items not in use, cut showers back to ten minutes each (I shower at the gym),  turn off lights in rooms that we aren't using.  turned our heat down to 70 degrees and sealed off the heating vents in rooms that we are not using.

[jmccaskill]

First and best thing you can do is to WRITE down EVERY expense, dollars and cents in a ledger, legal pad, back of an envelop, matters not. This is the first step in creating a budget that everyone can live with. You will be shocked how the 'little things' like a cup of coffee or a snack add up into substantial amounts over the course of a month. Once you have this info you can create a budget, IN WRITING and stick to it, even if that means putting yourselves on a strict cash allowance.

Nothing should be off the list of things to cut (necessary Rxs and such excepted). Your choice of beef or chicken, cable or dish TV or even going to Internet only for TV, all manner of things will pop up once you start looking!

[vickysue]

First you must draw up a budget and stick with it. Brown bag at work. amazing how much you will save there. Party time is over. most people do not relize how much they spend prtying until whoops out of money. Put you house payment first and go from there.

[bretay]

we have sealed off vents in rooms not using,cut lights off,doors shut..eat at home more often...eating out is a killer now a days...we cut our heat off on days when it is not needed...and use our fireplace if needed

[sherryinutah]

Some things are common sense.  Liquidate and sell things you don't need.  I don't pay for TV subscriptions.  I have a digital converter with an older anolog TV and a decent antenna.  I pay a reasonable price for internet and I have 1 phone that I pay for.  If you can live as a minimalist, like I do, you won't need to spend money on very many things.  Get to "know" yourself to determine YOUR priorities and release a lot of the other stuff, including unnecessary expenses.

I also live in a small town where I don't need a vehicle so I save a lot of money by using my legs for transportation.

 

[Lindaroof]

Lots of good advice, but you really have to be realistic on what is going to work for you, writing out all of your monthly bills can help you see what you need, keeping track of EVERYTHING that you spend on will help you see where you are wasting the most, and then you can pick and choose where to make your cuts. Even if you start out small it will help retrain you to really think before you spend. Good Luck to you!

[bud1]

Set  yourself  up  a  zero balance  budget.  Write down  your expense  from highest to lowest.  Every dollar  must  be  added to the budget  which can be adjusted.  Do this every week.  My dad taught me  this  several years ago.