It’s no secret that with everything going up that I’ve needed to find ways to save money.  I abhor paying more than I need to for the very basics in life.  Over the last few weeks I’ve tried to figure out where we can cut back to save more money.   The key?  Asking.  Asking for what I want has saved us a great deal of money during the month of October.

Cell Phone

We’re with AT&T and have an iPhone and Palm PDA on a family plan.  Well that family plan while on a base price of $170/month came out to $437 at the end of October.  Can you see the steam coming from my ears?  After  a long merry go round with different reps, lodging a complaint against one and evangelizing the merits of having a corporate presence on Twitter to another, I reduced our monthly plan and even got $70 in credits to our account.  We had a family plan for 2100 minutes, but used on average 1000 minutes and had 9000 roll-over minutes in the bank.

The rep recommended that we go with the 1400 minute plan (alternative is 900 min plan), added the international plan to our account and had his manager adjust our account so that our roll over minutes wouldn’t expire.  Sweet!!!  Why was the bill $437?  I am selling a home overseas so I check in with the lawyers and buyer weekly to keep on top of things being that I am stateside.  If not, then things go to hell real fast.  I also did A LOT of texting over the summer which resulted in a $200 overage charge.  I’m just glad Im not friends with that person anymore, it was getting expensive as you can see LOL!

I also found out that we were somehow subscribed to a ring tone subscription and I almost lost it.  My husband while I love him dearly is a tree hugging nature guy, he’s simply not into ring tones or any of that teeny bopper crap.  Then they also tried to say that we were on a pay per use Internet plan which was an out right lie.  As much as we use the Internet on our phones, she had to be out of her cotton picking mind.  So they adjusted everything and all is well.  We now have a monthly bill of $120 and will use our remaining roll-over minutes for overages

Savings:  $200-$300

Paid Off Retail Account, Sold Beater Car And Bought A New Car

I wasn’t really sure how this would work out but it did.  To make a long drawn out story short, we were still paying off one retail account but needed a new car.  I was concerned about adding one more car note when we were paying down debt.  But it so happens that we were on schedule to pay off one account so we went ahead and bought the new 09 Camry with no real plans for the 99 Solara.  She started giving me problems and hubby just didn’t want to deal with it anymore.  When I got back from Blogworld in September, he’d picked up the new car.

The repairs associated with the MD inspection for the Solara were over $1200 and we owed $1700.  We sold it for $1700, paid it off and so everything evened out.  Both payments from the retail account and the Solara payment equals the new car payment amount.  So instead of dealing with two car payments and insurance we are down to one.

Savings: $250

Shut Off Electricity On Main Level Turn Off All Lights

Last year we were on the budget plan because gas and electric were out of control at $200 and $300+ respectively.  But we’ve since paid off the balance from the budget plan and just pay it off every month.  Our bills have been around $100 for each since we don’t cook everyday and I cut the electricity off on the main level when we are out of the house.  We have a switch in the family room that cuts everything off except the alarm and this works out great!

This winter I may get a space heater and warm pajamas.  Im from the islands and I like to run around in shorts and a tank top in the house, hubby thinks this is the funniest thing to do in the winter.  So you know that means I have the heat on 85 right?  Yea Imma have to cut that out.

Savings: $350

Groceries

I found out about the discount grocery Aldi last weekend and OH THE JOY!!  My hope?  Spend no more than $300 a month on groceries.  I’ve yet to look at Yodlee to see how we did in October but I think it’s no better than September as far as groveries are concerned.  At least now we have a real option to save more on groceries.  I’d like to spend $200 at Aldi and then $100 at the other stores.  We’ll see how that works out.

Savings: $400

Total Savings: $1300

Areas in Progress?

Shopaholic

I still like to bargain hunt on Ebay and I can’t even say that Im working on it because I’ll scope something out on Bluefly and then find it for half the price on Ebay.  but as Lynn Richardson likes to say, if it aint free them it aint on sale!  Tis true.

Eating out

This has proven hard because we like to try new restaurants and have quite the social calendar.  It’s hard to say no because well, we like to be social and hang out with friends when we get the chance.  So this needs some work but perhaps we’ll cut back to twice a month.

Question:  What areas can you hack your monthly budget?  Where can you cut back?

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photo credit: Jessica DeWinter

Today will make two weeks since I quit my job. And while it was necessary to accommodate my busy schedule and to allocate more time to coursework, this involved revisiting our budget as we made the transition from a 2-income household to a one-income household.

This should be more of a test drive for us as we are planning to do this once we start having children. I plan to stay at home while my husband will continue working. We reviewed the budget and we planned for this last year when I took the job. The Internship requires 20-25 hours of unpaid time at a local site providing clinical services. I’m not all that hot about working for free for the remainder of the year but it must be done. I’m enjoying the placement and the experience thus far so this makes up for any issues with free work LOL!

Anyhoo, so we reviewed the budget and these are the things that we came up with:

Reduce Random Spending Habits

This is primarily my issue because I spend hours on Amazon.com, Ebay and other sites just cruising for crap to buy and I am so guilty. I can’t even tell what we’ve spent so far on random stuff but I have and its so sad. You know you’ve got to rein it in when you can’t recall what you spent money on within the last few weeks. Hubby isn’t much of a spender and so I’ve got to rein it in on my end. I’ve been good so far, cross your fingers.

Pay down or pay off credit card debt (significantly)

While reviewing our expenses we were trying to decide if paying off the credit card bill in its entirety was a good move vs paying it down to below 30%. We agreed on half because we are still rebuilding our savings since purchasing the house last year. More than likely we will pay off the whole thing once we move into the summer and hubby starts the new job. We did pay off the Dell account, which was $834 so, that’s step in the right direction. We took advantage of their 24 months same as cash promotion and paid the final bill last week. Makes no sense to rack up $400 in extra interest.

Kick Frugality into High Gear

Frugality is such a dirty word to some of you, I know, LOL! But I really enjoy it and even more now that I am aware of how much we spend on different things. When I realized how wasteful I’ve been in the past it really made me rethink money and what it means to us. Do I want to build wealth or just be able to spend at a moment’s whim?

Nix the Land line Phone

We don’t need it. And, with the bill hovering around $250 because we only have it so the alarm company can dial out, its time for it to go. That or stop using it or just get a standard plan. We’re a bit stuck on this because I like having a land line just because but with the basic service we pay higher fees if we actually use the phone than if we got a standard plan. We may end up keeping it but put the phone out of site. We have relatives that call the house when they can’t reach us on our cell phones and that’s going to have to stop.

Get Pet Insurance

Our cat, Scotch has been sick on and off over the last 6 months, and we just adopted another kitten, Max. Scotch’s vet bills are near $1000 so far and that’s out of pocket so I plan to ask the vet about how the insurance works, as I know this particular carrier takes all licensed vets into their program.

We are also benefiting from my not working by not having to drive into work, my internship site and then to class. I’d be paying for gas, and parking which would throw the budget out off because both are so expensive. Now I only pay for parking at the metro, which is a straight shot into my internship site and costs about $10/day. No more eating out for lunch and dinner since I get home so late, I actually have the time to bring a snack with me throughout the day, which cuts back on daily food spending.

Do you have any suggestions for us? What did you changed about your budget when cutting back on expenses?

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