So...how are you cutting back financially?

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

I've been stowing away $150 in my account from my checks as opposed to the usual $100, and I've stopped eating out as much.

[Klutch]

Not eating out as much, buying only what I need, really looking for those great sale items and not just going out and driving for the hell of it.

[Baixo Astral]

I took up smoking, and then quit.

[Square]

Started stealing

[Strotha]

Buying less stuff I don't really need.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Feb 20, 2009 8:57:49 GMT -5 Square said:

Started stealing

Is that my lamp you're carrying?

*tackles Square*

[Push R Truth]

I now only dine on moderately endangered animals as opposed to critically endangered ones.



It's been pretty rough.

[Sir Woodrow]

I had to fire one of my Maids.

Now the Butler has to do twice as much.

[Can you afford to pay me, Gah]

Well, when it comes to clothing I buy it from work when it is on sale or goes Clearnce. So I buy it them. I get a lot of name brand stuff for like 10 Bucks or less. Being that I work at basicly a discount clothing store. So the regular price for us is about half of what the vender tags say.

So buying high dollar stuff that is normally 50 to 60 buck shirts or pants. For what I said is awesome. Buying dress clothes (What I have to wear at work) and nice stuff period for cheap is great.

I to have tried to cut back on buying things I don't have to have, just what I need. Which I have done pretty good at but can do better. But being I got a second job at Big Lots. This will help in two ways. Extra money but I can cut on cost when it comes to cleaning supplies and some food idems.

Also I do most my grocery shopping at Aldi's. Outside a couple things that I can't get there which I get at Walmart. Which are like three things. But I got myself on a food buget where I only spend so much a month on food.

So yeah I cut in different places. I don't go out as much as I did either. I used to go to the Casino which I cut late last year. I haven't gone since like Oct. I was once or twice a season. But winter none. I used to go to bars to see this one cover rock band play. I haven't gone since last April. So that's a Ten dollars for getting in I saved and the drink money also.

[The Genesis of KoOS]

I went from the high end prostitutes to the cheap hookers.

[Big Daddy Bad Booking]

It's funny you guys get to cut back, but my rent went up this month, and now its very much harder to put any sense of coin in my savings.

[Deleted]

-If you go shopping for food, plan by making a list. I know it sounds silly, but if you plan out what you intend to have for the next 7 days, you will save yourself a whole bunch of money in the long run.
-Eat light before you shop. If you don't eat at all, you will just start grabbing anything that looks good at the time. If you stuff yourself before you shop, you won't feel like getting anything.
-Scan those ads on Wednesday; there is a lot of good ideas for dinners and what-not. Play one store against the other for stuff you want. I can get (roughly) the same stuff at Sav-A-Lot as I do at Van Til's or Ultra for $75 less.

-I'm also trying to quit smoking. I'm down to less than 1/2 a pack a day, down from over a pack a day just last week. Federal taxes will be going up 70 cents a pack in April, not to mention what your respective state plans on tacking on for their own benefit.

[hmbnimbus]

I stopped working... that cut me right back financially.

[Deleted]

I'm not

I don't really have any frivalous spending IMO. I don't smoke, I only go out drinking once in a while

[bob]

I don't eat out, have ordered a lot less PPV's, cut back on my DVD spending, and have only bought 1 video game in recent months

[joestodge]

Feb 20, 2009 8:55:12 GMT -5 Baixo Astral said:

I took up smoking, and then quit.

thats the hardest thing you could ever do!

have a dollar.

[Albino Heat]

Feb 20, 2009 9:37:42 GMT -5 The Genesis of KoOS said:

I went from the high end prostitutes to the cheap hookers.

You TOTALLY stole my answer. Kudos, my friend.

[The Booty Disciple]

Funnily enough, the gf and I tightened our belts about a year ago when she graduated with her second degree and I quit at the restaurant. It was touch and go for a while, given that I was only getting $8.50 an hour at around 20 hours a week for a while, and she wasn't working (she'd never worked before...she didn't understand the concept of throw out as many applications as possible, follow up, and beat the path until you find something...we had a few yelling matches about that, since I've been working since I was 13 at a formal job, and doing work for money prior to that). We cut back on food budget, going out, drinks with friends, etc. It was an interesting adjustment for us after three years of having cash on hand from working in the bar and restaurant and spending all our spare time with our friends from work at either the place I worked or another bar.

But hey, when things got tough several months later for a lot of our friends, we were ahead of the game. My hours picked up, I got a great raise ($3/hour), she started working nearly full time and went back to school for yet another damn degree (legal assistant this time), and we'd already adjusted to budgeting and keeping our spending in check. We had empathy for our friends, but very little sympathy, since they were bitching about only getting to eat at McDonald's THREE times a week instead of their usual five and only getting to drink cheap vodka instead of a top shelf brand when they get soused every weekend.

This growing up shit sucks.

[AnM is back]

I've decided not to cut back really. I mean I'm not going out blowing $ or anything, but if I stop spending, I'm not helping the economy right? Isn't that (supposedly) the point of a stimulus package, to give us $ to spend to stimulate the economy? (aside from doing other stupid things to our country...ahem, sorry) So why should I not spend now? Not saying that saving is bad or anything, I do recommend that too (and we are saving a bit as well).

[Cyno]

I'm only burning $50 bills instead of $100.