What do you do to make it through the tough times? (sell, sale)

[Andrea Mills]

I've always been frugal and I never forgot the stories I heard from my grandparents about the tough times they went through. I've found that cutting back and tightening the belt in today's economy wasn't all that hard and I've actually learned valuable lessons from my grandparents:

1. We live without cable/satellite tv. We get our news online. I can't do without watching Frasier every night but I watch it for free on the local channels that come in over the roof antenna. Both hubby and I like cooking shows and some cultural stuff. Public Television's CREATE channel has tons and tons of cooking shows and there's plenty of cultural stimulation as well. All for FREE! Saves us around $50 a month.

2. We let the sun dry our clothes. I grew up without knowing what a dryer is. I always had clean clothes to wear. We dried our laundry on the clothes line. Sending our dryer into temporary retirement saved us about $30 a month. Hubby put up clothes lines on our screened porch and we bought a few bags of clothes pins. I hang most of it on hangers. If you do it right, you don't have to iron most of the clothes either.

3. We open our windows from October til April, no A/C. We also don't heat during Florida's 3-hour winter. This knocks off an additional $40 off the electric bill from October til April or $23 per month on an annual basis.

4. Exchange all conventional light bulbs with energy saving bulbs. It cost us around $80 to do this for every light in the house but we save about $25 a month on the electric bill. Took only a little more than 3 months to break even on the investment.

5. We don't eat out (a lot). Yes, we did take advantage of McDonald's 59cent cheeseburgers on Wednesdays (and now Sundays). Other than that, we cook at home. It's quality time to plan and cook a meal together. This is where I remember my grandma most. Her post WWII recipes are invaluable! We calculated that not eating out but cooking in saves us about $150 a month.

6. We don't go to the movies. We get DVD at the redbox at Walmart for a dollar. All the newest blockbusters. Add a box of popcorn, 8 ct. for $3 and you're good to go for a while. Saves us $35 each time we watch a movie at home. Let's say we would go to the movies once a month, that's a $35 savings a month.

We're up to $313 in monthly savings already.

I pay 50 bucks a month for my prepaid cell phone, unlimited minutes and texting plus I can use it to go online, also unlimited. Best deal around. I depend on my cellphone for work, so there's no way to get around it.

We started a kitchen garden this summer. We are not sure just about when we're going to break even on that investment but since we are having so much fun taking care of it, breaking even isn't that important anymore. Tilling, fencing and weeding was really quality time we spent together. I make one trip a day to the compost bin. Since we cook a lot, we have a lot of kitchen scraps. Why not re-invest them back into our garden? So far, we're growing tomatoes, corn, beans, squash, peppers and a few herbs. Also watermelon and pumpkins.

What are you doing to save a few extra $$$$$ and has the economic downturn forced you to re-think how you spend your money?

[RVlover]

'What are you doing to save a few extra $$$$$ and has the economic downturn forced you to re-think how you spend your money?
'

I was raised to be frugal too. Glad it stuck. Mainly, I :

1. Set thermostat at 81 f. for Cooling and dont turn it on till 4 pm.
2. Run electric water heater for just 1 hour per day to take shower and do dishes.
3. Go out for a fancy dinner with my Singles Group once per month., instead of each week.
4. Take in activities which are either free , or low cost, like : going to the Beaches , walking around the Harbor, listening to the Music in the Park series, Tubing, RVing locally , Pistol Shooting once per month at an outdoor range, running errands all on one day , and buying most of my things at Super WalMart to save money.

[mango23]

Originally Posted by Andrea Mills

I've always been frugal and I never forgot the stories I heard from my grandparents about the tough times they went through. I've found that cutting back and tightening the belt in today's economy wasn't all that hard and I've actually learned valuable lessons from my grandparents:

1. We live without cable/satellite tv. We get our news online. I can't do without watching Frasier every night but I watch it for free on the local channels that come in over the roof antenna. Both hubby and I like cooking shows and some cultural stuff. Public Television's CREATE channel has tons and tons of cooking shows and there's plenty of cultural stimulation as well. All for FREE! Saves us around $50 a month.

2. We let the sun dry our clothes. I grew up without knowing what a dryer is. I always had clean clothes to wear. We dried our laundry on the clothes line. Sending our dryer into temporary retirement saved us about $30 a month. Hubby put up clothes lines on our screened porch and we bought a few bags of clothes pins. I hang most of it on hangers. If you do it right, you don't have to iron most of the clothes either.

3. We open our windows from October til April, no A/C. We also don't heat during Florida's 3-hour winter. This knocks off an additional $40 off the electric bill from October til April or $23 per month on an annual basis.

4. Exchange all conventional light bulbs with energy saving bulbs. It cost us around $80 to do this for every light in the house but we save about $25 a month on the electric bill. Took only a little more than 3 months to break even on the investment.

5. We don't eat out (a lot). Yes, we did take advantage of McDonald's 59cent cheeseburgers on Wednesdays (and now Sundays). Other than that, we cook at home. It's quality time to plan and cook a meal together. This is where I remember my grandma most. Her post WWII recipes are invaluable! We calculated that not eating out but cooking in saves us about $150 a month.

6. We don't go to the movies. We get DVD at the redbox at Walmart for a dollar. All the newest blockbusters. Add a box of popcorn, 8 ct. for $3 and you're good to go for a while. Saves us $35 each time we watch a movie at home. Let's say we would go to the movies once a month, that's a $35 savings a month.

We're up to $313 in monthly savings already.

I pay 50 bucks a month for my prepaid cell phone, unlimited minutes and texting plus I can use it to go online, also unlimited. Best deal around. I depend on my cellphone for work, so there's no way to get around it.

We started a kitchen garden this summer. We are not sure just about when we're going to break even on that investment but since we are having so much fun taking care of it, breaking even isn't that important anymore. Tilling, fencing and weeding was really quality time we spent together. I make one trip a day to the compost bin. Since we cook a lot, we have a lot of kitchen scraps. Why not re-invest them back into our garden? So far, we're growing tomatoes, corn, beans, squash, peppers and a few herbs. Also watermelon and pumpkins.

What are you doing to save a few extra $$$$$ and has the economic downturn forced you to re-think how you spend your money?

That is a pretty good savings. It is about $10.00 a day. Most people can themselves save that an more by just keeping their hand out of their pockets for useless purchases. We nickel and dime ourselves broke. I have an at home office and found myself, just to get out of the house for a few minutes, running to the Wallgreens a few times a day. I would buy an ice tea and maybe an energy bar or something. I was spending $10.00 to $15.00 a day for pretty much no reason in Wallgreens alone. Add to that the gas for like 60 trips a month at 3 miles a trip. I was doing this 7 days a week. It seems like nothing but it really adds up. Over priced vending machines are another vampire that will bleed your money away for stuff you can do without. Here is something I just got a few months ago that is great. I bought one of those Magicjack's for the phone. I haven't gotten rid f my home phone but it only costs me $23.00 a month now and I do all my long distance on the Magicjack. Funny thing is, it is making me money now. I find myself making more personal contacts with customers rather then relying on just email. I used to hate to call people because they want to talk to me about things other then business.

I need to add this because I didn't include the math. I was spending a shocking $325.00 to $375.00 a month with my Wallgreens habit. That is over now.

[kristin4]

I have always been thrifty..

1. garden if you keep the seeds, and do everything yourself, this is free
for pests in the garden, use dawn dish soap and water

2. do all shopping in one day saves gas

3. use coupons as long as the price is cheaper than store brands

4. buy store brands they are just as good, sometimes better

5. no credit cards only for emergencies!!!

6. no car loans

7. if you do not have the cash for something...don't buy it

8. enjoy the free things in life!!! beaches, flowers, swimming..conversation

9. rent dvd instead of movies only go to the theater 2 times a year

10. cook all meals at home very seldom eat out

11. If I want something really bad, sell something I no longer want

12. cancel the cell phones we lived centuries without a phone on our ears
all day and we survived. Plus, this is one of my
biggest pet peeves...I hate seeing people in
cars, beaches, stores, etc...talking on the phone

13. keep thermostat at 78-80 degrees

14. use ceiling fans

[fauve]

Another option for movies is Netflix. For $8.99 a month you can have one movie in the house at a time, PLUS watch unlimited "instant" movies & premium plus reg channel TV shows. They have 10,000 available. You can even connect your computer to the TV and watch them on there if you want.

[harry chickpea]

Great thoughts Andrea.

One expense that most people think of as mandatory is not. I refer to insurance.

Throughout life, I have taken the advice of my father to heart and dutifully "bought" insurance. Going into some tight times, I have had to re-evaluate that. Overall, it has been a lousy deal, and has been getting worse.

Part of the reason we moved from south Florida to Alabama was insurance costs. Auto insurance, health insurance, and property insurance were ALL cheaper in Alabama. The savings were thousands of dollars a year. We were paying for the stupidity of bad drivers by living there, we were paying for the stupidity of people who were hurricane ignorant and of contractors who built cheap with our home insurance, and we were paying for the excesses of the "Oh I've got a boo-boo on my finger, I need an MRI" crowd on health insurance.

With insurance costs rising on our home in Alabama, I finally took a long hard look at costs vs. benefits. In my entire adult life, and in the adult lives of my parents and siblings, none of us has made a single claim on property insurance. We have been pro-active in safety measures, and avoided the stupid mistakes, like having huge nearby trees in hurricane country. When the cost of property insurance topped 1.5% of the home's replacement value, I finally decided to drop it. The value vs. the cost makes it an educated gamble that I am now forced to take.

I am at an age where I would normally not want to be without health insurance, but the rates just increased again and I can no longer afford the limited coverage I get. In the past 72 months, I have made no claim, and the claim that I put in 72 months ago was denied, and left me scrambling to pay what started out as a $70,000 trip to the hospital. I did my own negotiating and dropped that amount to a little under $20,000. Upon reflection, the insurance MIGHT have saved another $10,000 had it paid. I've paid well over that in premiums for nothing.

I don't like going without, and I realize I'll be taking a chance, but by dropping it I can save, on a day by day basis, more than it costs for all of our groceries and then some. More and more people are coming to similar conclusions, especially as the unemployment rate rises and the cost of basic items continues to increase.

We make our own bread products. We make our own milk products. We try to raise our own food as much as possible, but that has its own startup costs, like fencing to keep the deer out.

Our mantra has become - if a company has high profits or overprices its goods, we don't want to support it. If I didn't need a landline for business, I'd drop our phone in a heartbeat. I long ago dropped cellphone contracts and went with prepaid. I don't like being ripped off, and I react to protect myself whenever possible.

[stock66]

I can't say the economic down turn has had any effect. I pretty much live the way I always have unless I find something better.

• I try to fix things myself instead of replacing them. If I don't know how I find a class, read a book or search for answers on the internet. I've taken classes on upholstery, stained glass, mechanics, etc. I wouldn't say I have any particular aptitude for much of it but I get by.
• My husband and I both have jobs within walking distance of home. Not always possible but we worked hard to set things up that way. We also live where stores and such are close. We have one car, it rarely gets used.
• I shop loss leaders and plan my meals around sales. Don't go to stores without a list and get what I need not just whatever I pick up. I cook from scratch.
• We like to travel. We use our credit card and get free flights and do home exchanges. Gives us great trips for very little. We also love to have friends and family visit us and we visit them.

[mjohnson4381]

I really need to get my electric bill down. These might be stupid questions, but I have several light fixtures that have four light bulb sockets. If I take two light bulbs out of each one, will that help?

Also, I leave for work around 8:00 and don't come home until 5:30 or later. I've been turning off my A/C while I'm gone. Is that the right thing to do, or should I leave it on 80 or something while I'm gone, so it doesn't get too hot?

I've never heard of MagicJack before. I just now looked it up online, though. So, does it work even if you don't have a home phone? As long as you have a computer?

[Gandalara]

Originally Posted by mjohnson4381

I really need to get my electric bill down. These might be stupid questions, but I have several light fixtures that have four light bulb sockets. If I take two light bulbs out of each one, will that help?

Also, I leave for work around 8:00 and don't come home until 5:30 or later.

Check to see if your electric company has a "TOU rate". SC Edison in California has Time Of Use ... On weekends, on holidays and between 6 PM to 10 AM electricity costs .07815 per kWh. Cheap! Monday through Friday (unless it's a holiday) between 10 AM and 6 PM , electricity costs .26127 per kWh. Eeek! This is perfect for a single person or a couple who work during the day. It takes a special meter, that costs 12 cents a day.

I have used TOU for years now. Sometimes it's a pain - I'll come home from work before 6 PM on a very hot day and watch the clock, LOL. I never turn the unit completely off. I leave it at 85 while I'm gone, since daytime temps here can stay at 110 for days on end. But it gets cranked down after 6 PM

As for taking 2 bulbs out, it may help a little, but not much. Unplug your 'trickle' appliances (the ones that are instant-on) can help a little too. Even if your TV and DVD/VCR is turned off, there's a very small amount of power being pulled. Heck, I even unplug my coffeepot. And make sure your refrigerator coils are clean.

Maybe your power company does the free home energy efficiency surveys, where they actually come to your house/apartment and tell you where you can do better?

[FreeSpirited1]

My brother has it & it seems to work well.

Vonage is another option, too. Either option just plugs into your computer for free long distance

MagicJack is the better value, with an annual charge of like $20, whereas Vonage is $9.95 monthly.