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Electric bills are huge in Texas. Ours runs $420 in the summer. Deregulation was supposed to make the bills go lower, but alas, they keep getting higher and higher. Plus it's over 100 degrees many many days here. This is often a surprise to people who move here for lower housing costs and no state income tax.
Anyway, regarding grocery bills, my depression-era grandmother told me, You can't keep running to the store every time you need one item or two or to buy ingrediants to make one specific meal. You make do with what you have. If that means making tacos without onion, then you make tacos without onion. If you go to the store for taco-fixins you spend too much money buying every possible taco ingredient.
A typical taco meal is not expensive.
pack of 10/12 taco from old el paso w/seaonsing = $2.49
head of iceberg lettuce = $1.29
pack of shredded taco cheese = $2.49
2 cut up tomatoes (free if you have a garden) or $2.00
I'm writing this because I notice a lot of threads from people complaining about not having enough money. Yet I wonder how many people really take corrective measures in their daily lives to change matters.
An example? To feed our family of five, my wife and I were running up a monthly grocery bill of $1,100-$1,200. We realized that the high food costs were the result of our not thinking ahead. We'd decide what we wanted for dinner that night, buy it at the store, then make it. Sure, we'd buy some stuff in our weekly shopping, but we really never looked at the costs.
So we decided to really start looking at how we purchased groceries. And we realized that if we did the pedestrian things like clip coupons, plan ahead with our menus, and were opportunistic by buying things on sale, we could really save money. After all, EVERYTHING goes on sale in a grocery store if you just wait a month.
The result, our grocery bill went from $1,100-$1,200 a month to about $700 a month, without really having to cut out anything.
So that's my example. In what ways have you found that using your noggin really helped make ends meet?
Well, we always clipped coupons. I also car pool to work with someone. I also spoke to my boss about telecommuting. She approved that and said she is ready to expand that to more days per week which is a very good look for me. I plan to cut off cable as soon as my promotional deal is up. I want to buy two over the air HD boxes. We don't really watch that much tv. Generally we are on the net, playing video games or on family outings so whats the point of cable? Besides, we have netflix so we can just get the seasonal DVDs of certain shows we like if we miss them.
Also working on doing some things to get my monthly rent down. Depending on how things go I might be able to drop that down by 50%.
Spending extra money gained to pay off all debts and then start saving/investing.
Well, here's another point I would pose to the board.
For every dollar you make, the government takes approximately 40-50 cents in taxes. So, if you're about to buy something for a dollar, you should ask yourself, "Would I spend $2 on this?" Because you're having to earn that much to pay for a $1 item.
Conversely, if you see an opportunity to save a whopping $10 in coupons at the grocery store, you're really earning $20 in after tax income.
It's a good way to look at things. Suddenly those piddley little savings start to add up.
I have a suggestion you won't like. Call the electric company and have the power turned off. Yes, OFF. If you don't have a generator, buy a moderately-powered one (say, 7-8kW). If you turn the genset on for a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours in the evening, you should be able to get everything done you would normally do. Showers, breakfast, laundry in the morning. Dinner, TV, dishwasher and lights in the evening. There are small battery-powered fans that will move the air around with no electricity or generator. Get a propane unit and you'll more than cut your electric bill in half. I've always said that the utilities were just another racket. Most of us can manage. Your case is over the top!
I have a suggestion you won't like. Call the electric company and have the power turned off. Yes, OFF. If you don't have a generator, buy a moderately-powered one (say, 7-8kW). If you turn the genset on for a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours in the evening, you should be able to get everything done you would normally do. Showers, breakfast, laundry in the morning. Dinner, TV, dishwasher and lights in the evening. There are small battery-powered fans that will move the air around with no electricity or generator. Get a propane unit and you'll more than cut your electric bill in half. I've always said that the utilities were just another racket. Most of us can manage. Your case is over the top!
I'm assuming your in Rhode Island. RI has a much different (cooler) climate than the Southeast or Southwest. RI uses the A/C a fraction that these places do, (you basically need to run an a/c from May-June till October in the SE and SW)
so its extremely easy to offer these suggestions from your cool climate.
Last edited by CouponJack; 08-11-2008 at 07:38 AM..
I have a suggestion you won't like. Call the electric company and have the power turned off. Yes, OFF. If you don't have a generator, buy a moderately-powered one (say, 7-8kW). If you turn the genset on for a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours in the evening, you should be able to get everything done you would normally do. Showers, breakfast, laundry in the morning. Dinner, TV, dishwasher and lights in the evening. There are small battery-powered fans that will move the air around with no electricity or generator. Get a propane unit and you'll more than cut your electric bill in half. I've always said that the utilities were just another racket. Most of us can manage. Your case is over the top!
I can tell that you don't live in the Southeast during the dog days of summer. I gladly pay my electric bill this time of year. Some things are worth the price.
I would say it's not a stretch to describe that just as in the winters up north, one must have heat, it's dangerous not to, people can freeze to death, literally.
Here, in the deep south, it's dangerous not to have a/c, at times. Heat stroke.
I've turned up the thermostat, to what is really not comfortable, but at least it's tolerable. I've started hanging clothes to dry. I flip off lights, all the time. We've also determined that maybe our 82 gallon water heater is part of the problem. And that will go as soon as we can get enough ahead to buy a 40 gallon and downsize it.
But turning off and living without some form of a/c, is not a possibility when temps read 100 degrees, and humidity about the same.
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