We recently went from two income (one full, one part) to one income only. We do not have any debt except a small car loan. We live in an area that does not need the use of heat, and we keep it at 65 when we do need heat. We have Costco and Amazon Prime. We got Costco because it was such a great deal from my old job, but now that I can't get the membership through work, we won't renew. We use Amazon Prime a lot because we have young children. Because we are long time customers with our cell phone carrier, we have a plan that is no longer offered and is lower than any other plan they or any other carrier offer. We do not have cable and went from eating out 1-2 times a week to about 2x a month. When grocery shopping we buy very little processed food and only allow buy one treat for the entire week (one for each of us; his is usually cookies, mine ice cream). We plan our meals based on what is on sale, and we watch our meat consumption. We maintain our vehicles well so that cuts down costs. We compare rates frequently and change if we can get a better deal (we recently switched car insurance and am about to switch renter's insurance). Our biggest expenses are food and medical. My husband has a chronic condition that costs a lot to keep on top of in order to keep from having to go to the doctor often. He often says we spend too much on food, but we do not buy a lot of junk and processed food, we are healthy which helps keep our health costs down, and we don't waste food. With us going down in income, we are not able to put money into retirement and we are looking for ways to cut costs further so we can continue doing that. I'm looking for some creative ideas because I've used all my tricks!
January 14, 2017 at 03:42PM
