Deedee13

Just curious where your cutting back on in light of the economic situation and the lay offs going on.

My neighbour has plans to start a veggi garden!

Us, I got rid of the expensive tv package and went with what we really need. We were not watching the movies anyway! We got rid of one of the trucks and got a second hand honda 12000 miles for $5000 for hubby to go to and from work and for the child from hell to drive!! . Its going to work out cheaper with diesel being what it is. Look in the newspapers for the groceries ad. And i do a list before i go shopping what from what store!

Going to get rid of the house phone as were all quite ok with the cell phone package and uverse enables internet without a house phone! Its not dollars were really saving but pennies - but its a start. We have looked at all of the insurance we have cars, accident, and life.. and made sure were up to date. Amazing what i saved on that. Apparently being over insured is as bad as being under insured.

We pay off our credit cards every month so we dont get interest on that!

That being said we just brought a fifth wheeler brand new for a deal that "hubby" couldnt say no to One mans loss another ones gain! The dealerships are hurting - so he jumped at it.

hobbes79

Nothing too drastic as yet...

1. Dropped the movie channels on cable.
2. Cut back on cell phone plan (always had far too many mins anyway).
3. We've stopped drinking (kinda)... most painful cut back yet! But $10 bottles of wine on a random Thurs night all of sudden seemed hard to justify.

Not cutting back as such... but we went ahead and have done our taxes already rather than the usual wait until the last minute. We bought a house last year and are eligible for the $7500 tax credit. Plus our standard refund, that's money we can use right now and I'd rather not wait until April! Fingers crossed it will be in the bank by Friday.

Giantaxe

Not a lot... yet. I reduced my cable bill by removing some premium channels, I am trying to stay within a strict budget for eating out, and I am making sure I pay for stuff out of current income rather than putting it on a credit card. I never borrow on credit cards anyway, but I want to make very sure that if I do get layed off, I am not faced with big credit card bills to pay off during the first month of unemployment.

Giantaxe

Don't forget that credit is repayable down the road!!

pgtips

Good advice here, we all have so much ineccassary stuff we can cut back on.

elfman

1. Check
2. Check
3. hasn't come to that yet

hobbes79

Oh, I know! You don't pay anything for 2-years and then it's something like $500/year after that. And even then, that's the $500 from your deduction i.e. if my refund in a couple of years is $2000, it will simply become $1500.

No interest either.

It's still very artificial... but I'll take it

Ray

I cut Sanchez 's wages ... and increased his hours
now he can spend longer doing nothing and
getting paid less for it ..

neil

Why cut back unless you have to? Seriously, the $10 a month I'd save by cutting a movie channel out of my cable bill isn't going to mean anything if I lose my job. If we spend less then more people are going to lose their jobs surely?

Giantaxe

If you choose to overwithhold and get a refund...

Giantaxe

A good point, but otoh, if you feel that you are at risk of being layed off down the road, why wouldn't you cut out things that you feel are of marginal value anyway and save that money instead?

chartreuse

We're spending a shed load right now, what with the move and all, but so far we've:
1. Started selling absolutely everything on ebay.
2. Are downgrading our UK cell phones from contract to PAYG.
3. I'm taking sandwiches most days, rather than buying lunch.
4. I'm seriously thinking about packing in the fags.

pejpm1

Nothing yet, but am mentally preparing for the possibility of a reduced bonus...or maybe even no bonus

cindyabs

We had a budget meeting yesterday,

DH, who is the king of the spreadsheets had put in expenses into nice neat little categories and we went over them and for right now we are cutting-

downgraded cable-don't watch enough to justify having the premium channels or additional box in the bedroom.

Drop AOL

Considering dropping our landline which is 27 bucks a month. We have minimum number of minutes on our cell phones now- 450 for the two of us and never use that, since 99 percent of calls are to people in our network.

Cut back on impulse eating out, ie I don't feel like cooking. So we'll open a couple of can of soup, or I'll do some poached eggs on toast.

I know there will be more, but I have to wait to see what my paycheck is on Friday, since this will be the first one with the cutback and the readjusted health insurance.

Bottom line if income drop is 20 percent, then cut back on expenses 20 percent.

SpoogleDrummer

I've not cut back on anything but then I'm the only full time programmer at a software company that specialises in subscription based tracking software for student nurses so as long as people still get sick I'd say my job is pretty safe. Once I've paid off a few bills with my tax refund and my green card renewal in May I may actually have money to buy luxeries that I can cut back on later