Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

We've cut our shopping bill by 50%, we're down to $200 a month for 5 of us (full time) and 8 of us (on weekends)...... the shopping trips are longer because we are shelf surfing for the bargains but we've got the kids in the habit of looking for the products that have more value, and the one that saves us the most money each time we shop gets let off their chores for the week!

The only downside to it is that we are living on more of what I call 'crap'.... less fresh meat / veg, more frozen / processed stuff but I've got the kids on multivitamins to try and make up for it.

We've looked at cutting back on our other things - cable, cellphone, stuff like that, but when we moved into the house in June and things were better financially DH signed us up for 18 month contracts on most things, which sucks.

Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

Same here. Our job situationo has not changed and probably will not. But our electric co. increased rates this year to help pay for the major wind storm in the fall, seems like food prices have went up and we now pay for the kids groceries (college). It's always something.

So Hubby takes leftovers/sandwich (i always did) for his lunch instead of going out, the thermostat has been lowered, we go out less and I cook more, etc.

Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

[QUOTE=clarissageo;7270593]We've cut our shopping bill by 50%, we're down to $200 a month for 5 of usQUOTE]

Can you come shopping with me and show me how to do it. I am spending at least $150 per week for 3 of us and we are eating out once or twice on top of that :eek:

Agree with you though that somehow processed junk ends up cheaper than healthier fresh foods. My shopping bill is always 25% more when I go on a health kick and fill up the trolley with fruit & veg.

Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

you might like to look at the clauses! Even paying a get out of contract fee might be cheaper in the long run than paying for something for the next 12 months that u can ill afford! Example.. kids had a cell phone contract $150 to cancell it a year early but the 12 months to run on it would cost $960. And we saved a lot more than that having them added onto ours.

Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

We have cut back on our groceries by about 40%, we don't eat out or in fact go out any more :(.

Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

Wow! We send $50 every 2 weeks to my 2 kids for groceries and you would not believe what smart shoppers they've become. DD is in charge of the $$ and it is on a card that can only be used at certain stores with alcohol/cig restrictions. DS works at Panera so he brings home food when he closes, they give rest to a food bank daily. Any leftover $$ they have can be used at some local restaurants for a treat every couple of months.

They pay their own rent/utilities since they chose to move away to school, so they turn the therm. down, turn off lights, etc. too. I think they're learning some very valuable lessons....now they know why we always got after them for wasting energy and food.

Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

it's a kind of mud here.

Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

We've cut back on going out to dinner weekly and instead do it every other week instead. I no longer go out for a bite for supper on Tuesdays by myself when DH is at the NYS Guard. We took the verizon package for phone, internet and tv and are saving nearly $100 a month since we were able then to cancel our cablevision service. Shopping more at Costco for staples rather than just buying one item of a product when needed.

Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

Oh my goodness.. I have just checked our Budget Report on our checking account. Its shows how much we spend each month on certain things. I CANNOT believe what we spend on groceries! I do cook with fresh meat, vegtables, herbs etc most nights.. but I will seriously have to look at how I can ecomonise on some of this stuff. I know on my part it is about being more organised.. planning meals better, rather than running into the grocery store daily :o

I have started calling around to see if I can get better deals on things like insurances etc. Haven't cancelled anything yet - but certainly being more cautious about what we spend.

Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

We used to run to the store almost daily too, mainly because DH refused to eat left overs and encouraged his kids to be the same way. All that has stopped now and it is quite surprizing how much you save.

Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

TBH, the way things are made us refinance to get a much better mortgage rate and have more equity in the house. The FICA thing hurts though, so we are no better off at this point. However, we have started saving like crazy because of having to pay for college for the kids and for 401K's, ( catch up).

Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

I've trimmed the fat on everything I could get my hands on...contract cell phones GONE!..we were spending about $100 a month on them with cingular and had over 3,000 roll-over minutes..we never use the bloody things, so now we have pay as you go..which I only need to top up $20 every three months..and the bizzare thing is its got better coverage in my area than any of the over "major networks"..which is cool...

I love cooking from scratch, but I've been really looking at the prices of fresh produce and they are shocking...for example..$1.10 for one lousy medium sized tomato, $1.12 for a medium sized russet potato...and don't even get me started on the price of grapes and fresh fruit..:frown:

I'm trying to teach my daughter about healthy eating but how in the hell can I do this when a home cooked meal costs me $15 to make and the crap junk food is all "2 for $5 deals"...tit-heads..:mad:

sorry, rant over..

Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

Oh I totally agree.. I love cooking from scratch.. but many times I have gone out and bought ingredients for a meal and it would have been cheaper to eat out. I'm wondering if buying meat in bulk (costco?) and freezing would work out cheaper. I bought staple stuff in Walmart the other day (first time to do so - no aversion to Walmart just never thought about it before) anyway, some stuff.. i.e. ketchup was alot cheaper. Our grocery bill is aleast $300+ a week.. thats just gotta stop!!

Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

In CA, resident hunting license = $38.95. Deer tag = $26.00.

Hope that helps :thumbsup:

Re: What have u cut back on/cancelled in light of the economic situation!
 

:ohmy: I'd live on PB&J sandwiches before I could cut back on the old vino "hic":beer::lol: