How low could you go with your expenses? - Page 2

[velochic]

Originally Posted by Ellien C

me, too.

I've often thought that if times got really tough we could finance into a 30 year mortgage instead of our 20. That was always my plan if I was suddenly unemployed or making significantly less. I'm not so sure that's viable these days. And we are about 4 years into our 20 with 5.75% interest, so that really might not be an option. We do have equity, even at current home values.

We have a 30-year fixed with the attitude that we can pay it as if it were any lesser termed loan. On a 20 or 15 year fixed, you are forced into the terms of your mortgage. Depending on how the market is doing (and our investment returns), we may make the regular payment or overpay by 3 times. The goal is to maximize your returns and have flexibility.

[Ellien C]

Good point. I'm afraid if I wasn't on a 20, I just wouldn't pay it off early. I'm not that disciplined.

I was paying an extra $200/month on the mortgage, but when we re-fi'd and I had day care costs, I stopped it. DC will be ending in Aug, so I'm thinking about adding more on. But I also "owe" DH for the flexible spending accounts (we switched to his employer) and I never set up that money....

[Clutterbug Jen]

:

I love this thread!

Jen

[kittywitty]

Rent $700 (will be $450 in 2 weeks)
Water $50 about minimum-we don't use a lot
$200 gas/elect with conservation usage
$40 phone (as cheap as we can get-even get charged in town where we're moving and need for emergencies-dh is diabetic and family lives far)

We have spent $250 a month on groceries for our family of 5 eaters and it wasn't pretty. Mostly Kraft Mac & Cheese. I would only go that low again if it were a matter of life and death or desperation.

Internet we can use at the library, but dh really needs it for work to check his students, so that's a last resort.

We buy used or get hand me downs mostly for clothes.

I buy diapers used and resell them, even the soakers I make for the babies so I recompense that yarn money.

Christmas this year we spent less than $400 for our entire huge family including food which isn't bad since I just gave birth. But we could go lower.

Books-we mainly use the library, but I buy the kids school supplies for homeschooling. This year it's about ~$600 for waldorf homeschooling 3 kids, but minus some watercolors and crayons and paper, that should last for another 8 years as far as books, etc. go for 4 kids.

Student loans we pay ~$275 a month on which we have to do no matter what.

[Citymomx3]

Let's see. I could probably cut:

Landline phone, saving $60/month

Eating out, saving about $100/month
(I totally have a problem with this. I really need to learn to shop smarter and start meal-planning)

Using the car so much, saving at least $100/month
(I live in the city and could walk to almost anywhere I need to go, so why don't I?)

Cigarettes, ugh I know.

Impulse purchases, saving around $50/month
(Jeez, I suck with this. I'm always getting someone a piece of candy or a small toy, something cute for the pets, a magazine, or a sale item I know I don't really need. I gotta stop this)


I do save on:
Full cable and internet (I work for the cable company)
Rent (MIL-owns our 2-family house, so half what we'd normally pay)
Laundry (free washer/dryer downstairs)
Storage (full basement)
Clothes, shoes, bags (I'm not picky and only buy sale or cheapo stuff and very infrequently)
Field trips (my job gives us free corporate membership to museums, theater, gardens, and zoos)
Summer 2-day family trips (dh gets a lot of "comp" tix to theme parks in the area and usually a free hotel night as well)

I like this thread - I learned a lot already!

[SAHDS]

We could move if we absolutely had to, I suppose. DH is from Indiana and we could find the same house for 1/4 the price (savings - 2000/month). I'd rather rent out the 4th and 5th bedroom to family and stay where we are.

We could also cut cell phones (85), sell our paid-in-full car (35k), trim the food budget, travel less - day trips, vacations, camping (thousands per year), cancel our YMCA membership (106/month), cancel Internet (30/month), skimp on extras - zoo membership, movies, eating out. Add to our garden/plant more berry bushes.

[damona]

i've been thinking about this a lot lately. currently, there is next to no income, just what my parents give my dh for helping them move!

our cell phones are paid up thru january.

we have no cable, no car payment, no car insurance, no landline, we don't eat out anymore, utilities etc are included in the rent (we live in subsidized housing), and i mostly use my truck for taking kids to drs (30 miles away), unless it's raining.
i'm down to 1 pack of cigarettes a week, and often less, dh is around 2 packs a week, which my stepdad gets for him.
none of the kids are in any sports or camps or anything, except the church sponsered stuff, which is about $5 per kid, so not bad.
the 2 cats eat generic food and have the cheapest litter already.
i volunteer at a local food pantry with my oldest ds 2x/month and they give us the "extras" that don't fit in the pre-made boxes (totally unexpected bonus to the volunteer work!)
the internet is wifi via a friend.
i already cut out paper/throwaway plastic stuff, except for toilet paper and diapers for ds#4. the family cloth idea went over like screen doors on a submarine.
we have enough clothes for twice as many kids as we've got, and my oldest is still ok with hand-me-downs from older friends. i might need a few things for this winter (unless i lose weight, ahem), but i'm perfectly ok with thrift store finds.

other than quitting smoking completely (oh please, not yet!), i guess that there's not much we can do to cut costs any more!

[CityChic]

Interesting...we could

-Minimize our cell phone plans (-100, can't get rid of them, they are our only phones)

-Get rid of cable (-100) We have this for DH and baseball

-Stop eating out (-200)

-DH could (and should) stop smoking (-40)

-Move (-100) We have looked into moving. With the cost of moving and paying full utilities we might save around $100.

Other then that we are down to the bare minimum. I just looked over our bank statement and the only money outside of bills and savings goes to eating out and snacks.

[ChetMC]

Cutting Costs

We could cut a lot:

Rent : The house that we're renting is a good size and very well located. It's $2350 a month, but we could have certainly found something suitable for $1600 or $1700 a month. A cheaper house would be cramped when we have company though, and it would have been farther from stuff. Right now DH can bike to and from work in less than ten minutes and we walk for nearly all of our errands.

Phone : We could ditch the landline and just use the mobile and internet phone. I'm not sure what we pay for the landline. We have a phone, cable, internet package with ComCast. I think it totals about $100 a month for all three.

Cable : We are cancelling cable. DH only got it when he was here by himself. Now that the kids and I are here he doesn't watch it. I'm not sure how this will work with the bundle though. One of DH's arguments for getting cable when he was here alone was that it was really cheap as part of the phone, internet, cable package... like $10 a month.

Netflix : We could certainly live without this, but current plan is to have Netflix instead of cable.

Food : We spend way more on food than we need to. We buy out of season produce and stuff that needs to be shipped here. We buy a lot of cheese and spend the extra money to get lean meat. The meat isn't always certified organic, but I like to get locally butchered, grassfed beef. We don't buy a lot of processed snacks and packaged food, but we do splurge on things like nuts and fruit juice.

Eating Out : We probably spend $100 a month eating out as a family, and DH buys his lunch at work. I would rather that he bring his lunch, but it's a new job and going out to eat, or eating in the cafeteria, is as much a social thing as it is anything else.

Laundry : We need to start hanging things to dry instead of using the dryer. This house doesn't have a clothes line though, I haven't found a drying rack that I like yet.

Car : Right now the car costs about $140 a month. We own it, so the only costs are $110 for insurance and about $30 for diesel. It would be possible for us to just stop using the car entirely. We could manage with the bus if we needed to.

We do really well with some things though. Cleaning supplies, personal care products, clothes and gifts are rock bottom. I'd be hard pressed to cut any further on those items. We do well with activities and entertainment too. We do a lot of free stuff like parks and beaches, and have memberships and discounted admissions for most of the other stuff that we go to.

[SAHDS]

Originally Posted by CityChic

-Get rid of cable (-100) We have this for DH and baseball

HA HA, football is the reason we can't get rid of ours. You won't find cutting cable on my list because I couldn't live w/o the games! I think I could starve before I missed out on a Sunday or Monday with the fam around the plasma. Bad, I know.

[Tradd]

Originally Posted by CityChic

-Get rid of cable (-100) We have this for DH and baseball

Heh! I listen to the Cubbies on the radio (I tried watching them during the play-offs in 2003 before I went TV-free and it was just too weird. Prefer Pat & Ron!). Heckuva lot cheaper!

[AngelBee]

Fun Thinking...

[StrawHatBrat]

We could do alot. I'll have to think on this one.