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How I Could Find $13,000 Per Year If I Had To
By JLP | June 9, 2008
NOTE: I messed up. I had originally titled this: “How I Could Find $19,000 Per Year If I Had To.” Well, I made a cut and paste error in excel, which led to my numbers being off by $6,000. The error was caught by a reader and I decided to fix it. Sorry for the mistake. I try to do a better job of proof-reading my posts but sometimes I mess up.
Below is a small list of things that I could cut out of our budget if it became necessary. No, it wouldn’t be fun, but it could be done if I had to. I urge you to create your own list. I think you’ll be surprised just how much you could save if you had to. My list could potentially save nearly $13,000 per year!
Beer - I like beer. I enjoy trying different beers. But, I could give it up if our budget required it. My guess is that I could save $50 per month if I quit buying beer.
Coke - I know, I know. Coke is nasty stuff and I shouldn’t be drinking it. But,… me likes it! I could cut it out of our budget and save $10 - $20 per month.
All other non-essential groceries - These items include things like cereal bars, ice cream, fancy cheeses, and any other items that aren’t essential groceries. I have already cut out ice cream unless it is on sale. I’m just not gonna pay $6+ for a half gallon of ice cream. My best guess is that I could save $400 per month on groceries if I cut out non-essentials.
CDs - I like music and collecting CDs is a hobby of mine. But,… if it came down to it, I could cut out my CD-buying ways and save several hundred dollars a year.
Eating out - Our family spent over $5,700 eating out last year. Obviously we could save lots of money if we buckled down and refused to go out to eat.
Cut out cable and high speed internet - Things would have to be really bad for me to go this far. Why? Because we have a new HDTV and watching regular TV on an HDTV sucks. I’m also on the internet a lot so getting rid of high speed internet would not be good. That said, if I were to get rid of both cable TV and internet, I could save $107 per month.
Ditch my cell phone or landline - My landline costs around $42 per month and my cell phone is around $30 per month. If I ditched the landline, I would most likely have to upgrade my cell plan as it is currrently 250 minutes per month with 1,000 nights and weekends. If I split the difference, I could most likely save another $20 per month.
Those were just a few things I could think of at the time of this writing. What about you? Do you have a suggestion that I could add to the list?
Topics: Budgeting |
