We already cancelled the landline ($420 annually), the gym ($408 annually), the daily paper, and have reduced how often we eat out as well as grocery splurges. I hate tracking our finances with Money or Quicken, so signed up for Mint, and I check it weekly to monitor our spending.

But here are some things we’ve always done to save, or recent changes we’ve made:

FOOD:
We now shop at the local Winco (discount grocery store that also offers bulk items) for most staples, with limited organic produce purchases at other stores. We purchase meat in the discount, quick sale section of the grocery stores, which means we can’t be as picky, but we often save 30% right off the top. Then we freeze it immediately.

WORK/COMMUTING:
I am lucky enough to telecommute. I rarely use more than a quarter tank of gas a week and I drive a 4 cylinder Nissan truck, so my mileage is fairly reasonable. Hubby owns his own business, his airline travel is covered by clients, or is tax deductible. My employer pays for our high speed internet.

DRIVING/AUTOS:
We sold the big Ford 250 two years ago – we saw this gas increase coming. We both drive smaller 4 cylinder trucks now.

My husband does all of our oil changes and most of our auto maintenance himself (brake & shock changes, tune ups, belt changes).

We both changed our driving habits! We don’t go above 60 mph now and avoid jack rabbit starts or gunning it at yellow lights. We’ve reduced fuel use by 15-20% doing this alone! That’s an $11 savings per tank for me at $4.20 per gallon.

ELECTRIC/UTILITIES:
We cut our electric bill by 20% each month! Here’s how we did it:
*Unplugging chargers (toothbrush, cellphone) and other small appliances like the microwave when not in use.
*Turning OFF the computer and printer when not in use.
*We changed all of our lightbulbs to compact flourescents
*We changed our hot tub timer to run during offpeak hours (10 pm-6a.m., ours runs for 2 3-hr cycles). We lowered the temp to 101f.
*We do our laundry and run our dishwasher after 10 pm on weeknights, or on Sundays, when power is cheapest here. We use the energy saver button always.
*We turned the hot water heater down to 120 and wrapped it in insulation.

PETS:
We cut down on treats for our 2 dogs to just 1 per day. We trim their nails & wash them here at home instead of at a groomer or dogwash.

HOME/MISC:
We repair our items as much as possible rather than replace them. For instance, we have good shoes resoled and we polish our leather items ourselves; we purchased a second hand sewing machine for minor clothing repairs; we tune up our lawnmower ourselves; husband reglazed our windows himself. We also do most of our own home maintenance (we built our own fence and clean/seal our own deck) and all of our own yardwork.

GARDENING:
In the summer we grow our own tomatos, herbs, and some veggies like snow peas, squash and beans, etc. I make and preserve our own jams, and also can fruits (I purchase from a local farmer in bulk) and our homegrown tomatoes. Not necessarily cheaper, but much tastier and a lot of fun. We purchased 3 rainbarrels (end of season sale) and catch the water from our downspouts, and use it for as much gardening as we can.

In the shower, I catch the cold water that runs (while waiting for the hot water to arrive) in a big bucket, and dump it into a rainbarrel for garden use. Or I water my plants with it. I do the same at the kitchen sink in glass bottles – for the dog dishes, the house plants, etc. Our water bill is 1/3rd less than our comparable neighbors because of our conservation efforts. They’re now doing the same.

MEDS:
I am on two medications (chronic problem but well managed) – using a mail in pharmacy saves me 40% cost! That’s a savings of $40 per month!

Doing these things has enabled us, even during these tight times, to save 18% of our income for retirement and have a 6 month emergency fund

We just purchased a small 1000 sq foot home on 4 acres. Because we settled for less house, more land – the payment is only $100 a month more than we pay here in Portland (it’s just the two of us, 1000 sf is plenty, folks!). We’ll be moving there soon, then we’ll be renting out our current house for a $120 monthly positive cash flow.

No, we’re not flush, but we’re fairly thrifty, and I have to admit we’re not feeling the pinch of this economy all too much. When we hit $8 a gallon, then I’m sure we’ll feel the pain too!

Sorry so long! Love reading everyone’s ideas and efforts. Good luck to all! )

I hear you on the beer budget though.

Some simple examples:

Eating out: Avg $250/week = $13,000/yr
– living in the big city and working 60/hrs a week, serving on boards, etc. does not leave much time for cooking. Plus with all the extraordinary restaurants in NYC, its more a form of entertainment (like going to the movies).

Beer & Wine: Avg $400/month = $4,800/yr
– I’ve been gradually moving up the scale, experimenting with more expensive wines. The local wine shop has done a good job of cultivating me as a customer (too good a job it seems).

Car rentals: apprx. $8,000/year
– We don’t own a car, I take public trans to work, but we rent cars a lot during the summer for weekend getaways. Could cut back on half that easily.

Vacation travel: $15K – $20K per year.
- Except for going to visit family, we could cut back most of this. Like everything, our taste has moved up over time. We could get used to traveling in steerage again if we had to.

There’s plenty more we could cut back. Don’t get the wrong idea. We save plenty too. And we always have a contingency plan for cutting back if we need to. We hate fixed expenses, and we don’t ever lock ourselves into long-term contracts or payment plans for anything.

Our biggest fixed expense is our housing, which in NYC is a BIG expense. That one always scares me a bit, but come to think of it, we have rental income to help defray a big part of our housing costs.

I believe in having a plan for just about everything.

I like CDs.

Miscellaneous travel. We live in the middle of nowhere, so going to see anything requires a full tank of gasoline. This was ok when it only cost around $30 or so to fill up, but now that we’re paying $75+, we’ve put a big damper on a lot of our travels. That probably saves us around $200-300/year.

I’m with you on the beer and pop. My husband averages about $30/WEEK on those two things.

No worries, JLP… I just thought it was really amazing to save 19 grand by just cutting back on those things… so I did the math.

I mean I could pay off my student loans in one year by doing just those things!!

Anyway, it is amazing how much less some of us COULD spend… but choose not to. We should consider ourselves very blessed that we have not had to cut back like this already because of rising energy prices Etc.

Luckily, the difference for me between $35/wk and $42/week in fuel really doesn’t matter.