Economy making you stay home more spend less?
Posted: June 25th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Q & A | Tags: Economy, home, less, Making, More, Spend, Stay | 4 Comments »I know I have gone to renting movies rather than take the family out. eating out is kind of rare and we eat more hamburger and fewer steaks then we used too… My big conversion van only got one weekend family trip this past summer rather then several camping fishing trips… so what about you? have you too been forced to make cutbacks?
yeah, the fridge is rarely full. i think my bf and i spend about 20 bucks a week on groceries! I have a car payment and that takes up a big chunk of my monthly expenses. And now my car is on the fritz, so there will be more cutbacks, im sure.
Most definitely. I haven’t been able to take my kids anywhere this summer, and i’m getting sick of living paycheck to paycheck! Now,instead of splurging to get my nails done at the salon, I learned to do them myself,and now even make a few bucks doing them for other people who don’t want to spend as much.
Cutbacks at our house too. More meals with soups. I use the car far less…walk if we can. Going to be a light Christmas too. We are going to winterize the house to lower the uses of gas to heat our home. I also called my Cell phone and cable providers to ask for deals or cut backs.
Fuel:
My husband and I began carpooling for our 100 mile round trip to work to save money when gas hit $3/gallon. It’s tight in my little Aveo, but at $30 a fill up & 28 mpg, its better then driving the Jimmy.
Entertainment:
We’ve taken to renting movies from the library instead of Blockbuster and if we do go out to see a movie we only go to the $1 theaters (no popcorn, candy, snacks or pop though). Family game night has made a solid come back and is the one night we might order out for pizza, otherwise we “splurge” on a couple of frozen ones. Other perks have been cut back or cut out all together like buying music/ring tones/games online, going to concerts (unless they’re free), magazine subscriptions won’t be renewed this year, etc.
Vacations:
Our “big family vacation” out west was nixed for a joint vacation with the rest of my family up north to help share expenses. No Disney trip in our future. We’re probably going to take vacations to places where we can stay with family.
Grocery:
Brand names have been replaced by generic. We take advantage of the local “discount” grocery stores where you bag your own items. We buy as much as we can in bulk including meat, poultry, and non-perishables. Snacks like chips and cookies are no longer on the grocery list unless they are on sale (like say for $1). We’ve even planted what my Grandmother is calling a “Victory Garden” for fresh produce.
Money is tight, but we are making do. We have nothing to complain about, we still have jobs, there’s enough money to feed the family, our house is paid for so there’s no threat of losing it. In my mind even if we hit an all out depression, our grandparents & great-grandparents survived it, we can too.