What do you do in crisis mode?

[firewife]

I'm looking for suggestions as to what you do when you really have to cut your spending/make extra $$--things that might be a little drastic to do long term, but can get you through the rough times.

[reezz]

When dh's business slowed down, I halted all spending. I stepped back and took a hard look at what was going out, Dh is bad with expenses so I took over everything! Every single dollar counts and adds up fast! No more stopping at Dunkin Donuts for a hot chocolate or McDonalds for a burger.

We keep snacks/drinks in the vehicles to avoid "pit stops" between meals.
We plan weekly meals. We do eat out once a month because thats our "special family thing".
I only use 1/2 pound ground turkey in the pasta sauce (nobody even noticed).

I love Direct Deposit- no temptations.
I make it my business to be very organized (shopping, bills, appointments, etc.) because it saves money and time.

And to make extra money:

Sell everything not used (or nailed down) online, tag sales, fleamarket and barter.
I scrounge extra coupons, labels, caps, points from friends, family and neighbors to trade for items that I use.
I return recycles for the deposit.
I do surveys and rebates.

Good Luck!

[luvncoupons09]

I've been there, when DH business went out cuz we all know how builders were one of the first to suffer these hard times. Take a look at everything like suggested above. I cut home phone and cell phone down to nothing, got rid of one cell, kept satellite, but got rid of 2 extra boxes ($5 a month) and cut back to basic, we don't go out anymore, all pack lunchs, eat meat that's on sale, coupon like mad (you're already on the ball there). Cut out gym membership, credit monitoring service, etc. Try to keep bills on time, to save money in long run. Call mortgage, cars, etc., sometimes they will defer a payment and help you catch up. Good luck, we're all here for you.

[dgarza]

We cut our landline phone and neither of us own a cellphone anymore. DH stopped drinking beer (hooray!) which saved an extra $5-$10 a week. I eat less snacks (the cost can really mount up). We only by clothes that are either on clearance/or a fab deal. We coupon like crazy and have a budget set in stone. We live on one income which after tax brings home $38000 a year, for a family of four. Also my hubby took up two part time jobs recently. He will do this for the next three years. I ebay, do surveys and data entry on the computer to bring in money for a rainy day.

[firewife]

Thanks for advice, all. I appreciate it and I repped you.

[livermoremom]

Hi, DH is a cop and we went into crisis mode overnight when the department announced last year that they were eliminating *all* overtime-so this drastically cut our income. Some things I did were:

turning down the heat as much as possible (62 degrees), being extremely diligent about turning off all lights when not in use, and turning off the computers when not in use-this has saved us $50 a month.

keeping our driving to an absolute minimum. I went down to one tank of gas a month, and dh only drove to work and back.

Obviously, no eating out. I cook all of our meals at home, and with couponing and shopping the sales, I've saved tons of money. This is the single biggest area that I've managed to save in, and I've shaved about $500 a month off of our monthly household/grocery bill by waiting for things to go on sale, and then using a coupon with the sale, like waiting for dog food to go on sale at Target, using coupons with the sale, and then getting a gift card back to buy something else I need, for instance.

Cut the cable bill by downgrading the package. Also, if they have specials where you can get cable, internet and phone bundled, you can shave quite a bit there.

We have two car payments, and rather than turn the cars in (not an option), we refinanced the loans to stretch out the payment terms. We'll pay longer, but in the short term it cut our payments by a couple of hundred dollars a month and allowed us to keep our vehicles.

I color my hair at home (bye bye highlights!), do my own pedicures and eyebrows, and since I'm a SAHM, I don't need a fancy wardrobe, so I haven't bought any clothes in almost two years (well, one pair of jeans). No Starbucks, no magazines, I check out books from the library instead of buying them.

I hope this helps. I literally panicked when this first happened to us, because I didn't know what to do. But by doing the above, we've adjusted to the considerable loss of income and although it's tight, we can still have things like cable and our cars and make ends meet. When dd goes to school, I go back to work. Until then, its' worth living tight to be at home with her. Good luck and keep couponing!!! It will help so much!

[fugazied]

We cut our landline phone and neither of us own a cellphone anymore.

That's a bit extreme! How do people contact you?

For the first round of 'extreme' cuts, I'd stop unhealthy foods and habits first. If you smoke, drink, eat junk food. Kill it. Saves a ton of money and you will live longer. Watch the energy bill, phone bill, water bill. They can be reduced easily. Stop eating out, get back to food basics (steamed veges + pasta is filling + CHEAP, you don't need expensive meat every night).

[mycouponhunter]

My dh has an online store and his sales have been cut in half within the last two years. Some days he makes 0. Everytime I tell him may we need to cut our losses and do something else or he needs to sell something else then he'll get a huge order.

We have decreased our spending overall and have done a lot of long term cutting.
Short term stuff if we need $100 over the weekend we sell stuff on craigslist. I recently needed at least $50 for the weekend and I sold my daughter's baby swing which I was trying to sell for a long time. Next weekend they are having a community garage sale I have tons to sell. That was one of our ways to make some quick money and clean up the house. I'm a minimalist and don't believe in having too much stuff so we don't mind selling items around the house that have no sentimental value.

Long term- We got rid of our cell phones. We really don't need them. We sold our second car because we both work from home. We moved from a house that was costing us $1600 a month to $1100 a month. We eat at home. We might go out once a month and I've given up my daily iced coffees (I get them every couple of weeks now). My husband has reduced his business expenses.

Grocery bill we go shopping once a week unless it's milk or something that we can't wait for. We buy staples and not too much junk. Occassionally if I can get wheat thins or crackers cheap I'll buy a couple of boxes. We buy more fresh veggies, fruit, and basics.

[Kellybelly]

I have never done this, but I read that some people sell their plasma for extra cash.

Growing up, we didn't have a phone for 7 years. Yes I said seven. It's not a typo. My mom couldn't afford it, and it annoyed her. We either walked to town (3 minute walk) or used a neighbor's phone (in an emergency). They were about 10 steps from our house.

There were times when things like coffee (even at home) were a luxury. We just didn't buy it. When we had tea, we used the tea bag twice before we threw it out.

My mom went without a car at times. She worked nearby so she walked to work.

My husband and I do many things mentioned by previous posters. Cut every non-essential bill if possible: Long distance phone service (just keep basic), cable or satellite, internet (if it isn't needed for work etc.), shut off and unplug every single appliance that isn't in use. It's true what they say about phantom power. If you can make do with one car, then do that for a while. No driving unless it's necessary.

I know this won't help you now, but one thing that has helped us is growing our own food. We do a lot of canning in the fall. We make our own jelly, jams, ketchup, and pickles as well. You can grow some vegetables even if you don't have a big back yard. Google container gardening and Victory Gardens. There is a wealth of information on them.

Good luck!

[firewife]

Thanks again! I tried to rep, not sure if it worked. It said it did, then said I couldn't rep the same post twice. Hmmm.