How frugal can you get? suggestions needed (long)

[~~Who,Me?~~]

Ok, so my job ends June 11, and then I get to join the ranks of the unemployed. I'm confident that something will turn up, but I also would like to be able to enjoy my period of unemployment.

The downside of being a perpetual cheap-azz, is that there's not much room to trim our budget, kwim? So now we will be at about half my salary, a little less even, for six months, then who knows if there will be extensions after that. My kids and family are very important to me--iow, a quality of life thing, so I'm not just taking any crap job, which means we'll have to tighten the belt. But there's not much room for trimming.

What are some things I'm not thinking of? Where are some areas I can trim?

1. Only our house and one car are purchased on credit. Everything else we have is paid for. So getting rid of credit cards, or consolidating, paying things off......the option just isn't there. Downsizing our house isn't really an option, it's only 1400 sq ft, hardly a mansion for four people.

2. Home costs--we've done a ton of renovating over the past 10 years. We have new windows, new doors, new roof, new furnace, new appliances. Everything has good energy ratings. We rarely run the ac in the summer, and the heat is on timers in winter to save $$. I only run washer & dishwasher after 9 pm or before 6 am, to save $$.

3. Food--there's really not much room to trim here. Like many of you, I have a huge stockpile. I could save on lunchmeat, produce, some things like that--but maybe I'd save another $10-$15 week.

4. HBA--cleaning supplies, diapers, TP, shampoo, etc etc etc: Haven't paid for that stuff in years and won't have to for another several years if we lived off the stockpile. No place to trim the budget there.

5. entertainment--ha ha. Entertainment. I have a 1 yo and a 3 yo. We don't go out much and when we do it's to a park to hike or something else that's free. We don't do movies, dinners, all that stuff.

6. clothing--some room to trim here. I can stop buying clothes for myself, that's about 100/month. DH is very frugal when it comes to his clothes. I already buy really really cheap clearance stuff for my older son, who then can pass it on to my younger son.

7. utilities--we are frugal with our electricity. No house phone. Cell phones only have basic plans, nothing fancy. Cable is basic and I'd need it anyway for internet job searching.

The only place to trim would be to take a less expensive health care plan, not a fan of that. Stop saving in our savings or retirement accounts, not a fan there either.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading and I'd appreciate any suggestions.

[CouponSAHM]

Other than any expensive bad habits you might have that you could quit (we smoke so that would be the first thing to go) sounds like you have all your bases covered.
If you get a tax refund every year, I might look into changing DH's tax deductions to have more bring home. For your clothes shopping, you will have time to thrift store and consignment shops if you wanted.
Sounds more like you need ways to make income not cut costs. You have that well covered!!

[~~Who,Me?~~]

I know!
I guess I could give up my wine, lol. But we're talking maybe 2 bottles every month or so. So less than $20. And being home full time, probably need more wine, ha ha, since I'll be with the kids more.
I guess between the wine, and if I got REALLY frugal with the groceries, that could be $50/month. Add in $100 per month for my clothes, now we're up to $150. Woohoo, lol.

I'm having a yard sale this Saturday, hope to get a few hundred bucks there. And I've put aside my nicer maternity stuff, going to try to ebay that for more $$. I'm also going to scour the house for anything else to ebay. I've registered on chacha, maybe that will get me something.

I really would like to not have to go back to work at all!

[captainQpin]

yeah youll need more wine lol .....what about extras cell cable internet? cell drop text messages get a cheaper plan with less minuites cable just basic if you have to drop it all together get alot ov vhs tapes for your kids at yardsales for .25 each or if you have netflix you can stream alot through a wii and such bundle things like intenet and cable ect calll companies and say your thinking of switching / cancaling cause you cant afford it is there a better rate they can do?

make your own detergent for you wash if needed?

i know you do alot of this already but still good ideas

[faeryedark]

what about surveys and product tests?
Not huge source of income but there's a few companies I do. I prolly make $100-$120/mo. You have smaller kids and alot of companies like that.
Granted I get paid mostly in amazon GCs but every little bit helps

[Merczilla]

About my only suggestion is to sell the unpaid for car and buy a used paid for one. Would eliminate the car payment and lower insurance costs. Recheck your car insurance costs. We just have the bare minimum required. We dropped uninsured/underinsured as that doubled our payments. We drive older rigs (that are in good condition). I have a 1978 Olds, hubby drives either a 1982 Olds SW or the 1982 GMC truck. But he can fix anything that goes wrong with them. We don't buy newer computerized vehicles. I do have the highest amount of medical coverage I can get on the car insurance, though.

[meggers]

This is not from me, but from seedlady. She so impressed me with it, that I tell everyone I can. Check out your local farmers market & see if you can trade your H&B items or other stockpile items for fresh produce with anyone. And you could do the same with other things too.

Plenty of folks here have bartered for handyman services they've needed.

Tell friends & neighbors you would be willing to trade them for the clothes they're not wearing anymore. They're new to you & you know where they came from. You could do the same with "new" toys for the kids.

[~~Who,Me?~~]

My local farmers market is all Amish folks, I don't think they're big on HBA items, you know, without running water & all...........lol. And if you've ever stood close to some in the summer time, deodorant isn't a high priority for them either. Good idea though, I may consider it.

There's nothing really to drop from our cell plans. We don't text. I may call & ask for cheaper cable though. Ha ha, a wii. You're funny. I'm too cheap to buy a wii.

I am going to call our insurance company early next week and do a complete overhaul/audit. We've just been sorta blindly paying the monthly bill, for house, cars, everything...without reevaluating it recently. We use USAA and I know they are one of the most inexpensive companies out there. I'll have to check & see what we owe on second car.

Baby is emptying my purse and giving contents to puppy--gotta go for now. THanks everyone.

[CouponSAHM]

I know!
I guess I could give up my wine, lol. But we're talking maybe 2 bottles every month or so. So less than $20. And being home full time, probably need more wine, ha ha, since I'll be with the kids more.
I guess between the wine, and if I got REALLY frugal with the groceries, that could be $50/month. Add in $100 per month for my clothes, now we're up to $150. Woohoo, lol.

I'm having a yard sale this Saturday, hope to get a few hundred bucks there. And I've put aside my nicer maternity stuff, going to try to ebay that for more $$. I'm also going to scour the house for anything else to ebay. I've registered on chacha, maybe that will get me something.

I really would like to not have to go back to work at all!

LOL Don't give up the wine! Cymbalta is even more expensive!!
Have you looked at all the bills to see if DH's paycheck covers those? Maybe it is a good time to quit altogether
We dropped our income in half when I became a SAHM and within 2 years my husband had made it up and over what we had been.
Something about the "having" to provide leads to providing.
We are having a yardsale this weekend too! My mom and I do one 4 times a year and sell lots of stockpile things. There's a great thread on pricing somewhere around here. Also since there is no one to pass down the baby's clothes you could sell those to a consignment shop.
Everyone is giving such good advice and you know we are all rooting for you!

[thickbluebug]

Great job!
There were some frugal threads on here about what people do to save money. I don't go as for as some on here like squeezing ketchup packets from the fast food places and put that into a ketchup bottle - but I do lots of other things to save money.

To trim the budget we:

cut the (free) paper towels in half and made some washable napkins,

quit using zip bags and started using my rubbermaid containers instead,

unplugged all the vampire appliances - lot's of things like vcr's, microwaves are using power and it's wasteful to me since some were just blinking

use the spiral lightbulbs - they really do cut down the powerbill

use fabric liquid fabric softener as dryer sheets (cut a sponge up and soak it in downy, ring it out and toss it in the dryer),

watered down my clothing detergent - it cleans just as well and the front loader stuff is watered down anyway

planned on making .02 detergent (but I keep getting it for free).


Quit using the dish washer so much.


Hang up towels instead of washing them everyday. I mean you are clean when you get out of the shower - so we reuse those a couple days b4 re-washing.


My next financial change will be using the library for internet. I won't be able do email, but I can use some friends computer for that.


As for as an income:

Maybe you can take a bag of cleaning/hba to family and friends to sell and get some cash. Turn that into the tax/oop money for freebies and do a booth on the week ends.
Some in my area do the flea market/booth venue and make over $1000 a month - yeah that's 1-2 days a week. I have read on here where some get as much as $5000 out of their yearly yardsales. They buy freebies all year long and sell one day out of their garage.
Some do the - take a stockpile bag to work and get $50 or so every time.


Teach coupon classes,
with all the advertising about how much people save by using these scraps of paper - people are looking to couponers for help. I have read where people charge $10/15 a head and have the classes at churches (so they didn't even pay for the location). WOW, and some don't even provide inserts for the students.

My passion is rebates.
Have you checked into those?

Some states don't require the rebater buy the beer - and I know people that trade for forms for their neighbors and relatives and split that incoming money.
Most neighbors and friends don't even know what a mail in rebate is - so they are happy to split the money.


The states that buy the beer, someone usually has a friend that drinks and will save the crts/upc's and people do trade for upc's. Lots of waitresses and dumpter divers (convenience stores) trade the codes for as little as .25.