If you missed it, be sure to read Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.
5. Make Simple Budget Cuts
Once you have streamlined your life, set goals, gotten your home in order and created a budget, you’re ready to get more intense about looking for ways to cut your budget in order to free up extra money to pay off debt or save money towards your financial goals.
I suggest you start with simple things that will make a significant impact: Do you have memberships or subscriptions you’re currently paying for but not really using? Can you renegotiate some of your bills to get a better monthly rate? Could you cut back on costly regular expenditures or come up with creative alternatives?
After examining your regular expenditures to see if there are things you can cut or renegotiate, if you’re still struggling financially and need to come up with more breathing room, I’d suggest that you consider doing things which might be more extreme (click on that link for a list of 28 things we’ve done to stay out of debt).
I also encourage you to start slowly adopting a “Never Pay Retail” philosophy. Living frugally or on a budget doesn’t mean you never buy nice things or never pay for anything new again (though buying used is definitely a smart choice in many instances), but you can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year just by committing to use some coupons for items you’ll already be purchasing, planning ahead and buying items you will need soon when they are at their lowest prices and looking for creative ways to get discounts on items you plan to buy.
For instance, if you have room to include a “Dates and Eating Out” category in your budget, you can stretch your budgeted money farther by watching for restaurant coupons and deals and purchasing restaurant vouchers through Groupon or Restaurant.com to local restaurants you like.
A Word of Caution
Don’t feel like you need to cut your budget down to such a barebones level that you don’t have any wiggle room or that you can never splurge on anything. If you’re planning to live a frugal and simple life for the longhaul, you must give yourself some grace. In fact, I say that you should budget for splurges. It doesn’t have to be anything costly, but choose a few things which you really enjoy and budget for them so that you can enjoy them without guilt.
For instance, we budget for eating out once a week, we budget for vacations and special family outings and we budget for me to get my hair done. Some people might argue that these things are incredibly extravagant of us, but these are things are family has decided we enjoy and choose to spend our money on. So we budget for these expenses and then we splurging guiltlessly!
Living on a budget doesn’t mean you have to eat beans and rice for the rest of your life or be misers. It just means that you are telling your money where to go ahead of time so that it’s not just passing through your fingers like sand!
6. Remember to Take Babysteps
As you start looking for ways to reduce your outgo and cut costs, it’s easy to get carried away and try learn and do everything at once. If you’re not careful, you can find yourself completely overwhelmed trying to menu-plan, stockpile, print coupons, clip coupons, organize coupons, shop at multiple stores, play the Drugstore Game, sign up for freebies, read great blogs… and on and on it goes.
My advice: take babysteps! Pick one new skill to learn per month and don’t feel guilty over what you haven’t learned or aren’t doing yet.
7. Don’t Compare Yourself to Other People
Sadly, sometimes we can spend a lot of time worrying about what other people are doing or not doing and base what we do or don’t do upon that. If there’s one thing I can not re-iterate enough, it’s this: don’t compare yourself to other people.
We’re all in different families and situations and locations. We all have different goals, different needs and different strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, what works for one family isn’t necessarily going to work for another family.
Maybe your family has food allergies which mean you can’t eat certain things and you need to have twice the grocery budget that your frugal friend without food allergies has. Or maybe you enjoy going out to eat more often so you have a higher “Dates and Eating Out” budget, but you buy your clothes at the thrift store.
Perhaps you like to travel so you budget more for that, but you don’t spend much on food because you grow a lot of it yourself. You might have a really busy schedule due to caring for a disabled family member and working two jobs, so you don’t even bother with using coupons and you hire someone to clean your home but you save money by biking to work and re-purposing everything you can.
Whatever the case, determine what works for your family and what goals and priorities your own family has and then create your financial goals and plan based upon this. If other people don’t understand or possibly even criticize the decisions you’ve made, it’s okay.
Do what works for you and don’t worry about what other people think!
photos from Shutterstock
Thanks for these, Crystal. It is hard to struggle and to do everything possible and still “not make it”. But God is faithful! And He is Jehovah Jireh.
Sometimes, even when you do everything you possibly know how to do, and you still don’t quite make it, it is hard not to feel guilty and wonder whatever went wrong. But sometimes, nothing did. Circumstances can just be that way sometimes, and it is just a Season. One that we’re not alone in, and knowing that our Heavenly Father knows our needs, and that no matter what, He will be there for us makes it all so much easier and gives courage to keep fighting and searching and working and to never give up and despair that it will be different some day. 🙂
I stayed home with my son until he was 4mos and then went back to work. At 11mos old the company I worked for laid off 1/2 their employee and I was one. It was an unexpected shock. And, I found out that the highly recommended day care provider had been neglecting my son. When he wanted to eat he crawled over wrapped his legs and arms around my leg and would cry. I fed him and then during his nap sat down and cried big loud sobs. No job, my son neglected, I felt a failure as a mom. I made the determination then and there that I would stay home come heck or high water. I looked at every resource I could find, including empty nest moms who had done it before. I asked what did you do? I sat down and looked at every expense and cut. First I went after things that saved large amounts of money. Car and life insurance were cut by hundreds of dollars. We refinanced our home, saving hundreds of dollars a month. Then I went after the smaller everyday expenses. Everytime I looked at my son I gained strengh and motivation to find another place to cut money. Eventually, our expenses were low enough that we were able for me to comfortably stay home. I learned how to make it seem like we still had luxuries on a small amount and we still went on vacations, just not expensive ones.
Did you make your own baby food? If so, any suggestions? I feel like that would save us a lot of money, and I’ve tried to do it (I feel like it should be easy), but it’s harder than I thought. Thanks!
So far, I haven’t started solids with any of my babies until they are around 6 months and then just really slowly introduce them, so this somewhat has eliminated the need for lots of pureed foods. I’ve just started them with soft veggies and/or fruits and gradually work out from there. We have used one of those hand-held baby food grinders and ground up whatever food we were serving that we could feed our baby. But most of the time, by the time they are nine months or so, they were ready to eat table food.
I did get some really, really inexpensive organic baby food packets with an online deal back when Silas was around six months old or so and we used that for when we were not eating at home, but otherwise, I never really purchased or made baby food.
Yes, I’m one of those moms who doesn’t really do things “by the book” — which freaks some people out! But hey, it works for us so I just go with it! 🙂
@Crystal, you know we “went by the book” more with our son and he is an incredibly picky eater. With our daughter we started her on more table foods…less purees and she will eat pretty much anything.
We also did more homemade baby food with her and seasoned food for her from a much younger age.
Have you checked out this site Michelle?
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
A lot of really great info on there.
@michelle, When one of our parents gave us a “Magic Bullet” system a few years ago, I thought it was an odd and probably useless gift (I already had a blender, after all), and it spent more than a year collecting dust on a shelf. When it was time for Little Man to begin solids, though, the Magic Bullet was amazing for making baby food. Cook the veggies on the stove, put the cooked veggies in the Bullet, and voila! – pureed baby food. As Little Man became ready for more table food and different textures, the pulse/tap feature was great. And now I use the Bullet for lots of other kitchen stuff, too. I sure wouldn’t recommend paying full price for the system, but if you ever see one at a yard sale or thrift store, snatch it up!
My husband and I have been trying to cut back on spending and get out of debt, we paid his truck off a couple of months ago, I completely forgot that we could contact the insurance company and change the coverage to liability only. We don’t need to pay for full coverage anymore. It won’t be a lot of money saved, but it all adds up over time. Thanks for the reminder!
I totally agree with the not comparing yourself to others. You always hear about not comparing yourself in terms of living above your means, having a new car, etc. As you mentioned, it also holds true in the frugal world as well. Just because 1 family has a food budget of $30 or $40 per week doesn’t mean that works for all families. Everyone is different and needs to do what works for their family. Learn from others, but don’t feel you have to live like others.
My daughter is in gymnastics and my son is in cub scouts. I save in other areas of my life, so I can afford to do things that my family enjoys.
When it comes to comparing yourself: absolutely don’t do that, but DO compare yourself to where you were a year, a month or even a week ago! It is amazing what changes you can see and make in a short amount of time (i.e. “oops! Our electric was really high this month so we can make it up next month by hanging our clothes out to dry and adjusting the thermostat a few degrees.”).
I totally agree! Setting goals is such a great way to see the progress and traction you’ve made!
Looking back on our time spent getting started, what I’ve noticed is a trend of taking about 6 weeks to notice a measurable change. I think this maps generally onto Crystal’s suggestion of only trying one new thing a month. We started with a menu plan and a few coupons, and after about 6 weeks, I felt like the menu planning was going well. Then, we added more coupons, and about 6 weeks later, (after 2 grocery store sale/coupon cycles) I felt like I was getting the hang of that. From there, it was really just building on what was already there in the foundation. We started expanding to other areas, and boosting areas where we already were saving. For example, once I got the hang of coupons, building a stockpile was easier. Once I had a stockpile, having an eating from the pantry/freezer month was easier. Once getting menus together a week at a time was easy, I started planning for a month, and saving them each as a google calendar that I can print out. I n0w have a library for the past year, and since certain types of foods are regularly on sale at the same time each year, there is a good chance that these foods will be on sale again in the coming year. I present this as an example of how the process has evolved for us.
Crystal,
On a totally diffrent note or back on the law school sort of note. I think blogging is great for every woman and having a budget and accounting is also a great idea.
I personally have learned the very hard way in life. I worked starting at 11 put all my coins away and had worked up to $36K by the time I was 19 I got married put him thru medical school. He would never let me see our books (Massive mistake!) He walked away with everything we saved left me with 199K of debt and zero education and two children to finish raising. Ladies be smart it is really hard to start over again and over come all of the above when your are 50 years old.
Just some extra advice from someone who learned the hard way.
@Jan, I agree with you! I think that we live in a time where a wife is equal to her husband, whether she is working or not, and both should be actively involved in the household finances. My husband makes a majority of the money but without me supervising it we would literally be broke.
It is also important to keep up on skills so that in the event that you have to venture out into the workforce (for whatever reason) you will be a viable candidate for well paying jobs. I took an online class on Microsoft Excel after I had my first child and was able to get a really great job because of it at a small and very family friendly company. I only work there on Saturdays now but get paid really well and have learned so many new skills that I can put on my resume when I am done being a stay at home mommy someday.
I am old fashioned in believing that the husband should be the primary provider for the family but that doesn’t mean that as a wife I need to sit back and completely rely on him for everything- we are a team and I want to contribute as much as he does in my own way. I know that it takes some stress of my husband’s shoulders knowing that he can rely on me as much as I can rely on him.
Even though I’m not a “newbie”, I am glad that you posted this series. I feel like I need to reevaluate what I’m doing, and my frugal habits. I recently started a part-time job outside the home and my-oh-my, is my time management being tested. I have less time for planning and strategizing, thus the need to reevaluate.
I am no longer able to go to multiple stores and coordinate as many coupon match ups as I used to. As I am more comfortable with my new job, I hope to incorporate more of this back into my life, but until then, I can’t feel guilty about it.
I love this series….I’m not a newbie to saving money or paying off debt, but I feel overwhelmed since two foster kiddos moved in with us. Now we are trying to balance time, money and healthy living. It’s really tough!! I’m trying to give myself some grace these first few months while we figure this out 🙂
When my husband and I first committed to budgeting we realized that we spent nearly five hundred dollars a month at WaWa( A kind of gas/deli shop). That was for lunches and breakfasts and dinners of very unhealthy food because we were too rushed to cook and did not plan our meals. Just sitting down to a bowl of cereal and packing a nice lunch saved us six grand a year. I suggest you print out your banking info for the past two months and look at your trends. good luck!
I wanted to add that there are several things we do to help us cut down on our expenses- one of them, is that we cut our children’s hair ourselves. And when I go for a haircut- I only have them cut my hair, I skip having them blow it out- which saves about 1/3 of the price of a visit.
I did a series of posts about 10 additional ways to save money on household expenses here:
http://momof6.com/category/my-game-plans/plans-to-manage-the-house/shopping-and-budgeting/10-more-ways-to-save/
Warmly,
Sharon
http://www.momof6.com
again I will agree with the other gals about what you said “not to compare yourself to other people”. Such good advice!!! I have done things very slowly, but then these habits “stick”!
Yes, picking the areas that you feel you can handle is really key! When my son was born we immediately knew I would be staying home with him and losing my income plus on top of that we have just under 70k in debt! Hubby ended up having to work 3 jobs for 6 months until we could get our finances under control. I learned how to be frugal out of necessity because I had no other options, I had already maxed out all my credit cards!! Ha! That was 3 years ago now and we are completely debt free and have been through Financial Peace University 3 times and led it once! I have let my self slowly add some luxuries back into our lives (since I’m a recovering shopaholic!) We have a really nice gym membership, eat out often, my hubby and I buy new nice clothes for us (kids get nice, used) and we take some nice Marriott vacations at least 2 times a year. However, since hubby works from home now we only have 1 car, and live in a nice home that is still way below our means. We focus on getting rid of excess and using what we have. Our grocery bill is typically pretty high (over $150 a week) but I feel really good about the type of foods we are buying and as long as it is not getting wasted I feel good about that. I’m sure I could cut back or look for ways to save a dollar here and there (actually, I know I could since I did it for 2 years!) it just isn’t where I’m at right now. Going to the grocery store with children and just having a certain amount that I don’t want to go over is more where I am! 🙂 I actually have ZERO guilt about it too even though I know some areas I could save on! We are out of debt, tithing, giving, saving and spending! Plus, it feels amazing to have some freedom with money again now that I know how to use it (without debt!)
Some easy ways to save money are to shop around for Home Owners Insurance and car insurance. I have save hundreds of dollars and it really takes a pretty small amount of effort. I LOVE to eat out, my husband works late during the week so we only eat out on the weekend. And we alternate what kind of restaurant we go to, one week we’ll go to a more expensive place and the next a lower priced place. I really like Chipotle burritos. We can feed our whole family for about $15 when we go there.
When we do go out to eat, I usually insist that we drink water. Buying a soda cost almost $2.50 per drink multiplied by how many people go and then multiply it by the tip and then multiply it by tax. We also get take out, so we don’t need to leave a tip. It’s pretty painless. When my husband and I have date night and go to Barnes and Nobles and read books. We split a coffee and dessert, it’s way cheaper than a movie. Plus we get to talk to each other.
Using the public library is another huge money saver at our home. We hardly ever buy any books. Where we live we have a program that we can get materials thru an interlibrary loan. There hasn’t been one book I haven’t been able to get free yet. They also have movies, magazines, audiobooks which won’t cost you a cent as long as you return them on time. Our library even has something where you can download audiobooks from their website on to your Ipod.
@http://lindyandjeanne.blogspot.com/, I agree about the drinks- it adds up so quickly! When we are at home, I wouldn’t dream of letting anyone drink soda for dinner, but we had always justified it out as a special treat. When I started thinking about the inconsistency of the message though, and realized that my family could eat out for $20.00 or less without the drinks, we all agreed that the soda had to go!
Crystal,
What is your opinion of CoolSavings.com? Is it something worth signing up for? Thanks so much!
You will receive quite a bit of advertising email from them, so if you sign up, I’d recommend using an extra email account, not your primary account. They do sometimes offer sweepstakes or printable coupons you can’t get elsewhere so I am signed up with an account with them. However, I prefer Coupons.com and RedPlum over them.
@Crystal, Thanks!
I really like how you said to pick one skill per month and not to feel guilty about what you are not doing yet. There is always so much to learn and so much to do from walking with God, understanding your fiances, eating right, etc. Giving yourself grace in one area or another is so needed. We really can’t do it all, and we definitely can’t do it all correctly right at this moment. Grace my friend, we need to give ourselves lots and lots of Grace.
I’ve taken the “do what you can” approach recently. I have gotten to a point where I’m well stocked on just about everything. It’s good to be able to take a guiltless break from deals!
I wrote a similar post about a month ago in regard to your “word of caution” – Thanks for the continued encouragement on your site Crystal!
http://thebigredpot.blogspot.com/2010/09/simple-things.html
@Bethany, Oh and this one on the comparison game. As a therapist, I have found this is a number one issue when surveying the happiness of an individual:
http://thebigredpot.blogspot.com/2010/10/mental-health-monday-1018.html
I agree with Jan. Far too often I hear people say “Well so-and-so can afford it, so why can’t I?” Without being privy to the intimate details of someone else’s income and budget, you have no idea if they can afford what they have or not. Maybe they budget for a big house and nice cars but wear thrift store clothing and eat Aldi food. Or more likely, they have a mountain of debt and only look good on the outside.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I’ve discovered that some of our friends thought we were poor based on my frugal ways! Apparently I should replace the phrase “We can’t afford that” with “I’m not willing to pay that much” in order to avoid confusion. So sad though that frugality has become synonymous with “barely scraping by.”
@Whitney, So sad though that frugality has become synonymous with “barely scraping by.”
You are so correct.Many people only became frugal because of the recession.It was not by choice they scrap by.
I have really enjoyed this series! Very good ideas and inspiration. Thank you!
I am loving this series of posts, and thank you SO much for reminding us to not compare ourselves to others or judge others for their choices. I needed to hear that! It’s very easy to get caught up in the saving money game (which I’m JUST starting!!), and I often feel like a failure. I need to remember each baby step helps!
Thanks for your encouragement 🙂
#7 is key! Don’t compare yourselves to people who live above or means or below! You have to do what you can and do your best where you are at!
This is completely unrelated to your current post but I have been following your site for quite awhile now and I recently have been really interested in the fact that you put your husband through law school without incurring any debt. I am currently looking into attending law school and I am feeling very overwhelmed by the amount of money it costs. I was wondering if you could repost any of your old posts about how you budgeted during law school? My husband and I are trying really hard to keep in our means but trying to save almost 100k to go to law school with our small salaries seems impossible and any inspiration you could give would be SO appreciated. Thanks!
We actually did law school for around $35K + living expenses (which ended up being around $12K per year)! It doesn’t have to be as expensive as some people think! We chose an in-state school (these are much, much cheaper when it comes to law school) and Jesse was able to get a scholarship. He had the money saved up ahead of time to pay for the $35K (from some money his dad invested that he received after his mom died and also from him working during high school and college) and then we just lived on whatever we could scrounge up with part-time jobs each month.
I have a post outlined on Going to College Without Going Into Debt, but I’ve not had a chance to finish it and post it yet. Hopefully soon!
Crystal,
There is a new book out right now called “Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching Off My Parents”- written by Zac Bissonnette and Andrew Tobias. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I plan to. I worry alot about how I am going to help my children pay for college. We have 529 plans set up for each of them, but with the current economy- it has been hard to continue to contribute to them, and of course they have fallen quite a bit in value. I believe this book talks alot about working part time and over breaks to fund school, and also suggests attending a local 2 year community college before transferring over to a traditional 4 year college as a way of cutting the cost of a college education.
I look forward to reading your post!
Warmly,
Sharon
http://www.momof6.com
I just got a copy of this book and can’t wait to read it. It looks excellent!
@Crystal, I always wondered how you really had the money ahead of time to pay for law school without going into debt.Good for Jessie that he was able to get a scholarship.Sad to think he got money because of his mom’s death-lost my mom at 5 so I have been in that situation.Guess the real key is you said he worked and saved during high school and college which is what the average person actually does or needs to do.
Due to a variety of reasons, we’ve not be able to share specifics until just a few months ago. So I’m so excited to be able to give more details in my upcoming article as I hope it can be an encouragement to many!
I’m so sorry you lost your mother at such a young age! 🙁 Jesse still misses his mom so much and I do, too, — even though I never had a chance to meet her. I know she would be so proud of him!
Crystal…you have been giving some wonderful advice in this series. Advice that we can all learn from. One of the best you’ve given is to NOT compare yourself to others. In this day and age of being bombarded with all the media hype, it’s so easy to get caught up in “wanting” much more than we really need. I see so many young families comparing themselves to others, and feeling they are something less, if they don’t have all that their friends or neighbors have. If they would only invest more of their time in the Lord, rather than their money in material objects, they would soon realize how rich they truley are. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your wisdom and experience with us.