Damn. The Darling One is 12 weeks old. I've been working quite a few hours a week in the past few weeks so I can "ease" into this whole back-to-work thing. I will be up to 3 days in the office next week.
It's also part of my not-so-secret plan to cut my hours to 30 (or less). Call it a test-run if you will. Can I get enough work done in 3 days in the office and working from home the other 6 hours or so??
Paychecks-be-damned, I like hanging out with my kids.
So, internet, I challenge YOU to come up with some serious money-saver ideas for the KEEP THE HOME IN HOMESTEAD campaign. What's the single most important thing you've done that saves you cash??
Things I'm already doing and/or can't or won't do:
1. Groceries: Buying beef whole (cheaper AND yummier), freezing mass quantities of garden produce from my grandpa (Bumper crop of tomatoes this year....), eating a lot of egg salad (eggs are on sale a lot and make cheap meals),
2. Livestock: I will not buy a goat. Although Sweet Boy drinks enough milk to keep one in production round-the-clock. I refuse to have a child who's biggest kindergarten fascination is the fact that milk comes in cartons. (Ok, ok, I admit..... it BOGGLED me to see milk in cartons when I started school.)
3. Clothing: Not a lot of shopping going on around here. I do buy Lands End tshirts on clearance for work but that's about it. SB & DG are clothed almost 100% in hand-me-downs and Hot Stuff wears fire pants & t-shirts for work.
4. Media: Ok, our biggest expense? Probably movie late fees. Seriously. So we try not to get new releases. We don't have cable or satellite tv.... Rabbit ears. Yes. Rabbit ears. We get two channels downstairs and mmmaaaayyyyybeeeee one or two more upstairs if it is cloudy. We have a land line phone, 2 cell phones & dial-up internet and I've tried to talk myself out of internet service but I haven't been able to give it up.. although I am looking into juno.com or peoplepc.com... anyone have any experience there? We can't give up the land-line because cell phones don't work at our house. I won't give up the cell phones because I need to be able to get ahold of Hot Stuff on fires and his work is too cheap to provide him with a phone... we could get rid of the second phone but it would only save us $10/month (on a $65/month bill) so that isn't something I'm considering right now.
5. Unrealistic expectations: I just put my health club membership on permanent hold ($41/month) although we do use it enough to justify getting a couple of punch-passes ($8/visit) to use the pool.
6. Snacks: I don't drink fancy coffee or eat lunch out. We rarely go out to dinner. We only order pizza for special events. Hot Stuff does have a particular dill pickle sunflower seed addiction that eats up some funds but I'm willing to tolerate it since it replaces the Copenhagen addiction.
7. Utilities: We don't pay water or sewer. Electricity and propane are high but we try to use our pellet stove for most of our heating. We buy 2 tons (that's 100 bags) of pellets early in the fall (they are cheaper then and drier so they burn more efficiently) and that is enough for the winter.
8. Hot Stuff generally drives the Toyota car since he has the longer commute. I drive the Jeep but we are considering trading it in for a Subaru car to save gas mileage. Yes, I'd rather get another little car but, unfortunately, there are times we need 4WD to get out of our yard.... not often, but enough.
9. I'm planning to "shop" our insurance for our house and vehicles to see if I can get better rates... any suggestions??
10. I've already stopped changing the baby's diaper (kidding, geez, relax....) and Sweet Boy is aaaalllllmmmmmoooosssstttt potty trained. That will be a surprisingly big help.... (although I did drop $17 for a SINGING potty to, ahem, encourage the situation..... please don't ask......)
11. I'll add things as you guys come up with brilliant suggestions......
6 comments:
What about cloth diapers? I'm entirely too lazy to do that myself (the thought of *having* to do laundry every other day? NO WAY.) but I hear it can save a *lot* of money. But you need to invest first.
The only other advice I had was about food/groceries, but you probably spend less than we do. I make a weekly menu (for breakfast, lunch and dinner) and that has saved us hundreds of dollars a month.
My Dad used to threaten us with a goat- he'd tell us that he'd have it stand on the table during meals & we'd have to squeeze it ourselves. *grin*
On the cellphones, a couple of years ago, we used to pay $75.00/month for 2 cellphones under the Cellularone plan and after waay too much usage (because we discontinued the land line) it got too expensive. I mean we were running the phone bill past the $100.00 mark. We decided to go through Bresnan where we'd get internet/VOIP (phone), and cable for $120.00/month. VOIP is wonderful because you don't get charged for long-distance minutes and you're only charged for a flat-rate if you also subscribe to the internet and cable tv. After we subscribed to Bresnan, we got rid of the 2 cellphones, paid off our contract, and purchased 2 prepaid Tracfone cellphones. I think those ran around $30.00 per phone and then we purchased minutes and promised ourselves that we'd use them only for emergencies, because the purchase minutes are a bit pricey. We've had the phones since June, and in the 4 months we only purchased $60.00 worth of minutes for both phones PLUS tracfone will sometimes give you incentives for getting free extra minutes.
I don't know how much you use your cellphone now, but if it's something for emergency only situations, prepaid might work for you and save you a little money there.
Sorry this sounds incoherent, I have 2 kids asking me questions and a crying 16 month old..lol.
I hope this helps some. ;*D
-Cammy (Craig's Spousal Unit)
#1) Get Netflix or something to cut out movie late fees. $10 a month for as many movies as you can order and send back in a month, one at a time. It's way cheaper than even renting 3 movies from Blockbuster, not counting late fees. And all you need to do is walk to the mailbox, not drive back to the store.
2) Cloth diapers don't always come out to be cheaper. But if you don't pay water, that's a plus. It just depends on how you heat your water and how much time you want to spend dealing with them. It doens't make sense for me to have them because a diaper service actually makes the most sense, but the closest one to us is over an hour away. Not economical. And they are an investment in the beginning. Maybe find some secondhand? (Might sounds gross, but all my friends swap theirs between kids.)
3) A goat sounds fun. The kids would love it! And you'd never have to mow, right?
4) Do you have Aldi's out there for groceries? They are a great alternative, and you can only get Aldi brand stuff for the most part, so shopping is quick (no brand decisions to make) and about half the cost of a regular grocery store.
Netflix is a great suggestion!
I have Juno, and have had no problems whatsoever.
You didn't mention this, but if you have credit card debt, pay it off. That could be a whole 'lotta' money going down the tubes.
Don't even try to pretend you'll actually PAY for beef if you get it whole. I know better. Tell your spousal unit to remember to shoot something with that new firestick, at least it might partially pay for itself.....
If you get a goat, you have to take Rowdy, too - he likes goats. A lot. Somewhat unnatural, actually......
psu mommy- I've debated cloth diapers but she'd have to wear disposables at daycare anyway so I've never been able to justify the upfront costs. She will continue to get her 24-hour allotment of no more than 3 diapers. (You think I'm kidding, don't you?) I do the menu thing too.... I have too or I find random half-planned meals rotting in the back of the fridge.
Cammy- We can't get cable where we are.... yet. We looked into Tracfone's but Hot Stuff uses his a lot for work (which is why I think they should PAY for one for him.... but they don't see it that way.... they also don't think his job is dangerous.... but that's another post altogether....)
Meeshemama- We don't have Aldi's. We are getting a Costco... is that the same idea? I think Hot Stuff is getting a year Netflix subscription for Christmas.... shhhhh. We had goats when we were kids (there's a pun in there somewhere) and it wasn't a bad thing.... unless they got into the garden and ate the onion tops..... ew.
Sierrabella- Gawds no.... we don't have credit card debt. It makes my stomach hurt just to think about it. We aren't big shoppers and any cool stuff I want I put on my Christmas list.
Anonymous- There are many, many different ways to "pay" for things, grasshopper. I don't see them sleeping in YOUR living room. Does my little nephew Rowdy want to come for a visit? I have a sweatshirt to feed him....
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