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Making ends meet

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Jace:
I actually save money by eating take-out, but I am definitely not the norm. I usually eat off of dollar menus, so I can have a full meal for about $5. Occasionally I will get chipotle, which is $10 ($12 if I get chips and guac). When I buy food that isn't frozen, it usually goes bad before I do anything with it, and I really don't like leftovers unless it is soup or stew. Pretty much every time I've bought groceries, I've lost money because the food went bad before I did anything with it. This probably won't be the case for you, but it certainly was for me and a few people I've known, so be wary of that.

Where I live now, it is super easy to just toss a box fan ($10 at walmart) in my window in the summer to pull in the air from the outside, then I have another fan that just sits in my room and I'm a little warm, but its not too bad. The highest our house was heated to during the winter was like 66F. Our gas bill has never been over $60.

tania:
yeah all of my meals work out to like $2 or $3 apiece and i don't even eat badly, that includes all four food groups and everything

Lines:
Buying generics on basic things helps out a lot, too. That's something I've learned since moving out. I mean, there are a few things that I will stick to brands I like, like cream cheese, but it does not matter on other things, like graham crackers. My roommates and I also plan out what we're having for dinner for the entire week (minus Friday and Saturday, which are days we'll get take out or pizza), which makes shopping easier because you buy less if you stick to a list of exactly what you need.

Also you can cut down on your electric bill by paying very close attention to what things you leave turned on and what stays plugged in. If you're not in a room, turn off the light. If you're not using your printer, turn it off. Some things will also still take up energy when plugged in, so unplug appliances, etc. that aren't consistently used.

I save money by also having very little of a personal life, but that is because of school. So I don't have too much advice on that.  :mrgreen:

calenlass:
I have actually just had a thought about trash. Back when I was a wannabe tree-hugger, I learned a lot about how much crap gets thrown away that doesn't really need to be: after recyclables are sorted out and organics are composted, there is practically nothing left to go in the bin. Newspapers, magazines, phone books, any glass, most sturdy plastics, cardboard, aluminium/tin cans are all recyclable; any extra paper can be saved as a fire-starter for when it's cold; any food that is meat- or dairy-free can go in the garden or, if necessary, in a plastic air-tight tub to cure until you can find someone who wants it, because it really doesn't smell (except for coffee grounds); meat trimmings can be given to pet cats or dogs, or fed to strays. If you take the time to set up a well-organised sorting system like the one I did a few years ago for my parents, this stuff becomes second-nature in no time (note: parents managed it). If there isn't a recycling service center* nearby, check and see if your work has one and totally dump your shit in with theirs, they won't care.

Now, I know that some places charge a lot for rubbish pickup and other places don't. My neighborhood charges $20 per month (my landlady pays this, along with the homeowner's association fee, because it's required by the neighborhood covenant), but my boyfriend's apartment complex covers it in the rent price so it's essentially free. Basically what I am getting at is that, unless you would have to make extra (costly) trips to the recycling center or pay for a pickup service for that instead, you could feasibly cancel your garbage service. It might only save you $5, but even then it's still another $5 you wouldn't have had.

Lots of places that are not near me, I think, also do that lovely "old-fashioned" practice of making deposits on things like glass bottles at stores, and you can get like 5¢ or something back on every empty item you return!

Plus, either way, you get to feel warm and fuzzy inside for being a good hippie.



*Make sure to do a little investigation into any purported "recycling" that garbage companies do. Companies in the south are pretty notorious for spreading word around that they pick up recycling as well as your rubbish, or they have separate dumpsters for recyclables and trash, and then they just dump it all into the same truck, which completely defeats the purpose.

The Seldom Killer:
Of course life shouldn't be some kind of eternal money saving hairshirt and you need to plan a few luxuries in life. You absolutely should have something in your budget for going out and having fun. It also doesn't need to be much and if you don't spend it you can chuck the surplus against debt. Get familiar with which restaurants do specials on which days along with early birds and so on (a romantic dinner out can still happen between 5 and 6). Which cinemas do a special on which days of the week (take your own snacks and drinks) and other attractions. Get together with friends, especially when the baby is born, to share childcare duties and go out in groups.

You said that your partner uses his phone for work. Are they paying for that, should they be? Actually, with his pay increase and insurance increase is there something he can do with that to reverse the negative impact. It may be worth him speaking to his HR about that to make sure that he's getting the most take home out of his earnings. For instance with the recent income tax changes in the UK my partner was looking at whether she would be better off by buying extra days holiday from the company to bring her down a tax bracket and thus pay a lower rate of tax.

Good news is that now that it's April, it's time to start buying Christmas presents. Not aggressively by any means but if you see something that you think would make a great present for someone and the price is pretty good right now, buy it and store it. It's out of the way and the cost won't hit you in November/December. I have a constant list of things that I keep an eye out for on Ebay so that when they come up I might get them at a better price than when everyone else is looking. And that gets onto a bigger thing of buying off season. Need to replace old winter things (coats, tires, etc)? Buy it now and wait until the season is over before replacing things that are wearing out and won't last a whole new season.

If you do refinance your loans, make sure you build in the option to overpay them. If you do come up with some surplus in a and have had a bit of luxury, put it in savings. If you can come up with the same surplus again, put it straight onto the debt. There I two reasons I advised against refinancing. The first was as mentioned it may be a necessary option in the near future, the second is that you want to avoid jeapordising your long term economic future to make the current situation easier than it needs to be. Also, do you have credit cards?

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