Saving money

[DukeUsul]

So with this economy... what are you doing to save money? My wife has gone on a major coupon clipping/sale searching kick and is saving us tons of money on groceries. She's even started to blog on it: http://loveli-mom.blogspot.com/ It really does work. But seems to take a time investment. We've also drastically cut back on our eating out.

[Very Duke Blue]

So with this economy... what are you doing to save money? My wife has gone on a major coupon clipping/sale searching kick and is saving us tons of money on groceries. She's even started to blog on it: http://loveli-mom.blogspot.com/ It really does work. But seems to take a time investment. We've also drastically cut back on our eating out.

I clip coupons and also watch sales. I like the Harris Teeter triple coupon week & their up to 1.75 double week. Also they have a lot of buy 1, get 3.If you can get a coupon for that product (if you use the product).

[ArkieDukie]

I've been trying to take lunches to work and drink water rather than soda. Both add up pretty quickly. The cafeteria at work is relatively inexpensive, but most of their food is not great. Breakfast is edible, but food quality deteriorates as the day progresses.

[TillyGalore]

So with this economy... what are you doing to save money? My wife has gone on a major coupon clipping/sale searching kick and is saving us tons of money on groceries. She's even started to blog on it: http://loveli-mom.blogspot.com/ It really does work. But seems to take a time investment. We've also drastically cut back on our eating out.

Your wife is friggin' amazing!!! I've signed up to follow her blog. I'm not a coupon person, though love how much your wife knows. Especially since we shop at the same grocery store.

[windsor]

I quit smoking.

...at almost 50 bucks a carton that is HUGE - even if you figure in the cost of Chantix.

[Very Duke Blue]

I quit smoking.

...at almost 50 bucks a carton that is HUGE - even if you figure in the cost of Chantix.

This savings reflects much more than the cost!!!!! Great job.

[Very Duke Blue]

So with this economy... what are you doing to save money? My wife has gone on a major coupon clipping/sale searching kick and is saving us tons of money on groceries. She's even started to blog on it: http://loveli-mom.blogspot.com/ It really does work. But seems to take a time investment. We've also drastically cut back on our eating out.

I love the website. Thanks so much for sharing.

[CathyCA]

I haven't cut much out, but I have returned to the full-time work force in the past year. I don't take off much time for vacation. This year I took off one day at New Year's and four days in June. I'm working hard to earn more $$$$$.

Notable things I've cut out over the past year include salon cut, highlight and colors; fingernail fills and pedicures; gym membership; facials and massages; and the dentist.

[devildeac]

I haven't cut much out, but I have returned to the full-time work force in the past year. I don't take off much time for vacation. This year I took off one day at New Year's and four days in June. I'm working hard to earn more $$$$$.

Notable things I've cut out over the past year include salon cut, highlight and colors; fingernail fills and pedicures; gym membership; facials and massages; and the dentist.

Has your office/profession been affected much with/by the downturn in the economy over the last 12-18 months? When we eat out, we try to find the BOGO coupons, avoiding soft drinks about 50% of the time or more and minimizing alcohol with meals, unless we're attending a Brunchgate, however. :roll: When we look at the coupons in the Sunday paper, we don't often find ones we can use, though our older daughter, who is living with us for "a while," is pretty good at taking a handful of them to Harris Teeter every few weeks or so when they are having triple coupon savings.

[CathyCA]

Has your office/profession been affected much with/by the downturn in the economy over the last 12-18 months?

Oh.my.gosh!

Our office did a lot of residential real estate closings. When the economy went sour, our closings dried up. The law degree is versatile, however, and we found ourselves doing foreclosure and lien work instead of real estate closings.

In my criminal law practice, I've seen a lot more probation violations because my clients haven't had the money to pay their fees--and it's going to get worse, as the N.C. legislature has increased probation fees in the most draconian scheme you could imagine. I've had more theft charges to defend because people have turned to theft as a way to earn money.

I've also done a lot of "business divorces," in the past year where businesses ran out of money, the partners fought and the businesses broke up. Bankruptcies we refer to other firms. I've referred a lot of people down the street to one of my friends who has a very healthy consumer bankruptcy practice.

Last year, there were probably 20 new attorneys sworn in to practice in our county. Almost all of them had jobs. This year, 6 new attorneys came to the swearing-in ceremony, and two of them had jobs. I really do feel sorry for new attorneys these days. If I were in law school, I would go ahead and extend my studies an additional year--either going for the L.L.M. or going for an M.B.A.

[Ima Facultiwyfe]

The OP let his regular yard people go and I took over the maintenance of our pool instead of using a weekly service. We've not gone to a movie all year and have drastically cut back on eating out and most entertainment..........'cept for tix to Wallace Wade and Cameron. I try to grocery shop on "senior citizen discount" days......which is about the only thing good about being in one's seventies.
Love, Ima

[devildeac]

The OP let his regular yard people go and I took over the maintenance of our pool instead of using a weekly service. We've not gone to a movie all year and have drastically cut back on eating out and most entertainment..........'cept for tix to Wallace Wade and Cameron. I try to grocery shop on "senior citizen discount" days......which is about the only thing good about being in one's seventies.
Love, Ima

Who's in their 70s? Not you! I'm shocked, simply shocked. Driver's license please. ;)

[Ima Facultiwyfe]

The OP let his regular yard people go and I took over the maintenance of our pool instead of using a weekly service. We've not gone to a movie all year and have drastically cut back on eating out and most entertainment..........'cept for tix to Wallace Wade and Cameron. I try to grocery shop on "senior citizen discount" days......which is about the only thing good about being in one's seventies.
Love, Ima

Who's in their 70s? Not you! I'm shocked, simply shocked. Driver's license please. ;)

I'm the same age as Cameron Indoor Stadium and Mount Rushmore.........and they've both had facelifts!
Love, Ima

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

I try to plan my produce shopping around specials and what's actually in season. I, too, try to shop on senior discount day. Once in a while I get carded for that, but I do qualify. I check the grocery ads before I go to the store to know what's on sale as BOGO and purchase only BOGO that I actually use.

When money gets really tight, I buy various groceries like cereal, laundry products, etc. at Walmart where I save about 30% compared to my regular store's best prices.

I track what I spend each month with a written budget.... allows me to spot where I can cut or what I must offset with lower spending. Rarely eat out. No movies. My one indulgence is athletic events for which I have tickets.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I shop through my own E-Commerce shopping web site and get 1 to 35% cash back when I buy stuff on line, instead of buying stuff in their brick and mortar stores. Same stores, same price or better, online coupons, quite often free shipping and sometimes no sales tax, too. If you'd like to shop on my site, or find out more, PM me.

[TillyGalore]

The OP let his regular yard people go and I took over the maintenance of our pool instead of using a weekly service. We've not gone to a movie all year and have drastically cut back on eating out and most entertainment..........'cept for tix to Wallace Wade and Cameron. I try to grocery shop on "senior citizen discount" days......which is about the only thing good about being in one's seventies.
Love, Ima

Who's in their 70s? Not you! I'm shocked, simply shocked. Driver's license please. ;)

I'm the same age as Cameron Indoor Stadium and Mount Rushmore.........and they've both had facelifts!
Love, Ima

You don't need one.

[Very Duke Blue]

We haven't found many new ways to cut back. We don't eat out much. I have always shopped for food with coupons if possible and catch sales. Most years, we have a big garden and do a lot of freezing, etc. We have a wood furnace out side that heats our house and provivdes 600 gal. of hot water. When we leave for a weekend or longer, we adjust the air/heat & cut off the hot water heater (of course the hot water heater will come on if no wood fire is going). I like to cook large batches of soups, chili and spagetti sauce and always freeze in meal sizes. One thing I have started doing again is freezing leftovers in a container, veggies, beef, chicken, anything that is good in soup. I add these leftovers into 1 container. When its full, go from there. I have in the past made some great pots of soup by doing this. I grew up Navy, and married Navy. We had to do what was possible to cut corners. Costco has great buys on salad fixings. Organic baby greans, 1 lb. around 4.00, grape tomatoes cheap. Check it out if your near a Costco. It does cost to join. I also have the Costco American Express and get a great money back rebate every year. This year I got 95.00 from Costco and will get well over 400.00 from American Express. Oh, we did have Power Works installed on our fuse box that cleans up the electric, saves on the power bill and helps anyting in the house with a motor to last longer.

Thats all that comes to mind. Good luck to all saving coins.

[rockymtn devil]

I've become obsessive about turning off lights and, more importantly, keeping the heat low. Unless it's below 40 degrees for a high on a given day, I turn my heat off when I go to work and keep it low when I come home and turn it back on. The goal is to keep my Xcel bill down. My house is very dark and very cold on most nights.

At work (in response to DD's question of CathyCA), our business is doing well (litigation tends to pick up in bad economies), but as a small business we're getting killed on health insurance. My mediocre plan is about to get worse (and the irony is that we do a lot of insurance coverage work; although on health insurance coverage we do only plaintiffs work) Just yesterday we were asked which legal research databases we could do without as a means of cutting costs. As I'm sure other attorneys will attest, when you're used to relying on a particular database, it's tough to go without it, especially if you've developed lazy research skills as a result of having a crutch.

[Miles]

The OP let his regular yard people go and I took over the maintenance of our pool instead of using a weekly service. We've not gone to a movie all year and have drastically cut back on eating out and most entertainment..........'cept for tix to Wallace Wade and Cameron. I try to grocery shop on "senior citizen discount" days......which is about the only thing good about being in one's seventies.
Love, Ima

Who's in their 70s? Not you! I'm shocked, simply shocked. Driver's license please. ;)

I'll echo that dd!

[shereec]

We haven't done too terribly much to cut back recently - we're tight wads and penny pinchers from way back.
I only buy clothes on sale and never before end of season. Both Macy's and JC Penney's have pretty good sales on a relatively regular basis (60%-70% off). My husband and I compete to see who got a better deal. He has the trophy; he once bought a t-shirt at Wal-Mart that had been marked down to 9 cents!
We don't buy new cars and then we drive them til they either begin to cost more than replacement would or they get totalled (once by a tree, once by a city garbage truck and once by an 18 wheeler...). We bought our last 2 cars from a friend who goes to auto auction; he saved us $3K on one and $8K on the other. (If anyone is in the market for a used car and willing to wait perhaps a month or so, I'll be happy to connect you)
Last winter I made roman shades for the windows (we live in a drafty old house) and noticed a reduction in the heating bill almost immediately, plus they cost me about half what buying them would.
We also garden, shop at Kroger on old geezer day (5% off on Tuesdays), don't eat out, and drink in our own kitchen (the bartender is veeeerrrrrrrrry generous).
I'll buy my pumpkins for Halloween tomorrow - they will be practically giving them away at the Farmer's Market.