Cutting Costs: Part II

Larry's last blog indicated that we cut our housing expenses by $1000/ month by thinking out of the box and considering the unthinkable.


This has not been easy and it has not always been met with the best of attitudes. However, it is the best thing we have ever done for ourselves. We now love living this way. It's become somewhat of a game to see how much of 'our' money we can keep each month.


So, here's the continued list of specific ways we've cut our living expenses! Thanks to those of you who have shared your success stories. I invite you to post your comments here so that others can benefit by your tips.



Dining Out
It's hard for me to imagine but this is an area that was most convicting to us when we looked back on our past spending habits. When we were both earning good income, we didn't think twice about spending as much as $2000 in ONE month dining out (that is really sick)! We lived in the highest cost of living areas and we only ate at five star establishments - did I mention we were also snobs? We used to eat at Anthony's Fireside Grill in Olympia - average bill was $100. We still go to Anthony's but we eat for $10 or $20 by eating off of the Happy Hour menu.


I'm happy to report that we now spend less than $100/month dining out. The savings is HUGE on this one but it's difficult to quantify because we gradually lowered that amount month over month based on necessity.


Now that I'm staying home from work, I get a thrill out of preparing wonderful meals three times a day. We're saving money AND spending more time together. We've got a fabulous patio in our back yard which makes for the best of settings in all of Deschutes County!


I've mentioned previously that the primary ways we accomplish the most significant savings is to share meals when we do go out, eat at one of the local restaurants offering a Happy Hour, avoid expensive drinks & dessert and limit the number of times we go out. More often than not, if we want to get out of the house, we go to our favorite fast food restaurant Taco Time. Taco Time? Where's the wine list, the ambiance?


Taco's are $1.00 and they provide free chips and salsa. With a shared drink, our total bill is $5.85.
Conservative savings: $200/month


Groceries
We've also managed to cut our grocery expenditures immensely. This is the most time consuming area but the gains are incredible. I've subscribed to Fred Meyer's weekly email and they send me their coupons and advertised specials (I believe most large chains do this). They also have an online grocery shopping list that you can build from their advertised specials and then add your own items. I'll watch other circulars for advertised specials on other items we commonly eat and will shop at those stores if the price is better and the gas expense to get there doesn't prohibit it.


I stick to my list when I shop - no splurging and no unplanned purchases. I buy whatever is on sale - regardless of brand name (this was huge for me). Finally, I buy all of my non-food items at either the Dollar Store or Grocery Outlet. The Dollar store sells laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, soap and more. These are huge savings. I shop once a week and have an allocated amount that I cannot exceed, based upon my Freedom Account. We used to think that by shopping at Costco, we would save. What we found was that with only two of us, it actually cost more because inevitably the food would spoil before we could eat it. Winco, on the other hand, provides smaller portions at a great price. (Keep your eyes open for the places restauranteur's shop - these can be great finds). 


Finally, we have committed to eating healthier - which means no pre-packaged or prepared foods. Larry has diabetes so we avoid most carbohydrates and stick to lean meats and wonderful vegetables. Our doctor recommended the South Beach Diet as a way of life for both of us. In the past three months, I've lost 22 pounds and Larry has lost 12. Most significantly is the changes in his blood sugar levels. Since we started South Beach, they have decreased close to 100 points! This takes him out of the danger zone in to a pretty 'normal' zone. WOW!


We eat only fresh ingredients that we prepare with our own hands. It tastes better, it saves money and it has the potential to sustain our health for years to come!


Savings: $100/month


Clothing/Shopping Sprees
Monies for these trips are part of a Freedom Account so it limits what I can buy. However, when I do shop - it's premeditated. Before leaving the house, I scan my closet to make sure that I don't already have a white blouse and if I do but I don't want it any more, it must go to Goodwill before I can go buy a new one.


Secondly, my first place to shop is thrift or consignment stores. They carry all of the brand names and high end fashion designers that Nordstrom's and others offer at savings of 80-90%. My last purchase was a pair of (never worn) Cole Haan shoes. I paid $7.00 for them. They are currently listed on the Cole Haan website for $185.00. Once you spend a day at the Goodwill or any consignment store, you will be struck with the amount of waste that we spend on clothes that mean nothing to us once they get home. It's a real eye opener and one that takes a while to sink it until it inevitably changes your heart about wasteful spending. I recently went through my closet to find 100 pairs of shoes. I've whittled it down to five, and now I wonder why I need five pairs of shoes. Last time I checked, I only had two feet!


Savings: $100/month


Gift Giving/aka Christmas
Those of you who know me know that I love to give gifts - big gifts! Every year my kids were accustomed to me trumping last years gift. As an example, one year we bought Chris a stereo system as his music interests increased. The following year, it was a very expensive Drum Set. It became a ridiculous exercise and there comes a point where you just can't trump the prior year!


We re-evaluated the reason behind gift giving and our true intent to show love in more practical ways. We've decided to adopt Larry's mom holiday gift giving plan when her family started to grow and the cost of giving to everyone became prohibitive. What we do now is allocate whatever funds are available for holiday gift giving and send it all to one family (based on a drawing of names). This way, each of our kids families has a turn to be blessed and it is something that they look forward to rather than getting a gift that they don't want or need.


Because we're not complete Grinch's, we still buy a small gift for each of our grandkids (we'll do that until their teen years).


Home Building/Home Maintenance
Some of you have been following our home building projects in our new place. Larry will be writing detailed plans on our blog to speak to each of these projects so watch for those. This has been the largest overall savings and shift in perspective we have experienced. We have committed to considering alternative building methods with each project.


To accomplish this, we have found Craiglist and yard and estate sales HUGE for us - not to mention the willingness to rely on the generosity of friends. (When you live a long life of self-sufficiency and having enough money to take care of you and your own, accepting the kind acts of others is terribly hard to do. We've had a lot of growing we had to do in this area but we've found that accepting the kind acts of others blesses them as much as it does you.)


When searching for alternative and/or free items, Craigslist has a 'free' category and I have created an RSS feed to that link. This way I get emailed every time there is a new posting. If the posting has ANYTHING to do with construction, we consider picking it up. If we don't use it, we turn around and sell it on Craigslist for a profit.


Larry will be writing extensively about some of our incredible finds and the results of these building projects. It just tickles us to see what we can do for free or very little money!


Today we make less than we ever have in our marriage, by about 40%, yet we have more freedom than we have ever had. I am no longer working and yet we now have room to put money in our Freedom Account each month. We are far better off financially, mentally, physically and spiritually than at any other time in our life. It's the craziest thing.


We always thought, 'only if we made a little more money, we could...'. We now know that it's not what you make but how you spend and save what you have that counts.