#22 Re-Evaluate Expenses

Now that you’ve tracked your family’s spending, you can analyze your findings. If you don’t like what you see, you now have an opportunity to change things.

First, look at your fixed expenses -- the expenses that stay the same each month. Some will be hard to cut back on (mortgage, auto loans, etc.), but other fixed expenses such as cable, gym fees, lawn services, etc. may be easier to trim. Which monthly memberships can be eliminated? Is your cable/phone/internet package the right one for you? Could you get by with a less expensive version? Can you do-it-yourself?

Your variable expenses are often the easiest to cut back on. These are the categories that fluctuate each month such as groceries, clothing, gas, eating out, etc. Visit our Money Saving Tips forums for creative solutions to saving money in each of these categories.

Oftentimes families lose sight of the big picture because they’re distracted by more urgent, compelling ways to spend their money. Is your spending in line with your financial goals and your family’s values? Don’t let things like lunches out or a salon pedicure habit get in the way of funding your child’s college education. Realize that when you cut back in certain areas, you will be able to apply your savings towards more important things such as paying off debt, building savings, or achieving your dreams.

Assignment: Identify 3-5 key spending areas that you’d like to trim and come up with creative solutions to cut back.

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This is an easy one for me because I've already been thinking about it a lot.
#1)-gas-consolidate trips for errands, maximum 2 trips to shopping center in next town over each week
#2)-food-make more recipes from scratch, rely less on convenience items, check pantry before shopping to avoid buying doubles
#3)-eating out-only eat out as a treat with my family, stop going through the drive-through when I'm alone

What are other people's areas?

Rebecca D.

For me... I would love to
1. Plan a weekly menu and stick to it
2. Remember to take lunch to work AND NOT LEAVE IT AT HOME... UGH, I've forgotten it in the fridge so many times!!!
3. Make my own house cleaners! I hear they work just as well as the ones you buy

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1) We are evaluating our cable & internet expense category. Our cable bill is going up by like $10-15 starting next month. So I am trying to talk dh into dropping our cable down to basic cable and then maybe get a Netflix subscription. I'm also looking into another competitor for cable-modem internet.

2) Not eating out - I'm good with this but dh is not, especially on the weekends. So I'm playing "mom" to him and reminding him to eat here.

3) Combining all my errands at once to save on gas.

1. Vacation we would do good if we don't use it as an excuse to buy things like we did last year. We didn't need to spend $50 at fry's

2. Home improvements - look at total cost before committing this is the year of no NEW projects.

3. books we have a library card we don't need to buy all the books we want when they come out.

4. Gifts go homemade to save money peole appreciate time that is put into something rather then the money.

5. gas schedule activities closer to home.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006 &

Organizer of the Coupon Clippers of Tacoma

This is exactly what I was going to say. I have been working on these things since the Jan. spending freeze and I am doing so much better. I was blown away at how much money I was wasting on food! And I have been saving about $100 on gas a month since I stopped running little errands and started saving them for a couple of days a week.

Another thing we just did was switch our phone to comcast and it is great. Now we just get one bill for phone, internet, and cable, we have free unlimited long distance (which meant I was able to drop my cell phone minutes because I always used my cell to make long distance calls), and we are saving about $50 a month.

Oh yes - we are doing these too. This year instead of paying for our vacations like we normally do, we are taking advantage of family's second homes and vacation rentals and as a result our only expenses will be gas and food (which we would eat at home anyway). We are going to my dad's for spring break - he lives at the beach - and to Yellowstone this summer where a close family friend invited us out to her summer rental house and we used frequent flyer points to get all our tickets, to the beach for a week with the inlaws in June, to the beach with my parents for a week in July, and then we will use my parents' house in the NC mountains a bunch for long weekends. We may not be going anywhere too exotic or tropical this year, and we may be sharing our vacation time with relatives, but we are getting away and our kids will have fun and we won't break the bank.

And we are doing NO home improvement projects this year. None! We have spent way too much money on our house in the last 2 years and it is time to take a break.

Okay, here are mine - we aren't in bad shape, but I can certainly tweak the budget a bit more . . .

1. Go back to making my own coffee - I do a great job on this for weeks and then I slip one week and it's all downhill from there.
2. Eat out as a treat and preferably as a mystery shop so it's no money out of pocket.
3. Always ask myself if there is a free substitute before I buy or do anything.
4. Check pantry for meals before I make my shopping list

I think these are good ones to start at as they are my problem areas.

1. Refinance car
2. Only $10 a month for entertainment
3. No gifts this year, just what I have on hand
4. NO EATING OUT
5. gas consolidate.. if that is possible

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My choices yesterday create my today. My choices today create my tomorrow.

Forget the Joneses Blog

I am with you there! It seems that I like to give nice things... gifts are definately a place that I can cut down & save a ton!!! I was also just telling my husband that we need to look into refinancing my car as well. I really think that we can get a lower rate if we go with the credit union & they can take it directly out of his check. We also need to re-evaluate our cable/phone/internet.