to pay off a debt?

We have found ours in saving change, getiing rid of the unneccesaries (like cable and so on) and being very careful with our money (like limiting time out of the house).

only eating out once a week and avoiding Target!

Here are some of ours:

1. no personal cell phone
2. canceled satellite - only antenna
3. getting ds pottytrained
4. not eating out as much
5. only paying $10 for internet
6. driving my paid off 1994 Tempo until it was no longer safe to drive. Cheaper insurance and cheaper on gas as well.
7. My husband works in video - (used to work for PBS television now he is in charge of all media at a large church) and he does lots of freelancing to bring in extra $$, I have a home business that I bring in $ with and do teaching on the side.


One of the biggest that saved us tons is getting my school bills canceled. The type of loan that I got for a good portion of my undergraduate was eligible for cancellation if I worked with the "underprivileged" or innercity. So nurses, teachers and us counselors were eligible. So, I got thousands of dollars paid off for doing my job. It acted like it was in deferrment.

OK, one side point...For the "techie" husbands out there. My husband literally is a techie. His job is making videos - from shooting, to editing, to rendering etc etc etc. We have 25 inch TVs - no HD nothing, no cable or satellite, no high speed internet. We do have a nice computer system (needed for editing) and a professional grade video camera that he has more than paid off with his freelancing. My point is if my true techie dh can live without the technology at home then others probably could as well. If you really want to save $$ the "modern day conveniences" are a really easy way to do it. How did we survive growing up without cable? Sorry off my n my soapbox:

well dh can accumulate money thru contests and stuff at work he really wanted a top of the line digital camera(like with our bills that was ever gonna happen) he has to get this money in gift cards so when we were needing to pay extra bills he would get grocery cards with his money. over the last year he was able to have enough in gift cards to get a 1300.00 digital camera(wich i thought at the time was frivalous) but in the two months he has had it he has gotten photo gigs from his co-workers they love his pics that he has been taking just for fun. so now he is getting paying gigs thru work. he has made enough to pay off two big medical bills and he will be taking some soccer pics for a few teams so that will bring in some cash and a few co-workers want him to take their holiday photos.

__________________
'The will of God will never take you where the
Grace of God will not protect you.'

HAVE A BOOTIFUL HALLOWEEN

I literally don't leave the house because I know if I do the money just goes. That saves a ton and I don't spend anything on gas either.

I cook a lot so we don't need to spend money at restaurants or ordering in.

I canceled my long distance and down graded my phone service so that I have only local calls. I bought a refurbished prepaid cell phone and use that for all other calls. I also down graded my dsl to the slower service. There is no difference. These two things saved me $45 per month.

We plant a garden so I don't have to go the produce section at all in the summer or fall. Huge savings!!!!

I can and freeze as much as I can from the garden.

This year, we had some money given to us when my dh's mom passed away.

The biggest way to save money for us is to not buy an item as soon as we want it. Everything goes on clearance eventually and if you have the patience to wait, you really can get pretty much everything you want for very little money.

Each year our tax return goes towards something the house needs or to pay down debt.
We got rid of our landline phones and just have cell phones.
We changed cable companies and should free up $30-40/month.
We rarely eat out anymore.
We are trying to maintain the same lifestyle we had when dh was in school.

Oh I totally agree!! For almost a whole year we had to pay out ~600 per month in medical garnishments.. That completely sucked. Our grocery budget went down to 100/month for our family of 4, no internet (we did have netzero for free for 10hrs per week to check e-mail), made no longdistance phone calls, reduced driveing down to almost nothing, and I tried to sell as many of my unused things on e-bay as possible to make it work. We only purchased clothing if it was absolutely necessary.. and tried to go less than $5/piece if at all possible. I couldn't ditch cable as we didn't have it.

Going with no internet was completely amazing as my dh & I met online, and he is a webpage developer by trade... but had been laid off from his job and was still working in fast food until he could find something else. Boy did that completely suck. I am so glad we are over that now!

So many great ideas to give people different perspectives of where their money goes!

Simple you can do little things we stopped drinking soda. Hmm 3 cases of soda a mont for $10 x 12 times a year. Wow thats $120

No cable
No cell phone
Stick to budgets
cut frivolus spending

__________________
Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006

Stop going out to eat.
Cut our land line down to the basic.
Unplug things not being used (TV's, lamps, radios, blow dryers, etc..)
Cutting our portions at meals.
Not using the air cond. as much
Got a wood burner and lowered our heat in the winter
Save our change and use for Vacation
Buy things on sale with coupons
Save and pay cash (sometimes your idea of a need turns into a want)
No lawn service
No conv. food cook from strach (sp?)

There is more but I can't think right now.

Hope that helps some people