Birthday and anniversary gift between Dh and I

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006

We've cut way back our trips out of town. We live in a rural area and for us to do any major shopping it does require a bit of a drive. These trips were sucking down the gas, we always ate out, usually two meals, plus any shopping we did. It has been over a month since we've gone to Couer d'Alene (home of Costco, Target, a Borders, and a soon to be Barnes and Noble).

We also, and this isn't a good thing, cut back on charity donations. I hate it but right now we have a lot of medical bills and I figure we're not too far away from donations ourselves! No, I'm joking there but until we get our medical bills taken care of and figure out our car situtation, charity is remaining at home for a bit.

for us, i would say, buying milk.
we only buy powered. that has been a nice savings for us.
ummm, and we have really really cut back on going out to eat...... now when we do go out to eat, on the rare times, its a real treat!!!
always looking to find yet more ways to cut back........................................

Ya know, I was going to buy powdered milk yesterday,not for our main source of milk, but to help out a little. I had just copied Hillbillyhousewifes 45 dollar grocery list, as an idea of what I wanted to buy at Alids yesterday. Her list said a box of powdered milk was around 8 or 9 dollars(she did mention 2006 walmart/dollar store prices) and it was over 12 dollars. I just don't know if that is worth it. I'll have to check it out at Meijers on another day.

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I have nothing to declare except my genius."
- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) upon arriving at U.S. customs 1882

I've been use powdered milk for cooking / baking and love it. I buy my in bulk and it is a lot cheaper.

I cut out Diet Coke which saves us about $10 - $15/week. My skin feels better now that I've been drinking just water too!

Marlene

Cut out home phone and extra Walmart/Target trips.
If I stay home, I save money!

We have stopped the following this year:

Directv - 60
Water delivery to the house 15
land line phone as we use cell phones now 38

It really added up when you look at the $1356 per year in savings. It was unreal when I did the math. I am guilty of not thinking about the big number and always looked at $15 as no big deal. Not anymore!

We stopped buying Christmas gifts. We used to spend about $1500 for gifts, now we spend nothing. I send for internet freebies all year, throw them in a drawer and use them for Christmas stocking stuffers. Being business travelers we accumulate a lot of hotel and airline points. We can use these for gifts. Last year I bought dd a Dooney and Bourke limited edition anniversary handbag with my points and an airline ticket. Dh got a free camcorder. We just ordered $300 worth of gift cards from Macy's with our points to be used this year. Our cell phone provider gives us 3 free cell phones each year. We order the phones at Christmas and use these as gifts to ourselves. I'm a trained pastry chef so I make gourmet treats to give as gifts. I make our Christmas cards.

We stopped exchanging Christmas gifts with the adults in our extended family. Only kids under 16 get presents.

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~Jeweled