Have you or family cut out something from your budget this year? Have you tallied up how much you have saved?

Dh stopped smoking almost a year ago. He was up to 2 1/2-3 packs a day. We figured he has saved over $100/month or $1200/year. When you total it out you see how the little things add up to alot of savings.

Yes I stopped shopping for fun. I used to go to Target all the time and just walk through the whole store looking for good clearance deals. I would spend alot of money just buying "stuff".....my house became very cluttered after a few years of doing that. One day i woke up and said enough is enough............It has been at least 6 months since I went to Target for "fun"......now I take a shopping list and try to get out of there as soon as possible. It actually is no longer enjoyable to me to be in the store for no reason. Shopping has become quite a chore........which I think has really helped my bottom line. I'm currently working on ducluttering my home....and it will never be cluttered again.

I sure wished my dh would stop smoking!!! I know it would save us lots weekly! He came so close once while taking Wellbutrin, he was down to 1-2 cigarettes per day,but didn't like the way Wellbutrin made him feel (he couldn't sleep at night) and also his brothers would sabotage any efforts he was trying to make by giving him cigarettes whenever they gathered together in one place. He promised he would quit after his dad had a heart attack and bypass surgery but he never did.

__________________
"Go on, get outside, get the stink blown off ya!!"

We are no longer part of a gym. That saves us a ton of money.

We stopped Netflix early this year, we plan to try it again soemtime, to get some of the movies the library doesn't get, bt at a lower plan. Wejust wern't watching them as fast as we had been.

__________________
Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

We cut out the gym too and I've gained 30lbs, but we've saved 60 a month. I miss the gym...

I wish my DH would stop using tobacco-- it's so expensive! We have really cut out going out to eat or fast food of any kind. Now, when we receive gift cert. to restaurants we save them for birthdays, anniversaries etc. It has made a big difference in our budget.

I don't have a landline
I stopped the MVP card @ Hollywood Video - now we rent what we really wanna see
I don't go to the mall AT ALL anymore - it's really, really been a while!

__________________
*Jai guru deva om*
Are you a "bag" lady? Great! Join our group and let's chat!
http://mommysavers.com/boards/group.php?groupid=33

I cancelled my Netflix in June...and tomorrow, seriously, I am going to cancel my gym membership (I've been meaning to cancel it for a couple of months now!).
I don't have a landline, only use the cell, and was able to shop around and find a cheaper plan for my needs.

__________________
Heather

Well last year we decided not to put in a winter lawn. Winter lawns are purely ornamental, and all the seed, manure, water, fertilizer, well it really adds up. We let the summer grass go dormant, and it was really depressing, dead, dry crunchy grass, an no fun for the kids to play on. THis year I budgeted for it, because I was realyl bummed how a dormand back yard looked last year. but it saved us about 200.00 that season.

This year I didn't decorate. Anything. I didn't paint a room, buy new towels, make throw pillows, anything. This is huge for me because I'm always painting or doing something to change the look of things since I get bored with the same style all the time. I just left it , and did my best to ignore it. I'm slowly getting over the compulsion that I need to change things all the time. I just have to learn to deal with being "bored" withmy surroundings. Stayingout of stores like target or ross helps tremendously - I can't be inspired if I'm not in there. I also stopped watching all those decorating shows on tv- egad, they make you feel like you have to re-decorate every week to make things look "up to date" bleh.

This year I made the kids recycle costumes for halloween. I refuse to spend 30 bucks on a costume ( omg there are some great ones out there too dangit) for an event that lasts 2 hours on a school night. If the kids had a halloween party to go to , or could wear it at school , or carnival in additon to halloween night, I might do it, but not with how low-key halloween is in the middle of the week. So they scournged around the house, the dress-up bin and thier room and came up with a couple of creative costumes. Lotsa guilt about that one, but they don't know it.

I resisted the urge to buy new halloween decorations- even though the ones I've had are wearing out, and I'm tired of them ( see the bored with my decorating paragraph above. Bleh)

I haven't cancelled or cut back much else, but we don't have alot of luxuries anyway, like gym memberships and all that. Mostly it's cutting back old habits, and triyng to convince myself I do can without.