Can you do it??

I'm watching the Today show this morning, and they are featuring a video diary of a family that will try to cut their household budget in half. Do you think you could do it?? Where would you start??

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan8.Samantha7,Cameron4

Food and Misc! Those two areas are the ones with the most leeway and if we're honest.. the most waste. We rent movies occassionally, and dh and I rarely go to a first run film. We eat out maybe twice a month, on date nights.. and often split the entre. We both love to read, but have drastically cut back on personal book purchases(We homeschool, so we still buy more books than the average bear family), using interlibrary loan liberally. In fact, some date nights include the dinner out and a trip to Borders with my pen and notebook at the ready to jot down titles that strike our fancy. I can't begin to guess what this one habit has saved us.

It would be very hard to cut our budget in half. I could probably give up more in the food budget BUT I would be spending a lot more in gas (if that makes any sense!), the most that I can get for my buck is at Aldi's- but that is a drive!

Well actually I think we are already ahead of the game. After watching these folks, the stuff they cut out was eating out all the time, and going out. They instead opted to cook at home more often, exchange babysitting with friends, and have pot luck cookouts instead of footing the bill for the whole thing. They cut thier expenses in 1 week by OVER half.

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan8.Samantha7,Cameron4

I was disappointed with this "episode" most people do not have $660/week of disposable income - at least not people who are feeling the crunch of higher gas and food prices RIGHT NOW as they were promoting this to be.

we don't have that kind of disposable income right now..

I missed it, but they have the clip online:
msnbc.com Video Player


You're right. They were eating out at restaurants lot, the mom was getting pedicures, and they got their coffee at Starbucks. It's pretty easy to cut the budget in half when there's that kind of wiggle room.

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I am always disappointed when I watch clips such as this. This is not helpful to people. It is obvious if you cut out starbucks and pedicures and eating out you will save money. What about clips that show people who already try to save money, already eat at home, and do not do many activities that cost money and show them how to cut their budget. They will never show that because the savings would not be too impressive.

PS did you see their "community pool" wish I had that

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"Families are like fudge... mostly sweet with a few nuts."
~Unknown~

Did you hear her say that she missed having her house cleaned? Then she goes weekly for manicure/pedicure???? What does she do that she would need a new manicure if someone else cleans her house??? KWIM

We already only live on 40% of our take home, so no we could not cut our budget in half.