I just saw this segment on the Today Show:
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It's pretty easy to cut back when you're used to getting salon pedicures and getting your coffee from Starbucks. But what type of advice do you have for families that are already clipping coupons and eating at home instead of frequenting restaurants? What kinds of advice can help thrifty families that are already cutting back?

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Get rid of cable/dish. I am always so surprised at people who say they can't afford things but have cable. We live out in the country so dh put up an outdoor antenna. Kids watch pbs and love it. How many football games can one watch at one time anyway? Seriously people. We got rid of it 2 years ago and thought that it would be difficult and honestly I missed certain shows but not enough to not have a balanced budget or pay off debt faster.

BTW, for those of you who say well, my dh is a techie...well my dh works in TV and video so if he can do it so can other so called techies. Sorry I will get off my soapbox now.

I guess its to look for anything free. Even Thrift Families should have family activities. I know at the begining of the year I go to the local attractions web pages and check out when the free days are My family went to the zoo two weeks ago and it was free vs the $23 we would have paid. Hitting up the free day at the children's museum tomorrow.
I know in College I was all over free food, If a meeting had pizza at it I was there.
Its also in knowing the right people I had an affodable Latte Plan back in the day. Ok so I dated a Barista and he was always giving me my daily latte for free.
Its also What you eat at home even coupon clippers would sometimes buy more expensive prepared meals because somedays you don't want to cook. Honestly cutting back on groceries can hurt your health, I had a friend who at mac and cheese every night for several months because it was cheep.
Now the other option would be to do little things to make more money there is only so far that one can cut back with little things, My mac and cheese friends did everysort of study that would pay anything, Twice a week they would donate blood plasma (brought in an extra 80 a week) I would suggest baby sitting or child care, I know a SAHM who watches a couple of grade school kids between the hours of school gets out and parents get home. It can work

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006

I have a family member who has been basically unemployed for a year now, does not have a pot to $%&@ in and still has satallite TV, multi cell phones, a pool in the back yard, money for cigarettes, ect. Not saying they do not struggle, but the struggle could be so much less if they got rid of things like the ones I listed. Sad thing is, Society has tagged these things as necessities. I do believe that with the economy the way it is, most people are either going to sink of swim only by choice not circumstance. I would get rid of everything that was a comfort before I sunk!

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Jenifer M

I agree with jenmose. Society has defined as necessities things that we didn't even have growing up: satellite/cable, DVRs, cell phones, computers, etc. I like to think we did pretty well back in the "old days" of the 1970s and 80s pre-cable, pre-internet. In fact, in some ways families were better off back then.

When we first started out as young family we didn't have any of those things. We did have an old computer, but didn't have cable, cell phones, health club memberships or many other luxuries. We still made it a priority to save 15-20% of our income and then added in those things later as we could afford them.

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One member had advice.....you don't need it if you can't eat it. When things are really bad and you have to decrease your budget even more live by this philosophy for awhile to make ends meet.
Look to see if you can get food from angelfoodministries.com.
Look to see if you qualify for food pantries.

I think that a lot of people say that they have squeezed their budget to the bone, and there just isn't any more they can do, all while sitting on a mortgage that is 40% of their take home pay and a car that is another 20%. Of course they are struggling with those kind of payments! I would encourage them to look towards cheaper housing and transportation costs. A lot of families are spending way too much on cars and houses. I think that owning a house is great, but if you only have 3 kids, you don't need a 5 br 4 bath house. Kids can share rooms. I know that we got by with a 3 br 2 bath and 3 kids.

I agree with all of that. IF I had to, I could get rid of cable and our landline phone. My car is almost paid off, and our house was wicked cheap. Its only 3 bedrooms, and my girls share a room, we ALL share the bathroom. Its also an old house, that we just keep up the basic repairs. DO I want a new house YES! Do we need a newer house, NO. We'll just suck up the less than $1000 mortgage payment and bank the rest till we are able to do more.

I often hear it from people I work with, its all about choices sometimes. They cry and complain about money, but could never be caught dead clipping coupons, and would never give up those never ending cell phone calls. Its not worth it to me.

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan8.Samantha7,Cameron4

We don't have much to cut from our budget but we also don't have debt. We don't have cable/satellite, no internet, no computer (I access from work or library), no magazine subscriptions, no eating out, a very small house, an older car that we paid cash for, etc. however, we are so much better off than most of my friends who have all these things. Unfortunately we don't have a whole lot in savings but we could survive for 6 months if something should happen. I get somewhat offended (maybe jealous) when I see people have all these things, but complain about debt. Then when I think more about it, I am very happy and blessed with what I have.
Back to the original question. For us, getting rid of our fish tanks would be the only cut I could think of. The filters run 24/7. The lights are on for 8hr/day etc. I am sure our electric bill would go down a bit if we got rid of them.

We are quite tight, and I am not sure we could scrimp too much more. We recently paid off all our credit card debt. If we can't pay for something with cash or debit, we don't get it. We drive cars that are paid off, and 10 years old or more. DH does all the maintenance to our cars that he can-which saves us BIG. We have basic cable for 15 a month, b/c a regular antenna won't work for us. And although we have central a/c, we hardly ever run it. Only a handful of days a summer. We are big on free entertainment-parks, the pool (okay, only free b/c of our membership to the ymca, but still, we are taking advantage of our membership). I try to freeze at least one or two servings of our dinners if I can, and DH uses them for lunches a lot. I only buy clothing on sale/ebay or at thrift stores.