Each Week Elleinadspir, A Place to Share and I will be working our way through the Listography 2011 Book with a rotating Link Part-tay! To find the list of the years topics, check out the Listography Link above.
Today’s Topic: List some ideas for trimming back your budget
I have so many opinions and ideas about budgeting that I don’t even know where to start!? Today I’ll keep it simple though, here’s how we live the luxe life on public-servant salaries.
Arnold's Mad Barber Skillz
- Haircuts-The boys cut their own hair and I cut mine 3-4 times a year. It saves beacoup money.
- Meat-With the exception of the Bayless project we rarely eat meat at home. This frees us up to buy more pricey (and better tasting) organic veggies etc without breaking the bank.
- Nix Cable-It’s well known that I heart TV, but I don’t have cable. We have an antennae that we fastened to the top of our house, Netflix and a Tivo. For $25 a month we are more than able to fill our couch-potato calendar
- Booze-We throw a lot of parties and there is absolutely no way that we could have get-togethers of 20+ people on a weekly basis if we provided drinks at every fete. We make BYOB a policy except for special occasions. My friends don’t care, they still come over (with beer) every week happy as clams.
- Coffee-Make it at home, duh.
- Happy Hour-On Wednesday nights we eat out at a local restaurant. We eat off the Happy Hour menu and get dinner for 3 for less than $15. It’s a nice break for us in the middle of the week and the savings mean we get to hop over to Ginger’s afterwards for cookies. :)
- Allowance-It’s easy to have a short memory on your spending. The week you buy something “Oh so expensive!” Three weeks later, “What? Did I get a new shirt?” H and I get “allowance” once a month and when it’s gone, it’s gone. It’s a great way to see the cause-effect of your individual spending more clearly. I brown-bagged it for months to buy the New Kids concert tix and I’ll be doing it again to save up to go to next years Mighty Camp. Worth it, cause in the end budgeting is about priorities.
Alright internet focus group how do you save money? I am very curious! Let’s crowd-source our way into better budgets. I’ve got the link!
Allowance….we used to do that. We need to go back to it. Coffee at home for sure. And I really should kearn to cut hair…Bonham needs a cut every 6 weeks….really every 4-5…but we go 6-8.
Kids are great to learn on. They don’t really care if you mess it up. :)
I’m impressed with the cable part. We nixed cable (from the actual cable co), but still have it through Verizon… but $25? Wow.
And yes #5- DUH!! :)
Hair, YES!- Hubby buzzes his head weekly. This was a conscience decision to stop going to a barber when his hair was fading away. I assured him I would LOVE the nearly bald look. I think it works for him too. Savings=$200 year, investment $25 for the clippers.
Since we got them, we buzz the kids hair at least once a year and take turns cutting their hair mostly. I do take them to Lily’s (Freeport, near Fruitridge) a few times a year when I’m feeling less confident about our hair cutting skills. My mom was a hairdresser so I get over confident sometimes.
I only got ONE haircut this year. $40. Mostly because I didn’t take the time to do it. Ponytails and momma sorta go together. I color my own hair.
Right? Hair-cutting is not that scary. I think I remember that you were my “budget” hair-dresser in college.