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When Jacob and I initially looked at our budget a couple years ago, it seemed like we just couldn’t break even.
After a mortgage, utilities and ‘necessary’ monthly expenses, our paychecks were just gone… and that didn’t even include food + fun money. Things were tight, but we weren’t living that way.
How we managed?
A simple swipe of a credit card.
Simple right?
Now, I don’t want to sound like we were always using our credit card… it was more for extras or to carry us through to the next paycheck.
We went through many stages of having credit card debt, to paying it off, to then adding debt back in again. A vicious cycle if ya ask me.
Before getting really serious about getting our debt paid off, we took a few steps to lighten up the monthly load. Here is one of them.
Cut the TV
When we first bought our house in 2008 we signed up for comcast tv and internet. It’s what we knew and was the thing to do. TV is normal, right?
A little more than a year ago we decided to cut TV out. Cost being the main reason, but also because it just took up our entire evening. We’d hop in front of the TV, flip through channels and waste the night away. Not cool.
We had no TV for a long time and guess what? We survived! Jacob lived without Sports Center and I (kinda, sorta, barely) survived with no Food Network to watch.
My memory isn’t the best, but probably 6 months later we decided to sign up for Netflix. We could stream through Jacob’s xbox and watch movies + TV commercial free. Plus we’d get a DVD in the mail.
The price started out just right… about $9/month. That saved us $30 compared to what we were spending on Comcast. Now the price has gone up to $17 a month… lame but it’s still savings.
The moral of the story?
If you want to move your budget in a better direction look at what you spend each month. There may be something you can eliminate or switch out to save you money.
The more money you save the more control of your debt + savings you are. And that’s a good feeling.
Now if I could only get back on my $75/week for groceries… these past couple weeks have been the opposite of ideal.
Is there anything you eliminated or traded out to save money? Anything we should look into?
Heather
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I honestly don’t know if I could live without Food Network, haha.
Great idea! If I don’t have the money I don’t spend it. That’s my approach now. I had a credit card for a brief period of time while I was living overseas…it’s so easy to spend money that’s not yours!
I have never had cable and I love it. It allows me to focus more on reading and getting out of the house instead of sitting around like a bum when I get home from work. 🙂
Way to start out right Krista!
We down graded our service and now get only the basic channels.
Cool tips! I actually do not have cable and only one tv in my house 🙂
Nice!
lovin these tips girl! we actually didn’t have a TV for the first year of marriage, i kinda miss that and the $$ saved
It’s nice not having the distraction of tv all the time.
We did the same thing with TV. We only have Netflix, so it gives us something to watch if we need to, but we’re not paying for the outrageous cable bills each month. We also limit going out to dinner about once a month, and always pack our lunches during the workweek. It’s a pain at first, but after you get used to it, it gets to feeling normal and it’s so worth it!
We’re lunch packers too and I couldn’t see it being any other way!
Great suggestion! My first year out of college my roommate and I only had internet. We decided we were never home so why spend the money on cable!
Nice thinking!
I would have a hard time cutting out cable completely, but I’ve definitely downgraded subscriptions. Also, when we moved, my roommate and I negotiated a new contract with the cable company. It never hurts to just ask… ya know?
Very true! Before when we did have cable, when our rate would go up I’d call and get it lowered back down. So many people could be saving just by asking!