Frugal Fridays: Simply Centsible Living - Part 4
Last week, I gave you the specifics on our budget. This week, I wanted to give you some practical ideas of things we eliminated from our budget, that most people could do without. Remember, you can usually always live within your means, no matter how small. It's a matter of being willing to live within those means.
Here are some things we did:
1) Eliminate cell phones. Unless you have cell phones instead of a landline, this is something we could almost all live without. After all, how did we manage without them for hundreds of years?? In all honesty, though, this was one of the hardest things for me to give up when I got married. I realized that I often placed my security in a cell phone instead of the Lord when I was out and about. I quickly learned that I was just fine without it and never had an incident where I ran into any major trouble not having one. I just prayed a lot and God always took care of me - even when the roads were icy or the car had trouble - I was never left stranded anywhere!
This can save you a minimum of $30/month or $360/year for one cell phone.
ETD: I was thinking it might be better to say "eliminate some of your phones" - either have a cell phone(s), or a landline, but not both, if possible. Like I said in an earlier post, we actually have a landline and each have a cell phone now, but only because of the business and our DSL. By doing it this way and the business paying for the DSL and some of the cell phone costs, we are able to keep our costs down and save on long distance charges. We started out with just a landline (which we used for both phone and internet) and used phone cards for long distance charges. As the business expanded, we added DSL through our phone company, and then, just this past year, added cell phones onto our plan. By having it all as a package deal, we are able to save money and, our overall business and personal costs are less by doing it this way. However, we know we could easily go back to no cell phones, if need be. It is definitely one of the first few things I know could be cut.
2) Don't go out to eat. No brainer, right? It's not always easy to follow, though. After all, we all like convenience, but you can live perfectly fine without restaurant food. Learn to make homemade pizza instead of ordering out. It's a lot cheaper, better for you, and just plain better, in my opinion. Experiment in your kitchen and learn to make similar foods that your family enjoys getting at restaurants. Plan some ethnic foods nights, if you like to eat at Chinese or Mexican restaurants. Pack a picnic and go to the park. Have a candlelight dinner every once in a while. Just because you don't go out to eat, doesn't mean you can't have special dinners.
Plan a weekly menu and make sure to start dinner early in the day. Doing these two things will help tremendously in curbing eating out. Better yet, cook up extra dinners as you have time to have on hand in the freezer so that when you don't have time to cook, you can just pull something from the freezer instead of picking up fast food.
If you usually go out to eat once or twice a week, don't just drop it all of a sudden and feel sorry for yourself. Gradually ease out of the habit. Instead of once a week, go every other week, and then once a month, etc. Jesse and I have rarely gone out to eat at a sit-down restaurant since we've been married unless we were using a gift card we'd been given or mystery shopping. We probably go out to eat at a sit down restaurant and actually pay for it ourselves maybe two times a year. This makes those very special occasions.
If you are a family of six and go out to eat at an average sit-down restaurant once a week, you'll save at least $120 a month (probably more!) or $1,440/year by eliminating this.
3) Don't buy storebought gifts. Yes, I know, this might seem really stingy, but we didn't have room in our budget for gifts, so we had to get creative. You can make something, give baked goodies, make a very nice handmade card, give a coupon for free babysitting (or something appropriate). If you shop at garage sales, you might be able to find some great deals there for gifts. Or, if you are a coupon-shopper, you might be able to make up a basket of goodies from your "stockpile." This is something I love to do. When I'm able to pick up some gift-type items for next to nothing and stay within our grocery budget, I do. Then I put these up in our gift cabinet to have on hand when the occasion arises. I can whip up a gift basket for almost any occasion in a jiffy! Another option is to do something with the person, instead of giving them something. Instead of giving your girlfriend a $20 gift, invite her over for tea. The possibilities are endless, let your creativity roll!
If you give 2 $15 gifts per month, you'll save at least $30/month or $360/year by finding creative alternatives to storebought gifts.
Do you see how these little things can add up so quickly? It helps to multiply it out by month and then by year to see how much you are truly spending or saving by doing something or eliminating it. It's often the miscellaneous little expenses which can completely destroy your financial well-being.
Those were just three of the things on a long list I made. I'll share more next week. In the mean time, I'd love to hear how your practical ideas for creative and inexpensive gifts, creative, cheap, and fun alternatives to going out to eat, and ways you've found to save money on a cell phone or land line bill.
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To join in Frugal Friday, just post a frugal tip or post on any subject of frugality on your blog, link to this post in your post, and then post the direct link to your Frugal Friday post below. Any link or post which does not adhere to these rules will be deleted at my discretion. If you do not have a blog, but have a tip to share, please post your tip in the comments section. And, remember the rules: Must be family-friendly. Thanks! I can't wait to read your tips!
posted by Crystal Paine at 2:31 PM
24 Comments:
I posted some links for free shipping boxes. I think most people know this already , but some may not.
Speaking of the cell phone / landline bills...
We have cell phones on a family plan because my husband needs one for work. We don't want a landline at all...however we haven't been able to find anyone who will give us high-speed internet (also needed for work) at a decent price without also buying expensive phone services. We've been paying $60/mo for internet and the unwanted land line together. Does anybody happen to know of a good cheaper option to recommend for JUST high-speed internet?
We decided to go for a cell phone plan over a landline. We got a pretty good deal on a plan: 2 phones, 1000 minutes (I use on average 1000 minutes a YEAR -- we're not huge phone people) for $50/month. It's about $10 more than we would have had to pay for a landline, and my fiance says it's worth $10 for him to be able to reach me anywhere. But, yeah... we certainly didn't want two phone bills! We knew we couldn't afford that.
Ok, my Frugal Friday tip might make me sound like an extreme tightwad. ;-) At our new house the water takes a LONG time to heat up out of the tap. So my fiance collect the cold water in a large paint bucket and when I come over during the day I use it for various tasks around the house: handwashing dishes, watering plants, etc. There's no need to pay for that water twice, right? It probably doesn't save a ton of money, but every little bit helps. :)
I'm so happy to hear all the baby news! My post this week is about postcards. Have a great day!
We also use cell phones instead of a landline. I prefer it because not only can Ron and I reach each other when we need to, the older kids can as well. It's comforting.
We've also eliminated our long distance spending by using them.
Erin, if you have cable access for TV, see if the company offers a package that includes the internet connection(many have upgraded to fiber optics lines and they are super fast and rarely problematic). It might not be much less but it is worth asking.
Crystal,
It's wonderful that God provided for you, Jesse and Kathrynne throughout all of Jesse's law school when you were on a tight budget. You have said that you wanted to avoid going into debt. Knowing that you two are strong Christians, and being a fairly new one myself (2 years), I was wondering if you would explain this...I assume it mentions this somewhere in the Word and would love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks! And congratulations on #2!!
Kathleen
Re gifts:
I'm giving certificates for a meal (48 hours noticed needed!) to my pastor and his wife, and a couple who are good friends. I had some holiday-appropriate printer paper (red with imbedded sparkles), printed them out. I cut them out and edged with pinking scrapbook scissors and doubele-stick taped them to an index card.
Just did this today. I give these meal certificates often for baby showers and they are big hits.
For cell phones, I use Tracfone. I got a $20 with 10 "units" and a card with 60 "units" was only $20. I can get the refills anywhere, even Walgreens. I'm single and do a great deal of driving in the big city, so I have this for safety, as well as if I'm running late occasionally, etc. Very happy with it.
We have a family of 9 (so far!) that is supported by one fairly small income. We are constantly looking for ways to cut costs. Here is what we do about cell phones ~ we have 1 prepaid cellphone that we only use occassionally. We purchase more minutes for the phone about every 3 months. This works out to be about $7/mo. If we had to, we could go without the phone. But as long as we have the extra $7, I appreciate the convenience!
Crystal,
God works in wonderful ways! Just earlier, my Mom and I were talking about the whole cell phone vs. landline deal. I would like to eliminate a great deal of my expenses and am looking for a way to have inexpensive DSL without a landline and just share a cell phone account that my Mom has. Just my landline with DSL costs almost $70.00 a month and I am on on a very tight budget! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
I am not an expert on this because my husband takes care of this issue for us but in regards to high speed internet we have cable internet. You can get it for about $20 a month for the first three months and then I think it goes up a little after that. If you get it with cable TV, too, of course it is more, but you don't have to get the TV to have the internet. There is no associated phone line.
Elissa
Erin,
We find cellphones to be a necessity (or at least a moneysaver) due to our living circumstances, so we got rid of the landline/dialup and switched to WildBlue for satellite internet service. After the initial investment, it's $47/month, which is very close to what we paid for the landline and dialup together.
If you decide to sign up, be sure to mention someone who uses it - they give a $75 referral fee!
Crystal:
Excellent article. I wish I would have known these things many years ago. I could have saved so much money.
We don't have cell phones, but I think we may have to get them. We have found ourselves stranded so many times lately. Since we have all used vehicles(no payments) they have all broken down this year. Before we had gotten by with no breakdowns. This year was a humdinger. I do despise cell phones though. I had to carry one along with a pager when I was a social worker. I was always available and just hated it.
I have heard some who use just cell phones as they have free long distance minutes so they give up their land lines. I don't know how this work for us since we use the dial up internet.
Blessings!!
We have just cell phones with a family plan, because dh must have a cell phone at his job. Our calls to one another, and anyone else with a cell phone with the same company, are free, so we just chose a reasonable plan of minutes, and do not have a landline.
We get our high-speed internet through our cable tv company, and pay a comparable price for the both together as any other internet company in town. I don't miss having a house phone, b/c dh can reach me anywhere I am with my cell.
I have a trac phone that you purchase minutes as you go. I don't use it a lot but I do some traveling alone so it is nice. I don't spend even $10/month on it. I still have a landline phone. I use a calling card for long distance calls. I bought a 600 minute card a year ago for around $30. I still have over 200 minutes on it.
November 3 is Happy Housewifes Day! Have a terrific day.
We have prepaid cell phones. Our phone, Internet and cable are bundled. We pay $120 for the 3 services.
CHEAP OVULATION TESTS / PREGNANCY TESTS
I read a post already on cheap pregnancy tests and wanted to share this link website.
Here in Canada pregnancy tests are $10 - $20/each and ovulation kits are about $50.00 for a 5 pack which is enough for one month. We were trying to conceive and wanted to know if/when I was ovulating but really couldn't afford to buy the tests. I came across this site and the tests here range from $0.50/ea to $2.00/ea because they are not "brand name" and do not come in fancy packaging.
THEY DO WORK and very well. They also have a coupon code a couple times a year to save 10% and most of the time they offer free shipping (canada & usa) for orders over $14.00 I think.
For anyone who trying to conceive or is interested in ovulation kits / pregnancy tests I'd check it out!
http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com/
PS. I'm expecting my first in January **yeah**
Jennifer
WildBlue looks interesting for those wanting to have other than phone connections. When checking with the local cable server here, 1.5mbps is $29.99 additional if already with cable TV($39.99 without). They have service up to 8mbps for $69.99($79.00 without tv). Zoom, that is a fast connection; I had no idea!
Great ideas shared in the comments and via blogs; enjoying! Went to the store this morning for a ham hock and beans for soup(my neighbor last night asked about lowering cholesterol through foods) and someone mentioned beans here today; how cool is that? hehe, while I was typing this my neighbor came to the door with a bag of dry beans for me. smiles :-)
Hugs to the expecting moms! :-)
As far as clothes go, I've become a big fan of thrift stores. I now can't imagine going to the mall. An added bonus to this (besides saving money) is that you can be pretty sure if something has made it to a thrift store and is in good shape, it's probably going to hold up well and it's already been shrunk, too.
I also borrow movies from the library instead of renting them. At my library, you can keep them for a week.
Hope the pregnancy is going well. And thank you again for such a wonderful, marriage-saving web-site.
I couldn't agree with you more! I love making chocolate candy gifts and people eat them, love them and there is nothing to clutter up their house afterwards!
We dropped our landline a couple of years ago and just used two cell phones. It worked great until we moved to Texas and our apartment didn't get cell phone reception at all - we added a landline, but once we moved to our current apartment we have great reception and were able to drop the landline.
We have changed our cell phone plan I don't know how many times, but with TMobile, at least, there is no fee to change the plan (the contract is extended from the date you begin any new plan, however). It was really nice to be able to easily switch our plan options based on how many we needed at the time.
BTW, we use cable internet and do not have to pay for cable TV!
When we really wanted to save money we went without electricity, phone and lived in a cabin without running water or septic for 4 years. We lived on almost nothing. Eventually we did get a shared phone. Our idea was to pay for everything before we used it. If we wanted electricity we paid for gas first, cooking stove we paid for our propane etc.
About saving money on gifts, I have been able to buy some nice gifts for people by doing something my grandmother always did, she was wealthy, but frugal, especially when you have as many grandchildren as she did. When you find a good deal on something that would be nice for a gift then buy it. I like to go after Valentine's day and Christmas especially and buy some of those gift sets . I have gotten some nice bath sets for about a $1-$1.50. I will keep my eye open for good deals on books, baby gifts, etc. so when I get invited to a bridal shower- baby shower etc. I do not have to scramble to the store and spend alot! I have something nice already here that I only spent a small amount on and is nice. It really helps to save money on the gift giving.
Erin:
We have DSL through Verizon WITHOUT paying for a land line. It's called dry-loop or dry-line DSL, and it costs us $23/month. Call your local DSL provider and ask about it - they'll probably give you a hard time because they want you to sign up for services you don't need - but it's a HUGE money saver for us! In fact, it's cheaper than any other Internet option for us, even if we had bundled it with phone or cable service.
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