I thought of more: We don't have long distance on our phone, we haven't for years. We buy a calling card. You can get one for like $23.00 at Walmart and it has alot of minutes on it. My hubby hates dialing all the #'s, but he knows how much we save. Cellphones: We aren't big users of them, so we have old ones and only do minute refills (no monthly bill), just fill 'em up when we get close to running out. Sometimes one refill lasts a whole year because we just use them when necessary. Umm.. yes, the "Bread Outlet", jencar98 answered that one. Um... what else. See? I was a scrimper to begin with. Probably because we lived on next to nothing for 4 years while my husband went to school so we were used to doing without much. Also I was raised by Depression-Era parents, and they thought I was a spendthrift....cuz I used too much toilet paper, etc. things like that! Really, ... I got yelled at alot for things I take for granted now, like using enough TP!
Oh I also just re-use as much as I can.. (no not the TP!) but things that can be reused. Husband rolls his eyes at me when he sees me washing out Freezer bags to reuse, but thats just how I was raised.

Glad to hear that you aren't re-using the tp!! :eek: :D

......... and YES!! I will also re-use our ziplock bags..... especially if they are just holding drygoods. (wash out and dry). My hubby's grandmother used to do this and I thought it was a bit silly........ but she went thru the depression also............... we can learn alot from those that went thru those hard times!

LOL! ;)

Yeah, my parents did the bag washing. Also they kept bowls from margarine,etc (but alot of people do that) to reuse. My GRANDMOTHER, wow... man, that was pioneers-ville, she chopped wood and heated her home with it and also cooked over a wood stove. I'm not going that far! :D (either I'm really old (but not really?!).. but mainly my parents were older when they had me, hence... my grandmothers were Really Old School! from the wood chopping days). We can indeed learn so much from them. :) fond memories. :dreaming: growing their own food, raising their own animals, baking own bread. Wow... it's amazing. I at least want to try my hand at growing my own vegetables next spring.

Yes, you can definitely do that. You can freeze them right in the marinade. I have used a service that combines dinner ingredients and then you freeze it and thaw it out when you need it. The other night we had rosemary pork chops. The chops were frozen in a large bag with the seasoned breading in a separate bag. All I had to do was thaw, dredge chops and fry or bake them. Tomorrow I'm having pepper steak. It is all frozen together and I've thawed it in the fridge and will put it in the crockpot and let it cook tomorrow. There's a separate bag of rice and I'll cook that when I get home. We've also had marinated chicken thighs that were frozen in the marinade and then we thawed them and cooked them on the grill. Of course, buying dinners like this is not necessarily cost effective, but my point is that you can make things up ahead, freeze it all, and then thaw and cook as needed and they taste like you just made them up fresh.

How about cooking them and THEN freezing....... kinda like "tv dinners"? (but hopefully much better)

Hubby lost his job a week ago. Gas prices are killing us. It costs over $60 to fill up my CAR... my '99 Honda Accord.

Yes, you can do that too. I don't think everything freezes well, e.g. spaghetti or pasta - but it can be frozen and then popped into the micro - just like TV dinners! I think it's very economical to do this - especially if you have a hubby like mine who doesn't like to eat leftovers (or so he thinks). So, I freeze them and he gets them again in a week or two and he doesn't even know.

Shhhhhh.... don't tell him. LOL!!!

Actually, he does know - it's not that he doesn't "like" leftovers - he just prefers to not eat the same thing two nights in a row - so if I freeze leftovers and warm them the next week or so, he's just fine with that.

MY husband/Boyfriend does our budget. And we are extremely tight...we moved to rochester in hopes and dreams of making it here because he had a postion which would give ups the income we needed. When we arrived here there was no job and only one would be in the spring and we were in ROchester by 3rd of January! 3 months of no work and just skimping by...were still in debt because of the rent 1700..but his budget really helps us along... i do coupons time to time ...and we work about 3 blocks away from eachother so I just go into work early everyday...Hopefully we will become full time soon. but what has saved us in the food department is ALDI's a $130 Shopping will fill up a cart and will have us eating for about a few weeks. We dont by junk food... all we buy is food that I can cook and i can prepare him lunches.

Well we've always had to scrimp and watch every dime.
Every time hubby gets a real good raise, gas prices and grocery prices go up. So we never get ahead.

So the only thing differently i'm doing is one day a week trips into town to do everything at once. But I don't really notice any big difference yet at all. Guess I'm used to being poor so I can't miss what I never had:p

If things get significantly worse though, i dont' know what we'll do. I've been offered my old full time job back at a great income but figuring in gas, and huge cost of day care, etc I won't be making more than I already make working my two businesses at home. So I've turned it down so far.

I have a mini cooper and it is awesome!! Very good on gas too! I have a 2008 Cooper S and it is avg 30mph!!!

I have cut out just about everything that we don't need and hadn't already cut out. We don't go to movies, but we do have the large cable package, due to my husband's disability, it's really all he does.

AC is set at 80 heat is set at 66

I also plan my meals around what is on sale.

What I really hate the most is that I can't afford to visit my daughters/grandkids as often as I used to.

But I'm still going to get my golden yorkies even if I have to eat cheap hot dogs for an entire year.

Every girl deserves a little gold in her life.

Wow...great thread. There are some great ideas on here.

I am still looking for a job, not sure what I want to do. I have been laid off my Mortgage job since April.. It was nice to have a last summer spending time with my 18 & 20 year old. They were both planning on moving out but have decided to stay at home a bit longer. :)

We go to Costco at least once a month and stock up on essentials, milk is much less expensive there. I make just about everything from scratch, it is really much less expensive to do & is better for you.
We don't buy sodas anymore or alot of junk food. I don't go to our bread store anymore because they raised their prices.
I make extra food and freeze it for later in the month.

We don't have health Insurance right, now but Costco will give you a discounted price on prescriptions. We have went back to using Grandma's home remedies for colds and coughs.

I try to combine all my errands to save gas. We are also using a Britta Pitcher for water instead of bottled.

Kroger sometimes puts chicken breast on sale for $1.99/pound. I usually stock up then and it lasts us for 1-2 months. I also buy the family size meat which lasts us 1-2 months too. I have a freezer just for meat and it taste fine. Just one tip. Don't defrost the meat in the microwave. Either let the meat sit in a pot with hot water for about 30 mins - 1 hour or put the meat in the fridge the night before.

I don't know how to cut back. I already keep my spending to a minimum. I'm doing fine right now, but I will have to come up with something to cutback if things get worse. I wish I had more time to search for deals on groceries.

i dont buy extras anymore
i drive differtently to save gas
im not going to turn my furnace up past 50
and i will be using space heaters..
getting some kerosene too
going to stock water for the possible power outages
stop charging
no christmas gifts this year
very little baking
no eating out
turning off lights not in use
not buying a new car
just fixing the old one
learning to live differently without shopping
skimping on groceries.. this is the best way to save money...
shopping at aldis
i need to get into coupons i guess.. any good sites?:)