Of course the first and easiest things to cut off from your bills are gas and phone bills. Reducing your home expenses is essential especially if someone is working in an industry that is in big trouble. If the world economy is in trouble, then any business that relies on exports is in danger of losing jobs.
Most of the time people say that you should keep away from prophets of doom and gloom. However, we are past the prophesying part. Things are bad and could turn ugly if nothing good comes up in the next few weeks. You can’t do much about your the world economy. You can’t deal with those issues but you can deal with how you manage what comes into your pocket and how it leaves.
Other than the car, the other big expense in our family is the groceries.
It does not seem possible, but groceries can make you broke. For some funny reason we believe that a trip to the grocery store does not require a budget. Well we changed our minds after a few weeks of coupon cutting.
Yes I said it, coupons are a great way to take your dollar a longer way. That one dollar here and a dollar there, will keep the creditor at bay. We actually save over $200 a month since we started cutting those coupons. Granted it can be boring work, but saving money is our goal here not entertainment.
We stopped buying brand name products. Did you know that tomato sauce is made using the same process everywhere in the world? Other than the name, there is no big difference between a cheap tomato sauce and a more expensive one. To make things worse, grocery store brands are actually the same as brand named products. Yes, that store cereal box is just as good as the brand name. This is usually because it is made by the same company.
Between coupon cutting and not buying brand, we are saving ourselves over $400 per month in grocery costs.
Oh by the way, eating less is also a great way to save on groceries.