How do you cut back?

Financially speaking... when you go into saving-mode, what ways do you cut back on your spending?

I go back and forth every day between wanting to start saving for a house hardcore and just living life and spending money because we work hard for it, so why not enjoy it?

Maybe if I saw some of the ways you all tighten your spending I could incorporate the little things.

Re: How do you cut back?

I go through my phases, too. Right now I'm in spending mode. lol!

I guess we save money by not going out as much- out to dinner, out for drinks, NEVER order in food when we're in saving mode. I had pizza for the first time in like 3 months the other day- it was glorious.

Re: How do you cut back?

We just cut down on eating out, we'll make lunches from home, going out as much, those things normally help out a lot. I also stop myself from going to the mall lol

Re: How do you cut back?

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Posted by jilliibabii

I go through my phases, too. Right now I'm in spending mode. lol!

I guess we save money by not going out as much- out to dinner, out for drinks, NEVER order in food when we're in saving mode. I had pizza for the first time in like 3 months the other day- it was glorious.

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do you try to put the money aside, like 'oh i would've spent $X on dinner and drinks this week so i'm going to save this separately'?

Re: How do you cut back?

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Posted by Linzee636

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Posted by jilliibabii

I go through my phases, too. Right now I'm in spending mode. lol!

I guess we save money by not going out as much- out to dinner, out for drinks, NEVER order in food when we're in saving mode. I had pizza for the first time in like 3 months the other day- it was glorious.

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do you try to put the money aside, like 'oh i would've spent $X on dinner and drinks this week so i'm going to save this separately'?

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Well, the way it works in our house is I pay the bills- all of them... b/c the second you put money in my hand, I find somewhere to spend it. DH is a little better about it, so every other week, he deposits a full paycheck into our savings account. If we're not in savings mode, he puts about half of every other paycheck into our savings account.

Re: How do you cut back?

We try not eat out as much or go to bars/drinks.

Every month we pay what we have to pay and rest goes straight into savings. The savings money we dont touch unless we have an emergency. so pretty much at the beginning of every month we start with like 100 bucks in checking and the left over at the end goes to savings. It's been working out perfect for us.

Re: How do you cut back?

I just remembered another thing we do when we're in savings mode, we did it during wedding/honeymoon phase as well as when we got our apartment. We decided on X amount that we'd each contribute to our joint savings account a month and had to stick to it. That really helped out because then we both managed our own things individually.

Re: How do you cut back?

We don't go out to eat as much... We cut it to 2x a month - which is tough considering we're used to going once or twice a week.... (But DH is such a snob ... he won't to 'chain' restaurant and a dinner usually ends up being 150+ for us).


I'll go back to the good ole box dye for my hair (which irritates the beans out of the girl at my salon - I get yelled at when I go in for a hair cut!).

I'll stop getting my nails done... and dang, I'm in dire need of a pedicure!!

Re: How do you cut back?

biggest thing for me is that i stop shopping (for clothes and whatnot)

but DH and I also try to do little things when we're in 'save' mode like buying only essentials at the supermarket (or buying generic brands instead of 'real' brands).

We also try to use coupons when we can.

Re: How do you cut back?

I made an excel spreadsheet for my husband to follow. We did it for the wedding as well and it worked well. I show him what his check is and what amount is going to what bills then I factor in his misc expenses such as gas for getting to work and then deduct what we both agree to put to savings then whatever is left over is all that is left to spend. If you see you only have $200 to spend till next paycheck you cant spend more than that. It has taught him to be responsible with his money.

Re: How do you cut back?

I take care of all the finances so I pay all the bills and then only leave about 1500 in our checking account and put everything else into savings. I tried to set it so that we put a set amount into savings each month.

Re: How do you cut back?

I started using two different credit cards, one for 'wants' and one for 'needs' It was a huge reality check for me once i realized how much I spent on clothing, going to dinner, drinks, etc.

Re: How do you cut back?

Packing lunch was a big one for us. We used to spend $7-$10/day each on lunch. And now we spend $100/wk food shopping and that covers breakfast, lunch and dinner. We each treat ourselves to lunch on payday. I actually don't mind it now b/c I feel like we're eating better as a result. Much less fast food.

Re: How do you cut back?

We have been going out to dinner less.

I make a shopping list for grocery shopping and stick with it (buying only what we need).

Bring lunch to work.

Use the Brita instead of buying bottled water.

Re: How do you cut back?

We use coupons, you would not believe how much you can save!!!

We bring lunch everyday and cook dinner almost every night. We only go out to dinner 1 or 2 times a month. We don't buy coffee or fancy drinks.

When shopping, I think to myself 'do I really like this' I WAS the queen of putting stuff with tags in good will.

Re: How do you cut back?

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Posted by runnerbride1023

I started using two different credit cards, one for 'wants' and one for 'needs' It was a huge reality check for me once i realized how much I spent on clothing, going to dinner, drinks, etc.

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o i may try this as an experiment!

Re: How do you cut back?

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Posted by Soon2BeMrsB

Packing lunch was a big one for us. We used to spend $7-$10/day each on lunch. And now we spend $100/wk food shopping and that covers breakfast, lunch and dinner. We each treat ourselves to lunch on payday. I actually don't mind it now b/c I feel like we're eating better as a result. Much less fast food.

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This is exactly what we did/do.

Re: How do you cut back?

we don't go out to eat as much as we normally did.

we'd invite friends over for some drinks and a movie instead of going out to a bar.

I clip coupons and try to only get the things I have coupons for.

I tend to make bigger dinners, so we have leftovers for lunch the next day.

Re: How do you cut back?

we don't go out to eat except maybe once a month.
we both bring breakfast and lunch and snacks to work.
quit smoking lol.
return all water bottles and seltzer cans. it sounds silly but one whole garbagebag full is about $10 back. We have about 8 filled garbage bags right now waiting to be redeemed. (as an aside, DH drinks at least 6 cans of seltzer a day, probably more).
we don't really buy clothes. i mean i had to buy maternity stuff but most of it is from old navy. i got a lot of hand-me-downs.
use coupons whenever we can. i never realized CVS emails me a coupon pretty much once a week - i always automatically deleted the email without even looking at what it was! usually it's 5$ off 25$ or something similar, or today it was 30% off entire purchase. It adds up.
not boozing also helps a lot. i didn't drink that much to begin with but we did spend a lot of $ on wine. now that i'm not drinking (temporarily albeit), that's a lot of $ saved (dh has no interest in drinking wine alone).
i have an enormous multi-tabbed financial spreadsheet (i manage our finances) - seeing everything written out and organized really puts things into perspective.

saving $ for a house is a huge committment but well worth it - promise.

Re: How do you cut back?

We split up our bank accounts and have our direct deposit going into separate accounts. So we have a set account for saving, one for paying bills and other joint things like travel and then our own accounts for shopping and more 'want' than 'need' stuff. We don't touch the savings and only putting a limited amout in our individual spending accounts really helps curb my spending. When we try to cut back we'll basically just eat out less. It really does make a huge difference.