Less manicures and pedicures. Cooking more meals at home instead of going out. I make FH lunch and dinner to bring to work so he doen't have to buy expensive take out.
matinee movies, early bird dinners if we do go out to diner, buy certain groceries when they are on sale, pedicures only in the summer, less manicures, when cooking we make a large amount of food this way he can take it to work with him for lunch and we have leftovers for during the week, we buy meat and chicken in bulk this way we can freeze it (gotta love BJ's, they have the best steaks and chicken), and we dont go out like we used to.
I am currently trying to find good ways to save money as well. We are living pretty much only on my income since FH is in school, but he has a job that we use the money for things like gas and food. but we need a much better system. What I do it I only keep the money in the bank that is going to bills. I physically alott the other amounts by hand into envelopes. We spend the same amount on groceries a week, so that goes into an envelope, FH's travel expenses for the train, that's another envelope, gas, some spending, etc. This way I can see where everything is. any extra goes into savings. This seems to be the most useful method so far. But when there really isn't much left over to begin with, it's just so friggin hard to save!
I'm vegetarian and FH has recently stopped eating meat at home...saves us some money if we cook from scratch. I make a lot of veg chili, indian food, stir fry etc.....
Stop shopping for new clothes for a few months...and just wear what you have--it made a huge difference for me!
