Save $$ - Easy Ways To Reduce Budget

After becoming a SAHM (going from DINKs to a family living on one-salary) we re-evaluated our budget and reduced /removed unnecessary monthly expenses.

In total, these reductions save us about $170/month. Below are the most obvious and the easiest items we were able to reduce .

(1) Saved $20 / month by terminating our standard home phone land-line service (which did not include long distance) and switched to ViaTalk VoIP (with unlimited long distance included). We were able to keep our original home phone number without signing any contract. See our Save $$ via Switching to VoIP post for more information.

(2) Saved $50 / month by terminating our standard cell-phones (was $65 / month for two phones which included 1000 anytime minutes that we never used) and switched to a pre-paid plan (is about $14 / month for two phones which includes about 40 minutes per month per phone). See our Save $$ via Switching to Virgin Mobile post.

(3) Saved $20 / month by removing (unwatched) cable channels. We called our cable company and were able to to select a package including our favorite channels without all the extras including the movie channels (yes we will miss the Sopranos, but lucky for us it ended this year).

(4) Saved $20 / month by going green(er). See our Save $$ - Go (Lime) Green post for more information.

(5) Saved $60 / month (at least) by dining out less, making more food ourselves and making homemade baby food instead of buying it.

And what did we do with these savings? We save and/or spend half of the savings each month and invest the other half.

Check out other budget saving ideas. Or check out other festival of frugality ideas.


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photo © Darren Hester for openphoto.netCC:Attribution-NonCommercial