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10 Ways that I live (realistically)
frugally
My husband makes about $36,000 a year before taxes. After our health benefits and taxes are taken out, that means $1,000 per pay period. $2000 a month. Our rent is
based on his income and is 1/3 of anything he makes – before taxes. So right
now, we're paying $797 a month in rent. Our credit card bills total about $200
a month, as does our grocery bill (or more). We have a car payment of $150/mo.
Heat is included where we live (thankfully), however we do go through about $75
every two weeks for gas for the car. Our electric bill is normally around
$60/month.
It doesn't leave a lot left over.
But since we've always been a 1 income family, we've learned to live on it.
We only have 1 car. We have only in the last 9 months even HAD credit cards,
and they're currently carrying balances to build up our credit so that we can
qualify for a decent mortgage rate next year. Before last Fall, we had no car
payment and no credit cards. We still didn't have any extra money.
However, here are the ways in which we are seemingly able to live on 1
paycheck, allowing me to be at home with our children. I DO supplement our
income from time to time by designing blogs & graphics, freelancing
photography & web work. However, that’s neither reliable nor regular
income.
Entertainment
- We do not subscribe to cable television. Now granted, not everyone has a
friend like us who lets us use his slingbox to watch tv, but before that friend had it, we just
simply didn't watch much tv. Where we live, there are NO local stations
available to non-cable people. So if we didn't have that friend's slingbox?
We'd just watch tv online. This saves us at least $70 a month or $840 a year.
And that is just for the BASIC of basic packages. Just look at their rates!
Nothing on tv? We have tons of stuff on dvd :)
Communication/Internet
- We do not have a regular land-line telephone. We have voice-over-IP phone
which provides unlimited long distance phone service. This in itself is worth
it's weight in gold because we live away from all other family. Before that, we
were paying at least $100 a month in phone charges, in addition to internet
service. Now we pay $35 a month for the telephone bill and $45 a month for high
speed internet (which is necessary in order to have VOIP), and NO long distance
charges. So at the very least, we're saving $50 a month, or $600 a year, by
using VOIP and high speed internet.
Shopping
- We do not buy "name brand" things that don't make a difference. I stopped
buying "name brand" canned vegetables years ago. The difference is minimal most
of the time, and can always be made up with a little seasoning if necessary. My
kids never noticed the difference at all. But I save $.70 a can x 6-7 cans a
week x 52 weeks. That's $250 a year. I just recently came to realize that this Dollar Tree brand of OxiClean does a BETTER job of
cleaning my white clothes than any bleach can, and it's MUCH
easier on the clothes themselves. I cannot stand gray "whites" like my
underwear or Jimmy's socks, etc. and this off-brand oxiclean truly does get them
just as white, without the harmful effects of the bleach eating away the
fabric. I can't even imagine what THAT saves us, but just the bleach alone at
$2 a gallon for the NAME BRAND, times 12 a year, is $24. Yeah, it's not a lot
but that $24 is much better in my pocket than over at Clorox's :)
- Buy in bulk. Of course, it's on everyone's frugality lists, but it's true.
When we go to the discount grocery store (Save-a-Lot) every few months, we stock
up on things like those canned vegetables, pastas, frozen fish - things like
that. The canned veggies go for $.38/can there - they're twice that even when
they're on "sale" at the local stores. I’ll buy a few cases of them! When you
figure out the savings in bulk, you’ll see it really makes sense to do it this
way. Also, I buy toilet paper, paper towel in bulk. When there's a sale on
things like boneless chicken breast or steak, I buy a bunch and throw it
