Cable television and movies: Nope. We don’t have a TV, so no cable. We use a digital projector to watch free DVD’s from the library. I had a Netflix account. It’s on indefinite hold. Really nothing to cut there.

Meals and dining out: Very little to cut there. We eat almost all meals at home, or on expense account when my husband is traveling for work. We’ll eat out for a “date night” or special occasion once a month or less. I cook from scratch, comparison shop, buy staples in bulk and even wholesale occasionally. So, if we cut eating out to absolutely zero, we might save $1000 per year, but I doubt it would amount to that much.

Communication: Here’s an area we could do better if we had to. We pay for one cell phone plan, and dh’s work pays for another. We could and should switch to a pay as you go plan. Also we could switch to slower internet service, though when dh works from home, a fast connection is a really a necessity. If we absolutely had to do it, we could save probably $1000 per year there.

Live entertainment: Again, this isn’t a major expense in our budget. Occasionally we’ll go to fairs or shows out in the country during the summer. Perhaps once per year there’s a concert we’ll pay to see. There is a conference I attend each winter for education and networking opportunities. If we cut everything, maybe we’d save $500 per year.

Vacation – Other than visiting family, or DH tacking on some leisure time to a business trip, we haven’t spent any serious money on a vacation in about three years. We’re looking at stuff to do at National Parks within easy driving distance for the foreseeable future. Bus trips to NYC are easy and cheap for us, which makes for great daytrip possibilities. I doubt I would cut the family occasion travel unless the need were dire. Cutting everything else might net us $500-$700 per year.

The little things: Again, not much there to cut. We don’t do much impulse buying. We get our books, music and movies from the library. We have very cheap hobbies (such as dumpster diving), or hobbies that repay their expenses (such as gardening and cooking).

So if we cut it back to the bone, we’d still only save something like $3000 per year. We could save a small amount of money by eating more vegetarian meals and foregoing a few other minor comestible treats, I suppose. But that still wouldn’t get us to $10k delta. Getting another job or taking in a boarder would be the only thing I could think of to get us another $7000 per year over and above our cuts.

But here are some changes/reductions that we’ve made, in addition to some conservation efforts (We live in Portland, OR – conservation is big here):

1. We drive less. I telecommute, and hubby flies to other locales when he works (clients cover the cost, or it’s a tax write off). So our gas expenses are fairly minimal.
We’ve both changed our driving habits. We ride our bikes more. We carpool for errands & group them in a circuitous route, and try to save them for one-two days a week.
We don’t drive above 60 mph or leadfoot. We don’t jackrabbit at starts, we don’t gun it at yellow lights – and that alone has cut our fuel use by 20%. That’s a savings of approximately $25 per month.

2. We reduced our electric bill by 20% each month –
by turning the hotwater heater down to 120f and wrapping it in insulation, turning off the pc/printer when not in use, using CFL bulbs (they’re much cheaper now), and unplugging energy vampires like the microwave, cellphone chargers, electric toothbrush when not in use. $20 per month savings avg.

3. Canceled the gym – $34 a month.

4. Canceled Netflix – $14 per month.

5. Reduced our water bill by 10-15% a month –
by capturing cold water (while waiting for hot), and hubby made rain barrels a few years ago. We use glass jars at the sink, bucket in the shower. Water goes into dog dishes, cat dishes, houseplants, potted plants, and even into one of our 4 rainbarrels (for veggie garden drip irrigation). Savings of $7 per month avg.

6. We changed our grocery shopping habits, and shop for most of our groceries at Winco, a discount, bulk grocery store. Whenever at a grocery store, we cruise the quick sale meat section – you can save a LOT of money there. Just freeze or use it immediately, it is perfectly SAFE to eat.
We eat out less, cook at home more, and eat lots of leftovers. We trimmed our groceries and eating out bill by a good $100 per month (we never ate out a lot anyway, and rarely at an expensive place).

7. Hubby does virtually all auto maintenence himself – oil changes, filters, tune ups, belts, brakes, shocks. He probably saves us at least $400 a year, maybe more.
Since our trucks are second hand and we have cash to replace them, we cut our auto insurance back to the legal minimum. Savings of $40 per month on insurance.

Amounts to a savings of $3,280 a year, which isn’t a huge amount, but is the equivilant of a month’s worth of bills.

Eating out less: $200 a month X 12 months: $2400
Netflix: $10 X 12 months: $120
Cable: $45 X 12 months: $540
Vacations: $1500 a year
“Fun” money for his and her: $200 X 12 months: $2400

Hmmm…that is $6960 I believe, without much thought. We already try and live below our means, and save $1500 a month into our emergency fund (that is after 401k and bills are paid).

Good exercise though, helps to know what I can cut if needed.

i could wipe out cable but I’d be hard pressed to get rid of netflix.

my land line phone could go ($60 a month) but my wife is against it.

adjusted my car insurance recently saving…..$14. no help.

tivo went away because of dvr from comcast..$15.

beer fund…hmmm, not cutting that….

Category: Annual Savings
Cable/Movies: I live with my parents right now and the condo I’m moving into actually has a basic cable/internet package that is built into the maintenance fees. no savings there.
Meals/Dining out: This is probably where I’d be able to save the most. If i packed a lunch every day, I could very well save close to $12-15 a week, which comes to about $600-$750 for the year (50 week work year). This doesn’t include occasionally dining out for dinner. I tend the dine out during the summers the most, if I conservatively estimate savings of $30-$50 (drinks and everything) a week for just dining out with friends, that’s another $1500-2500 easy.
Communication: I could probably take out my cell phone if I really wanted to, but I find it comes in handy once in a while. If i were to take it out, I could save about $500, counting the landline replacement that I would have to get.
Vacation: $1,000-$1500. Lately I’ve been going out on occasional trips with friends, which can really eat into savings with gas prices these days.
Commuting: $0 There’s no easy way for me to avoid commuting. I have to drive to work every day and I am the only one I know who commutes to this office from where I live with the hours I have. I have a couple of other friends that arrive to work later in the day because their hours are in another department. It just wouldn’t work. If I were to switch to public transportation and got a job in NYC, then I probably would save about $600-$720 by doing so.
Little things: I could probably save about $600 a year if I stopped buying CDs, DVD’s and comic books. Maybe even save as much as $1000. If you count concerts, that’s another $300 or so.

minimum savings -$4,700
maximum savings – $7,270 and up

who am I kidding? I’m single. Let me enjoy my money once in a while.

that being said, I just bought this condo so it’s likely I will begin paring back some of my expenses.

Where in CA are you coming out to in Thanksgiving?

Category: Annual Savings
Cable/Movies: $300 (netflix and the occasional movie theatre)
Meals/Dining out: $800 (we already bring lunch to work, but we could eat out less)
Communication: $0 (no cell phones, and internet at the library would cost us more in gas than $15/month)
Vacation: $1,000 (this would eliminate all visits with out of state family – not a happy proposition)
Commuting: $0 (I already carpool with three other riders)
Little things: $0 (we don’t buy gadgets, and already shop at thrift stores/craigslist for many things)

Total savings: $2,100.

Like I said, that’s not very much. In a drastic emergency, we could tighten our belts quite a bit and live on nearly nothing. But as long as we’re employed, I don’t think we need to revise any of our spending habits.

Good post, Flexo. It’s always helpful to know where your budget could be cut if it was necessary.

Chris

Other than that, great article ;-)