ok here’s a few ways I cut back since moneys been tight:

-turned off the cable, back to old fashioned rabbit ears, I got one of those government coupons to get a convertor box, I will be using mine before february (when everything goes digital) because it makes a better picture on your tv. Also my favorite shows not on local channels I can often watch for free online.

-“I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance!!” no I really did, I changed to USAA and I’m paying HALF of what I did before. The only catch is you have to be military (active, retired, child of, married to).  If you don’t qualify shop around you still might be able to save some money, or you could even go with more basic coverage (assuming you’re a good driver and people where you live don’t drive to super crazy)

-Turned off the internet, my neighbors works just fine. =) 

-start taking the bus

-I started shopping at the commisary, if you don’t have a military ID maybe your friend does and you can go grocery shopping there. (Now that I don’t live near any bases I go to “aldi” very cheap as well) I’m sure there’s a cheap alternative for groceries around where you live.

– stop clothes shopping. this makes me sooooo sad but I had to give it up, now I make the occasion trip to the thrift store and that’s saved me some money.

I’d suggest writing down all your bills and see how much that ads up to, compare it to how much you make so you know how much needs to be cut. Then decide what can go completely or can be cut back. Start looking for alternatives!! Go through all your bills as well, for example have you looked at your cell phone bill lately?? You might have unlimited texting but you only use 500 a month. In fact call up your provide  and see if there’s a new cheaper plan you can switch to  This may seem small but if you make a lot of small changes you’d be suprised how much you save!!!

 edit: I just realized you live in canada so scratch any of the military stuff!!!

What do you use for home phone service? Primus has an voip package, $30 a month with unlimited Canada/US calls and the full suite of features. Don’t forget Costco! Buy in bulk, make good use of the stuff that you buy. Use the freezer well – spend a weekend making some meals that you can freeze and have throughout the week.
– Annette

There are some good budgeting tools/tips on this website.

http://www.wnetwork.com/expert_tips/your_money/tools/index.asp#calc

They even have a pretty thorough budget template to get you going in the right direction. The real trick though is to budget what you *think* you should be spending, then track what you are actually spend and set up a comparison of budgeted to actual in an excel spreadsheet. It only takes a couple months to figure out where your trouble areas are and to help you become conscious of where you can cutback.

The more detail you can put in your budget the better – but it can also take more time to track. But the information is really a lot more useful if you don’t have a ton of expenses listed under the “miscellaneous” category because you can actually identify where things go awry – and dig further into those categories where you are going over budget to find how you can cutback. The part I hate is if I shop at say, Costco and buy some food and some household goods – the dollar amounts are large enough in each category that it really is important to itemize the bill in order to properly categorize what was spent on food vs. household vs. clothing, etc – but it’s just so tedious! So yeah, it’s all a balancing act between detail/information and time.

This reminds me that I’m due to set up a budget of my own for the school year…yick!

The hard part with sticking to a budget is avoiding a feeling of deprivation, so you must include some things you enjoy routinely.

I’d start with just one week, carrying around a little spiral notebook and pen in my pocket. Jot down the date on a page a day, and then write everything you have spent any money on per day. That includes a pack of gum, a stop at the gas station, every single cup of coffee (how much?), whatever. This will tell you how much you spend out of your pocket money. Each stop at the ATM goes in the book. Do it for 2 weeks if you can. Note if it’s cash, or a credit card purchase.

An easy way to see your monthly expenses is to scan through your checkbook. Your routine monthly bills will pop out, so list them and note the average to maximum you pay for each. Those are manditory expenses. I didn’t check the website suggested above, but it’s probably a list of monthly items the average person spends, like rent, electric, water bill, car payment, credit card bill (each one), gas fill up, weekly groceries, weekly drug store items, meds, dr. bills, etc. Once you make a comprehensive list that fits your lifestyle (I have rent, not mortgage, don’t have any kids expenses, but add in that lettuce and litter!) you can save it on your computer and use it over the years to come. Excel docs are good, but a word list is easy too.

Don’t forget what you spend on other people! You may have some big birthday gifts hit 3 months out of the year, and other times none. Xmas is big for some people too.

They used to say that you should allocate 1/4, or one week’s paycheck, to rent alone. I haven’t seen a rent that didn’t eat up almost all of 2 week’s pay in years. If you add up your necessities, than add about $50/week misc., and get a month’s total of what you’re really spending, you can divide your annual salary by 12 and see how it comes out. Or figure out an average of your weekly expenses, then divide annual salary by 52 weeks per year. (Some months have 5 weeks.) Be careful – you’re figuring your NET paycheck, not the gross. So when someone hires you for 20k, about 20% is going to the gov’t. and you’re living off of 16k a year. Inflating your tax withdrawal gives you a conservative estimate of your pay, but makes a budget easier to manage. You may end up with wiggle room if you budget tightly to start. Make sense?

Gads. My computer is a mess. double posted here.

I get monthly so I know what you mean.   I have stopped spending $ on whatever I want at the grocery store.  If I see something I want to eat I get it not looking at the price.    Well that has changed.    And I can make it thru the month     I have not gone crazy ordering stuff for my buns lately.  I spent all my $ on them after bills.  I was always broke.  I hated it so I had to cut back on that.   I turned off my home phone.  All I got were solicitations.  I also noticed I didn’t use the home phone I only used my cell cause it was closer to where I was  ( on the couch )  

I shop at thrift stores for my clothes.  Usually.  Also  I take the bus when hubby isn’t here.   Also I can go with a neighbor grocery shopping when she goes. Also I can walk to the grocer too.    Maybe you aren’t able to walk there where you live.  Since I live so close I find out when A neighbor is going to where I want to go and we go together 3 of us sometimes.   Or I walk if I want the grocery store.

those shopping carts you can buy at the grocers are useful. I have a 3 wheel bike so I use that. 

One month I had 50.00 after I spent on bills and buns grocery.   It felt soo good.  When I would go with hubby to thrift store ofrgrocer or what not I kept it and didn’t spend it.  It felt so good to have it.  Knowing if I spent it I would be broke the rest of the month. That kept me from spending it.  I had what I needed. It is also a mindframe of I got what I need I dont’ need to spend it on that senselessly  ( whatever that may be) and be broke all month.

This month tho I had to buy a sound card for my computer and finally some clothes for myself I treated myself cause I spend it all on the buns was my turn.   Next  month I hope to have some to keep til the end of the month even tho I have to spay Ruby.  I will be more frugal. And won’t buy more clothes I got what I need.

OH I did without cable too. An advantage to that I got more done. I kept my DSL tho that is important to me but maybe not so crucial to you.  Or go with a cheaper plan call around.

I was told by a friend I can pay 20 a month for cable and get 18 channels so I had done that for a while too.

Where I live we have cable budgeted into our rent 11.00 but b4 I had antannea. You probably dont’ have that luxury of it being budgeted into your rent.

Also I want another bun but I tell myself more $ to feed another mouth I don’t need it plus I don’t have the time for another bun. Appreciate what I have and be happy with that.  yeah my friend has sable kits (baby buns)  and I want one. But I keep telling myself the previous info

I only learned how to budget a few years ago – and I’m 42 – so don’t feel bad about just starting at 26!

Excellent advice from Bunny Muffin!

I decided to set up my own because it only does what I need – no bells & whistles.

My budget is very elaborate.
It I set up on a 4 page spread sheet: budget, bank account, monthly, and print summary.
I do my “numbers” on the 1st, 10th & 20th of each month. this way if I am starting to spend to much in one category – I can catch it and adjust before the month is over.
I have my bills all set up through Bill pay with my bank – huge help.
The print summary is so hubby & I can go over everything together – this takes some of the burden off of me and keeps him in the loop.

The budget itself is set up in three categories: Income; Fixed Expenses (10 sections); Variable Expenses (12 sections)
I also have my bank account page set up as a running budget – so I can actually forecast exactly how much money we should have in the bank 6 months from now – this is a huge help.

It is kind of hard to explane but easy to see. So, I would be happy to e-mail you some examples if it would help.

Oops double posted. see below.

Oh, one more thing. (Cause I didn’t write enough already, right?) If you have direct deposit, have an automatic transfer from your checking to your savings of about 10 or $20 from each paycheck. You can rig it up on line with your bank account, or ask your employer who arranges direct deposit to split your pay to deposit into two accounts. That way, you save a bit you’ll really never miss each time, and it quietly adds up.

When I was making regular car payments, I was able to get my employer to direct deposit a portion into a checking account, then the rest in another. I opened two accounts at my bank. Then I did an automatic bill pay withdrawal with my car payments. That way, the car payment went in, I never saw it, it went out, and I never had a late payment. Did my credit report a world of good, and I now own my car. And pay the credit cards early – your interest will stay lower. You can switch credit cards regularly to low interest rate ones which helps too.

All grocery stores have their own generic brands that cost less. In FL, Publix makes the best food! I haven’t bought brand names when I could buy Publix in years. It’s great! Costco’s is very, very good too.

Ah yes – I forgot about the credit cards. I have them, but I never carry a balance because I refuse to pay the outrageous interest. My advice would be to pay those off as fast as possible and THEN start putting money into savings. You aren’t going to make enough interest in a savings account (especially now that interest rates are dropping in both the US and Canada) to outweigh the interest paid on the credit cards. Especially since you’re 26, there’s still lots of time to save for retirement, so first get rid of the credit card debt.

I also have some ING Direct savings accounts – some of my money in the savings account for liquidity if I need it, but the rest are in laddered GICs so one comes up for renewal every year and I can take advantage of the best interest rate available at the time (if they go up), but still have money earning old interest rates (in case they go down). Plus not all of my excess cash is locked away untouchable for 5 years at a time since they’re laddered. ING also has an “automatic savings program’ where you can link it up to your existing bank account and have it automatically withdraw a specified amount on a specified day (so $50 every pay, or $X at the end of each month, whatever works for you). That way it disappears automatically and hits a higher interest savings account. ING also has RSP savings accounts which I’m sure have some sort of tax benefit – I just haven’t looked into them yet (I’m only 22 and still in school, so I’ll worry about it when I get a full time job and graduate in May!) But yeah, the other good thing about the ING is that you can transfer money back to your normal chequing account if you need it, but (unless you order a debit card, activate it, and carry it around with you – which I advise against) you can’t use it for impulse purchases when your normal account runs low – it just accumulates in the background. It’s good stuff.

But yes – pay down those credit cards, then get moving on a savings plan.

we rent from my grandparents, so we have some leeway on rent due dates.  in October, the first friday was the 3rd, so we paid the rent on the 3rd.  there are five fridays in October so we can either pay rent again on the 31st, or on November 7th.  whichever works better for us.  you probably don’t have that choice, but it is nice for us…

we bought a new car for Mike in March.  we have less than stellar credit, so the dealership wanted to charge us 9,000 dollars on top of the cost of the car for interest…  my father said, NO WAY… and he took out a loan from his equity line and now we only have to pay about 2,000 interest to my dad’s bank…  we still pay what the dealership monthly would have been, but we will have it paid off in 2.5 years instead of 5…

as far as day to day stuff…

we buy in bulk.  it costs more upfront but we save money over the course of the year…  the bulk store we have a membership to (BJ’s) accepts coupons and they have in-stores coupons as well.  for example: a 4 pack of toothpaste (enough for months) might be 7 dollars.  the store has a one dollar coupon and i have 3 manufacturer 1.00 coupons.  i can use all 4 coupons and pay 3 dollars for 4 tubes of toothpaste…  it also doesn’t matter what type it’s for.  so if the coupon is for “Crest whitening toothpaste” and i buy “Crest regular”, i can still use it.  we go there about once or twice a month, and then do a smaller grocery store shopping trip every week for perishables (and bunny veggies).

my friend buys the DiGiorno mini-pizzas for about 3 dollars each at the grocery store.  we buy a 12 pack of Red Baron mini pizzas at BJ’s for about 11 bucks (and we have a 1.00 coupon)… last year we bought a deep freeze and we keep it stocked…

i check the sales and coupons every week at couponmom.com

i keep a calendar with what bills are due which week (months in advance) and i make sure they get paid that week.  that’s always first priority.  we try to limit dining out to once a week b/c we both enjoy it… and we always tip well with cash… 

i have severely limited my driving with the recent hikes in gas prices.  of course, i only work one day a week so that’s easier for me…

we just opened a savings account and we have a percentage (5%) of our checks deposited in there automatically.  we’re hoping to use that for xmas money and not have to affect our monthly budget.  some weeks it’s 30 bucks, some weeks it’s 60… it absolutely adds up…

we each have one credit card (we had issues with debt in the past but are now debt-free) and we pay off the balance in full each month without fail…

i don’t have a cell-phone b/c i’m usually always home or i’m out with someone who does have a cell phone (every single one of my friends and family members).  we don’t have long distance on our home phone.  we use calling cards if we need to call long-distance (which is rare).

we don’t go out to movies except maybe once a year… instead we have a netflix membership… after we got that, we canceled our cable movie channels… i miss some of my HBO and Showtime tv shows, but i get the seasons at netlfix once they come out…

we go out to the bar with friends maybe once every two months to treat ourselves, or we go to my sister-in-law’s more often to “party”…  my parent’s keep Michael overnight (free babysitting!) and we get a break…

oh yeah… our grocery store doubles coupons… that’s another thing to watch for for folks who don’t live in canada apparently… the store brand of x item might be 1.99. the namebrand is 2.99. but with a .75 coupon doubled to 1.50, the final namebrand price would be… 1.49. cheaper than generic…