Ways we are cutting back

 **Long Post**

At the beginning of the New Year, I mentioned that we were going to try and budget more and spend our money more wisely. Now that the month of January is coming to an end, I'd like to give y'all an update on some of the ways we are saving.

Our first thing to do on the money saving list was change our cable plan. I work from 7:30-4:30 Monday through Friday plus do photography work once I get home - so I'd say I definitely work over 12 hours every day. Tater is always locked in his office studying; and when he's not studying or in class, he's asleep. Since we don't have the time to watch TV much anymore, we cut our package.
Last months bill was $180. Crazy, I know! I finally told Tay that was enough. Spending $180 a month on something we barely use! So we contacted our cable provider, dropped our package down - we have to keep Showtime (Homeland, Masters of Sex, Nurse Jackie, Shameless) - but other than that, all movie channels are nixed. Our new cable bill total? $87.51. Do the math, we saved over $92 a month just by changing our cable plan. $92 a month!!!!!!!

 Some other ways we are trying to save:

- We are also trying to change the bad habit that we both possess - having the TV on as background noise, even when no one is watching. New rule? TV is off unless you are actually engaged in it.

-I'm a lamp lover. I swear I have at least 2-3 lamps in every room of our 3 bedroom house. And all of them are always on. Why? Because I think it looks pretty. And because I obviously do not mind throwing money down the drain. No more! New rule - the only lamps on WHEN IT'S DARK are the one's we need. The one in Tater's office and a single lamp in the living room. All other lamps are unplugged.

-Which brings me to my next point. Unplugging unnecessary appliances/lamps/everything in between. If you do not use them often, just unplug! Appliances and lamps still use electricity even when they are not on. I even unplug my coffee pot every morning when I'm finished and then plug it back in when I need more coffee.

- Our electricity bill is not due yet, so I cannot see the changes, but I'm stoked for next month to hopefully see the change! Our last bill was $106. I think if it even went down by $5 would be a big difference!

- Our water bill isn't expensive - it runs about $25 a month. That's with washing clothes when I NEED to wear this or taking the extra 15 minutes in the shower or leaving the water running while brushing our teeth.  New rules - always leave the lid on the toilet seat.  A 150 pound pup constantly drinking out of two toilets = lots of wasted water. Another thing we are trying is the whole flushing less. When I drink coffee in the morning, I pee about 12 times - no lie! So why would I flush all 12 times. And yeah, I'm to the point of doing anything to save a buck. Judge if you must. We are also only washing clothes once a week. And only washing the necessities: undies, socks, scrubs for Tay, dress clothes for work, and towels. T-shirts and other 'wear around the house' things are being washed once a month. We both have so many t-shirts and only wear a handful because I'm always washing clothes - not anymore!! Also, if I wear jeans once and don't spill anything on them, they are still clean, right? I'm hoping to see at least a $3 difference on the next months bill.

-Cutting down the amount of paper/plastic products that we use. I've always had this weird desire to save Kroger sacs, Target, Walgreen's, anything. Normally, I save them, they begin to reproduce in the cabinet under the kitchen sink and then BAM - full blown plastic bag takeover. Not anymore. Instead of buying overpriced name brand trash bags from Kroger, we are using the little plastic bags that are free! That should easily save us about $5 a month. We are also on the no paper plate rule. We both get lazy. Paper plates are so easy and convenient. Yet they are expensive. Let's add that to our total; approximately $4 a month. Not to mention paper towels. A few weeks I had an awesome Dollar General coupon - save $5 when you spend $25. So I bought a few necessities - all with coupons of course - and some paper towels. Those paper towels have yet to be opened. We have a slew of old 'Norm towels' - one's that he's ripped up etc...so I decided they would become our new daily use towels. So far so good!

- I use Ponds or the cheap Target/Walgreens/Walmart brand face wipes. And I don't wear that much makeup. I noticed that I really only using about half of each face wipe. So, I put my Masters degree (more on that later) to good use. I cut each face wipe in half. Now a 30 day supply has been turned into a 60 day supply. Genius I tell you!

- Since I am the breadwinner (and that freaks me out to no end!!) Tater and I just couldn't see spending $300 a month on our student loan payments. Since, he's in school and I'm not wealthy, we decided to defer our loans while he's in school. Yes, I know that the interest is steadily accruing, but once he gets done with school, paying $300 a month on loans won't seem so tedious.

- I am also a couponer. Not an avid couponer. Not a crazy couponer. I just don't understand paying full price for Dawn or Charmin when I get it on sale with a coupon and save a buck or two. I realized that my  newspaper subscription has gone from $4 a month to $8 a month. I can get coupons for free online and even load them to my Kroger card. So, bye bye newspaper subscription. Hello $8 savings a month! That's almost $100 a year!

- I have also realized recently that I have a penchant for buying unnecessary items. Insert Goodwill. And Kohls sales. Just because it's on sale doesn't mean I need it. Yeah, I spent $75 at Kohls, but it was all discounted. But that is $75 we could have saved. And put towards groceries. Or gas.
A lot of these unnecessary items that I buy on whim are just taking up space. So, I've listed some items on Craigslist. I know that I cannot get full price for them, but an extra $10 bucks here and there will make a difference.

- We have also instituted the $5 savings plan. Since I'm working on a cash only basis, I'm coming across more and more five dollar bills. But I refuse to spend them. I put them in a coffee tin and hide them from myself.

Let's do some math:
$92 savings from cable bill
$5 on electricity
$3 on water bill
$9 cutting out paper/plastic products
$8 a month cancelling newspaper

For a total of: $117.  For one month. Not to mention just changing our attitudes about spending money. If we were to save $117 on our bills every month, we could save $1400 a year! And I haven't even calculated in the money from our $5 bin.

You have to start somewhere. And we have. Here's hoping it all goes well.