Where Else Can I Cut Back

This week DomesticCents was talking about what she was willing to do without, and that got me thinking. I’ve often had this conversation with a friend of mine, when she asks me about my debt repayment adventures. When I complain that I’m often impatient and am just sick of having this debt hanging over me, she’ll reply with “Well, where else can you cut back in your spending to help out?” Which is a great question if you haven’t figured out where you spend your money, if you haven’t already cut back on most of your variable spending. Which I have. So asking me where else I can cut back is a little annoying. Unless I go cold-turkey and get rid of my cable tv, and my car, there’s not much else I can trim back. Where have I already cut back?

Cutting the Food Bill

In DecemberI blogged about how I was going to be super-frugal in my food spending to make a bit more of a dent in my debt repayment (again, because I’m impatient.) I called it Plan B, and it worked well, as I was able to add about $100-150 more to my debt repayment in January. But I was one unhappy camper. I realized that cutting back to the uber-cheap meals was not something I’m able to do. I wasn’t even going the Ramen noodle or KD route, but was doing some cheap and tasty pasta meals, but I must say that I was bored pretty quickly with that. So I definitely can’t do that on a regular basis, but it’s something I try to do once or twice a year.

Cutting the Fuel Bill

This one’s an easy one right now, since I’m now a work-at-home freelance writer! But when I was still commuting, I made sure to buy gas when it was cheap, I drove slower on the highway, made sure to use my cruise control whenever possible, and kept my tires properly inflated. This definitely helped me cut down on the fuel costs, as did the lowering cost of the price of gas. If it was still up at the $1.30/L mark it was at in November 2008, then I would have had to change my job situation much sooner than I did. But after Christmas it went back down below $1, and then it hovered around 75 cents (+/- 10 cents), which is a much more manageable situation. But now that I’m working from home full-time, that cost is reduced dramatically.

Stop Buying Clothes

An easy place to cut out the extra expenses is on clothing. I realize that I’ve got a ton of clothes that I don’t wear on a regular basis, so it’s easy for me to cut out the extra expense here. Sure I have bought a few things here and there when I needed to replace something, like new socks, but I have been quite good at passing on the “ooh, that’s a good deal on a coat/shirt/pants/whatever” situations. I might walk around the store holding the item for a bit, but then I just put it back on the rack and walk out. Makes me feel good. Last year I even did a Clothing Experiment where I tried to see how long I could go without doing laundry. Click here to read the final results. It was a fun thing to do, and I highly recommend it to all of you who think you don’t have anything to wear.

Cutting the Cable Bill

The last place I can really cut down on variable spending is with my cable bill. I’ve got digital cable, which means I have a few extra packages on my bill for those great specialty channels like the Game Show Network or the Biography Network. Depending on how frugal I’m feeling, I modify my cable package pretty much once a quarter, so I’m definitely aware of where I could cut back there. In fact, I might just take a look at my packages this afternoon and see where else I can cut back. I’m one of those that couldn’t get rid of the tv entirely, but I can definitely cut back on some of the channels. I watch far too much tv anyways, so getting rid of the channels might have the added bonus of causing me to do more freelance writing and earn more money! So I guess in the end it’s a win-win situation for me.

How have your efforts to cut back been going? Has it been tough for you and your family? What lessons did you learn from your experience? Share your stories in the comments, I’d love to hear them!