Now, here's an idea. Eliminate extra costly lifestyle services that are not being fully used. Think about your current cell phone plan or your cable plan. Are you using all of the minutes you're paying for on your cell phone? Can you eliminate any special features that you are paying extra for but are not utilizing like text messaging for instance? What about simply changing your plan reducing the total amount of minutes available and cutting back on phone usage all together? How about all of the extra premium channels or your cable service? Do you really watch HBO, Showtime, Starz, all of the HD channels, and the extra ESPN package? Do you really need the satellite service or is basic cable enough? Think about generic brands instead of the more costly name brands.
Consider your local low-cost grocer and by-pass the higher-end grocery stores and specialty markets. There's no real sense in going to the major grocery store these days. In many of our communities, there are low cost grocery stores, and I mean lower than Walmart in almost all instances. In my neighborhood, there is an ALDI and an Ultra Foods. In other areas of the country, there are other options. Now, I can't buy everything from either one of these stores but for the most part, what I can't find at ALDI, I can certainly find at Ultra Foods. Ultra carries most name brand items that can't be found at ALDI and at a lower cost than the high-end grocery store. The idea is to save on everything. Cutting corners is ok, in fact, it's encouraged!
NO MORE EATING OUT! (and that includes lunch at the office everyday) I used to spend a significant amount of money each month eating out. None of the meals were overly lavish. But, I would spend ten dollars here fifteen dollars there, thirty dollars for the family, etc. I didn't realize just how much I spent until I laid out my expenses for several months and was able to see where in one month, I had spent a whopping three hundred dollars eating out here and there…Starbucks included. Now, that figure was just ridiculous for someone living paycheck to paycheck and trying to eliminate debt.
