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This thread was triggered by a thread on P&OC about a mom no longer being able to afford bread or olive oil or many luxuries.
If my husband and I had to reduce our spending, we could save on the following (monthly expense, on average):
Used Books: $30
Subscriptions: $40
Unnecessary "luxury items" (candles, make-up, etc.): $50
Alcoholic Beverages: $200 (mainly wine)
Food: $200 (mostly by eliminating fairly expensive seafood, desserts, and snacks)
Movies and Recreation: $70 (includes cost of gas for driving to local parks)
Total: $590
What about you?
Last edited by katharsis; 04-01-2024 at 02:03 PM..
Yes, like you, we could cut out alcohol and save half our grocery bill but we don't, lol.
Some people here don't ever use a/c and pay only $20 or $30 for electric but we choose to be more comfortable so spend about $100. We still watch it carefully though.
We did give up our maids but not to save money since they are so cheap ($20 for 4 hours). They don't show up when promised and the "pre-clean" is just too aggravating for no-shows. But over a year, we'd save almost $600. We don't enjoy cleaning so we'll see how it goes.
We hardly go out at all and decided to "save it" for our annual CA trip where there are fun places to go. Decided we don't really miss going out here, after all.
So for that trip, we can save about $2,000 a month from our miniscule retirement income, due our oh-so-low COL here. No book-buying or subscriptions except Netflix which is cheap. I get library books online for free.
I honestly don't know. We could sell this house and move some place cheaper. We could cut costs by eating out less. My planned renovations could be placed on hold or I could do parts of them myself without hiring someone.
I could cut the 200 I spend a month eating out. 3 years ago after a divorce I cut a ton of stuff and substituted some things for cheaper alternatives such as my cell phone plan and tv subscription. I don’t figure my consulting income into my budget as it could always disappear and I use it for extras like travel so I don’t have to touch my savings or investments.
I could save a ton of money if I didn’t have my 2 little dogs but I never intend to be without a dog. I could probably cut my grocery expenses but at this age I’m going to eat what I want. I sacrificed enough when young.
When I was working, we saved over 60% of our take home without discomfort.
Now retired, we live on about half of what our portfolio throws off in income, again with zero sacrifices.
We spend a lot on skiing, golfing, and vacationing. But I think we spend more on all of the activities, lessons, leagues, etc. for my son. If you have a kid you know what I’m talking about, but if you don’t you might be shocked how much travel sports alone cost. That being said, we feel fortunate to be able to afford it.
If we had to cut back some streaming channels would have to go, sell the car and buy a beater, no more expensive vacations, and no more $40 shampoo for Mrs. dcfas. Lol.
I could probably save$1,000 per month or more on vacations. We did no international travel except Mexico until we retired, so we have been taking a lot of nice trips both inside and outside of the US. We stay in much nicer hotels and we stay longer. We could also cut our grocery and subscription budget by maybe $200 to $300. We could drop cable which is ridiculous -- probably save another $200.
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