Our road to frugality

[semillama]

So, I just got married, and the wife and I have started an attempt to get out from under our debt, be more green, and save money.

One of the first things we did was move into a half-duplex with new windows - my old place had the original single glazed casement windows from the 1940s. We're being good about turning off the power strips to the TV and computers when they are not on, unplug cell phone chargers, and turning off lights in rooms we aren't in. We usually have no more than two-three lights on at any one time. We're also going to put a thermal insulator on the water heater come winter.

We've also given ourselves a weekly allowance of $30 each. If we spend over $30, then you take the amount you spent over away from the next week's allowance (for example, I ended up spending $35 at the comic book store last week on the stuff I have reserved, so this week I only get $25). If we spend under, we don't transfer the amount unspent to the next week, however.

As far as food goes, we've reduced eating out to once a week. I used to go out with my co-workers once or twice a week for lunch, but now I only do that if I have the money in my allowance. We don't really compromise on include food quality, so we still do some shopping at Whole Foods for things like spices and produce.

I also just finished reading a book on reducing your debt by cutting $10 a day from your normal spending, and putting that towards debts. Now, since we've already cut a lot out, I'm not sure whether or not to retroactively count the money that we are already saving, so we haven't started following the advice in the book yet, but I think that after we get settled in and figure out what our real monthly income/expenses are, we can do a lot more to cut down.

[NMDemDist2]

1. budget in buying one or two CFL bulbs a month until you switched

all those out too

check for farmer's markets in your area or see about joining a community farm org in your area for your food

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

sounds like your off to a great start! :hi:

[semillama]

2. Thanks!

I try to use CFLs, but my wife doesn't like them. So any replacements will have to be done quietly ;)

There's a farmers market in walking distance every Saturday during the growing season, plus a community co-op down the street.

We also do some shopping for things like bulk brown rice at Asian markets and the like, too, where it's usually cheaper.

[NMDemDist2]

3. the newer CFLs are much better than the old harsh ones

buy a new one and she may change her mind, the light is much softer now

ethnic grocery stores are great, but make sure the stuff is in well sealed containers, there have been a few times the rice had 'critters' that hatched out in my cupboards

:scared:

[semillama]

4. Yeah that happend to me -cereal moths.

What a pain in the ass that was. I never really got rid of them until I moved.