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Forum -> Household Management -> Finances
How to scale down standard of living
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LO




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, May 04 2019, 9:54 pm
Hi all!

I need your help. My husband and I have decided that we are spending beyond our means and we must scale down our standard of living. We are not in debt, B"H, we have been taking money out of my husband's business and it can't support it any more. We are not spending on anything too extravagant - with our crazy health insurance, most of our money goes to my daughter's OT, doctor's visits ($70 each), etc. We do spend a lot on groceries (about $1500/month for 5 people plus a baby), and have student loans, etc.

So basically, how do you do this? How do decide what not to buy any more? How do you do it without freaking out the kids and making them feel deprived? And, what do you do when it's just not enough to cover real needs?

Would love to hear from people who have done this successfully and grew from the experience. I think this could be a great lesson for us, just want to do it correctly....

TIA!
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amother
Seafoam


 

Post Sat, May 04 2019, 10:27 pm
you take one month and you track every single penny you spend.

track it by expense as specifically as you can.

Then go through each expense and try to cut even just 10%

So lets say on food that would be $150/month or about $40/week. If you haven't been a sale shopper until now, you can cut that easily with a little planning on your part and the family will never notice. If you have been, it can still be done with creative menu planning. Forget take out food exists.

Go through every expense. Phones are usually a good place to save if you haven't yet. There are a lot of resellers and cheaper providers. You can get unlimited talk and text cell phones now for $11/month. House phones have also gone down in price.

Electricity is another place you can save without anyone really noticing. If you haven't been careful until now its easy enough to run the lights a little less, lower the temp of the HVAC and unplug unused appliances. You'd be surprised how those little things add up and the kids won't notice a thing.

Medical costs is a challenge but you can often cut costs by calling every single provider to rediscuss either the plan or the price. Again you are looking to cut 10% to start. If you are spending 150K/year you are looking to save 15k or $290/week

After you do this for a while, you can reassess and see where you can cut again. If you do this from now until August and its still not working you start cutting back on needs as well. If you are frugal everywhere, very often a school will be willing to work with you as well.

Take heart! By cutting back you will be giving your children the gift of a lifetime.
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amother
Jetblack


 

Post Sat, May 04 2019, 10:38 pm
Try to get your student loan payments reduced. There are income based reduction plans.
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srbmom




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, May 04 2019, 10:39 pm
Ordering my groceries online and getting them my delivered instead of me going to the store and shopping has saved me hundreds a month. No impulse buys, and I try to menu plan once a week so everything I buy is deliberate. I'm also able to see the total adding up and know if maybe I should forgo something one week to bring the number down
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mommy3b2c




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, May 04 2019, 10:48 pm
Ways I’ve saved money:

Cut back on cleaning help
Stop buying pizza for supper once a week
Shop in cheaper grocery
Do grocery order online and only once a week
Don’t buy kids as much clothing
Buy at gap/handm/Zara instead of local stores
Avoid amazing savings
Rarely by takeout

Everything adds up
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IrenaFr




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, May 04 2019, 10:53 pm
mommy3b2c wrote:
Ways I’ve saved money:

Cut back on cleaning help
Stop buying pizza for supper once a week
Shop in cheaper grocery
Do grocery order online and only once a week
Don’t buy kids as much clothing
Buy at gap/handm/Zara instead of local stores
Avoid amazing savings
Rarely by takeout

Everything adds up

Wow. For me gap and Zara are expensive stores Smile
Pizza and takeout - on birthdays only .
Online grocery is much more expensive than our neighbourhood supermarket.
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oneofakind




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, May 04 2019, 10:56 pm
Everything you buy single serving is convenient but expensive. Ex: yogurts-buy one big one and serve from there instead of buying a bunch of small ones. Snacks-buy a big one and distribute to small zip locks. The kids will eat the same food but the packaging will be different.
Buy house brands ie Shoprite brand, in most cases the quality is the same as more expensive brands.

Work your menu around sales.

Reduce your meat and processed food consumption-expensive and unhealthy.

Bake instead of buy.

Don't throw out leftovers. With creativity you can rework it into another meal.

Notice that a lot of your "needs" are really "wants".
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amother
Seafoam


 

Post Sat, May 04 2019, 10:57 pm
lol second hand stores are just fine - especially for the little ones!

OP just cut everything you possibly can - even bottles water

Get rid of your leased car if you have one. On a minivan alone that can save a few thousand a year.

And for sure work on those student loans...
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amother
Smokey


 

Post Sat, May 04 2019, 11:03 pm
You really have to track your expenses, going back at least a few months, to see where there's unnecessary spending. Here's how we keep our standard of living lower:

- rarely buy ready food/ coffee from shop
- buy (via financing) used cars in good condition
- fill up gas when near a cheap station
- keep household help to a minimum
- shop for food in a few different stores to get the cheapest options.
- buy clothing and shoes in cheap stores
- don't shop as a leisure activity, only for a specific need
- think twice before replacing anything
- learn to diagnose and repair things ourselves instead of paying for repairs
- wash and set my wigs myself
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amother
Lavender


 

Post Sat, May 04 2019, 11:08 pm
Try making cheaper meals 2x a week.
This could be rice and beans, omletes and pasta.
There was a poster on here that would make free soup, using leftover bones from a chicken meal and veggie peels and scraps, she would make blended soups.
Cereal is expensive, will your kids go for something cheaper for a breakfast? Perhaps oatmeal, or day old bread that’s on sale.
I saw a recipe for pancakes that used left over challah, milk and eggs, blend, cook.
Are there farmers markets near you, they always have an area were they put very ripe fruits and veggies before they go bad.
Things like overly ripe bananas can be peeled and frozen, to be used for baking.
All left overs can be repurposed into soup, omelets, kugels/latkes.
Shop the sales.
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amother
Ruby


 

Post Sat, May 04 2019, 11:28 pm
If you own your house, check into installing solar panels! We did it a few years ago and it makes a HUGE difference!
(We didn't pay anything to install, "we're leasing the roof", and pay same monthly bill, it usually covers all our usage most of the yr.)
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ectomorph




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, May 04 2019, 11:29 pm
amother [ Ruby ] wrote:
If you own your house, check into installing solar panels! We did it a few years ago and it makes a HUGE difference!
(We didn't pay anything to install, "we're leasing the roof", and pay same monthly bill, it usually covers all our usage most of the yr.)

We looked into this and its a huge fire hazard... It also would have cost us money so we didn't do it
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amother
Ruby


 

Post Sat, May 04 2019, 11:34 pm
To teach the kids to lower standards tell them before every purchase "do we want blank or do we need it? Can we do without?"
Lay them hear you say it out loud when you shop for yourself too!
Some kids are fine with it and some resent it more, it's really hard to know when to give in !! Sad
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ectomorph




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 05 2019, 12:09 am
https://www.google.com/amp/s/w.....namp/
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amother
Tangerine


 

Post Sun, May 05 2019, 12:46 am
I think the key is to shift your thinking. The process becomes a game and challenge instead of being painful or you feeling deprived. All the ideas here are amazing, but to do this, you've got to WANT to do it.

...and when marking up your current monthly expenses, dont blame anyone. Start here from scratch.

Look into the "Simple Living" movement and surround yourself with images, articles, videos, books and friends that promote simple living. There are some great frugal moms on youtube.

To tackle your student debt, look into Dave Ramsey's approach. It may not be for you, but will give you perspective on living below your means. Definitely try to negotiate the rates down. When we had that debt, I paid every penny as quick as possible to get it to zero, pre Dave Ramsey. I'd just rather pay the interest on my mortgage, which we paid extra to lower the principal early on.

Dont read any magazines, as most promote spending. This goes double for the Jewish magazines, as more of the items apply to you, and triple for the weekly Jewish community handouts.

I find less need to shop sales as I have gotten better at knowing what I need to buy. Now is a great time to tackle grocery bills because there are 5 weeks to Shavuos. I have 4 weeks of frugal, low key meals before I have to shop for yom tov again. You can have a huge impact on your food budget over sefira.

We made this a family project. Set a monthly goal, meet with DH weekly to see how you're both meeting it. Try it for 3 months, and see if you can really get into it.

Re: solar panels. When we looked into it, it didn't seem like we'd save much. We live in Rockland County NY and supplier utility fees cost too much. We keep the thermostat lo/high and switch out lights to LEDs instead.
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cm




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 05 2019, 12:56 am
amother [ Ruby ] wrote:
If you own your house, check into installing solar panels! We did it a few years ago and it makes a HUGE difference!
(We didn't pay anything to install, "we're leasing the roof", and pay same monthly bill, it usually covers all our usage most of the yr.)


Great idea *if* the house gets enough sun and there's a state incentive going on (they come and go) to offset costs. I'm glad to hear that leasing is working out for you - it doesn't for a lot of people. OP would need to look very carefully at the contract and talk to people IRL to determine if it's a good choice for her.
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baby12x




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 05 2019, 1:23 am
amother [ Jetblack ] wrote:
Try to get your student loan payments reduced. There are income based reduction plans.

This is a BAD way to start saving money. Cut everything else first. When you reduce your minimum student loan payments, you are just deferring the payments until later and interest keeps accumulating. Unless you REALLY cant afford it, keep paying down student loan debt so you can pay it off before you're retired.
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baby12x




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 05 2019, 1:27 am
Meal plan using the circular of what's on sale in your grocery store. If you are making good food and have some snack (cut up fruit and veggie for your kids to snack on, buy the cheapest for school), then you're kids don't need to notice. You can tell your kids that you're trying to be more mindful of you're food and money (make it seem like it's a choice you're trying to do and not something you have to do) and ask them for suggestions.
No need to track your spending. Figure out how much you want to spend on food/etc and then dont go over that number.
It's easier to start if you do this with cash and not a credit cards.
You can always check out my blog (www.adimesaved.com) for more ideas
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LittleDucky




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 05 2019, 2:46 am
There are a lot of great tips here. What we do...
- mindful of electricity. Lower air conditioning, use less heat, turn off unneeded lights, run only full wash loads, hang dry when feasible (I do for kids clothes and my nicer tops anyways so I just put all those in the same wash load so no dryer load!).
- are you spending on activities? Gifts? Do free things. Check out the dollar store whenever possible. But them don't get into the common trap "well it's only a dollar so why not?". I buy stuff I need anyways there- especially if quality doesn't matter! Disposable, one time projects, decorations for a party, fly swatters, or little baskets.
- no one mentioned this before but COUPON!!! I get free toothpaste, super cheap name brand shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes (less than $1), and more. Laundry detergent is a huge cost for us and after doing the math, buying smaller jugs but using coupons ended up cheaper per ounce.
- try other brands for stuff you buy. What is on sale?

And don't look at stores, magazine ads etc.
I think:
- need or want? Is there a cheaper alternative? So many people I know must buy X brand of shoes for their kids due to peer pressure, marketing, or the thought that Venetini or "European" shoe is that much better. They aren't. They often wear out faster too.
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youngatheart4




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 05 2019, 6:40 am
Lots of great suggestions here. However, there are two sides to the equation. Controlling spending is one side and increasing income is the other. If that is doable (selling stuff on ebay, finding a part-time job, etc.) then save every additional dollar of income or use it to pay your bills until you have it under control. Then continue to do it and save (rather than spend) the additional money. I always tried to take care of my "needs" and delay my "wants." Eventually I could afford my wants and my needs!
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