We obviously have an electric water heater and do a lot of laundry! Thanks for the idea!

Vacuum the coils on your fridge. If they are dusty you lose power that way as well.
Those light bulbs are a challenge, given the light they give off…just use them in non-critical areas.

If you use electric heat or water heat the same applies (vacuum the registers). If you have forced air, then change the filter.

I dumped my cell and use USAData Net for calls, buy my pet supplies at Petshed.com, and
have explored ordering pharm drugs overseas..Canadian Pharmacy.com
Do apply for UInsurance.

Good luck on your debt reduction goals. It’s really worth the effort. (Speaking from experience!)

Anyway, the programmable thermostat should help with utilities. I have them and I calculated that I heat my home at 65 about 10% of the time! The rest of the time it’s at 60. So that has to help some.

Also, if you have a light that is on a lot, such as a living room light, then you might want to consider buying one fluorescent bulb for it. I do notice a drop in my electric bill whenever I replace a bulb with a fluorescent one, but they work best in lights that are on a long time.

“Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.” – Thomas Jefferson.

I loved the blog about bumps in the road. Thanks for a great and inspirational site.

As for getting rid of our home phone, I can’t at the moment because I need to have the phone plan to get our DSL. If we ditched the DSL, the only other option for high speed internet is cable and that runs $50/month by itself. You can get it cheaper if you bundle with more than basic cable service, but then our cable cost will skyrocket.

1) Unemployment is not state assistance, your husband has been contributing to unemployment through his payroll his entire working life. You are losing out on valuable money that is owed to him if you do not file.

2) Maybe this is the situation that you have been looking for to motivate you to quit smoking. Just a thought, not trying to tell you what to do, but that would be an instant savings in your budget…….but being a stressful time in your life it might not be the best time either.

Good Luck

You’re correct in your assessment from your utilities, they seem pretty streamlined already. Which reminds me… did I pay the gas bill?

What does your husband do?

I hear good thinkgs about Vonage, but we can’t take up on that offer, we haven’t got high speed in my area.

How are you at baking? Home made bread has so many qualities. It’s a chemistry lesson for your son. It warms the house. It is a wonderful scent. It’s family time well spent. It saves money.

About unemployment, I still have to look into it/think about it. I say think about it because it’s hard. We finally were on our own in terms of not having state assistance (when my son’s health insurance was lost because we made too much). Maybe it’s pride, but I’d like to see if we can do this on our own.

My husband could find a part-time minimum wage job at the grocery store or something (he has past experience with that), and he actually brought that up. I would rather he focus 100% on being his own boss. He has a business he has been working on, but hasn’t gotten it off the ground except for a few clients. He needs to push it, and when he was working so much before he didn’t have enough time to commit to it.

I look at this whole thing happening as a crossroads of sorts. It’s either my husband continues working low wage jobs or he gets his business going full steam. Trying to do both wasn’t working before, so it’s time to commit to one or the other. I think the business route will be the best in the long run because he can do what he enjoys doing.

BTW – I hope no one worries about being intrusive. I don’t mind

But buying groceries can be very cheap when purchase in bulk, meaning that u buy at wholesale prices and share the cost around each other, then split the groceries.

re-using shopping bags for garbage, is a good saving tool, i have been doing that for over 3 years now..

don’t know where in the usa u live, and how cold it get’s there, but i live in the netherlands, and it gets very cold hereso..
i have save a lot on heating, buy only using the heater when really needed,
that’s when it gets very cold, we do have double glass, so that helps insulate the house.
but when i’m indoors, i’m will padded, two shirts, and a sweater…
and sleep under a thick quilt..don’t know if your family can resist that…but it works for me, save some cash..

For telephone, check a voip solution, it really saves money, no monthly cost, pay as u go.
but do keep the cell phone for those emergency calls, must voip solutions, in the USA does not provide 911 calls as yet.
http://www.voipbuster.com free calls in the USA, they also has hardware solutions, meaning, u don’t have to have your pc on all the time, and u can talk via a normal phone, and not via the computer with a mike/headphone

I do miss on item on your list (smile), don’t have to do a full stop, start breaking down slowly but surely (reggie being funny)

I rechecked your december report, ain’t see much more that u can cut back on…

make good usage of those coupons at the grocery store, might save a few change..

Hope this doesn’t mean that u have to cancelled your newly agreed upon 401k…

don’t know what field of work your husband is in, but maybe he can see what kind of online jobs he can find….

success..
still owe u an e-mail, have to will find some time to reply in the course of this week…

I use Vonage now, but I’ve been thinking of Skype to get things to a rock-bottom price. I’m just not sure that Skype is as easy as Vonage as Vonage is just a hardware solution. Your computer can be off and it still works.

Second, you mentioned reducing laundry soap. Get a box of 20 Mule Team Borax. It’s about $2 a box, and it works as a laundry booster, allowing you to cut your detergent use without any noticeable effects. Plus, you can do all sorts of cleaning things with it! Oh, and you should still use hot water to wash your bed linens, to kill bed nastsies and dust mites!

Third, make sure you don’t lower your water heater below 120, as that is the lowest degree that will still kill germs. I have also heard good things about a water heater timer. Basically, you tell your water heater when you want it to run, from 4-9 a.m. and from 4-9 p.m., for example, and the rest of the day, your water heater is off. This could work well if you don’t really use water during the day (you take showers in the morning or evening, wash dishes then, etc). However, I have no idea how much they cost and how well it works.

Finally, do you think you could add insulation to your house? It’s an expense, but it could drastically cut down on heating/cooling costs. But be aware that you CAN have too much insulation, preventing water vapor from escaping and causing mold to accumulate.

Good luck, and keep the good ideas and motivation coming!

I’m looking for some kind of documentation on this now.

I was very impressed by the sound quality even with my basic computer speakers and microphone. I would imagine that proper telephone VOIP would be as good if not better.

Good luck.

Trica, check your states website. If you can’t find the answers, have your husband go in and apply (unless he can do it online). The worse they can say is “no”. It’s worth the time.

He should stick by the fact the hours have been diminished and the working conditions changed.

It will work out!

I hope this isn’t intrusive, but I’m wondering why he didn’t wait to get fired? I mean, that way he could collect unemployment and that would help with your expenses. I live in CA, and you have to get fired in order to collect unemployment, if you quit you don’t get anything.

In any event, best of luck from a (new) faithful reader and when life gives you lemons, grab the tequila and the salt!!