Tell me something you have cut out to save money and your estimated yearly savings

[Marionnette]

Canceled gym membership and saved a little over $300 per year. (son is moving away)

Canceled OnStar and saved $360 per year. (sold the car)

Canceled XMradio and saved a little over $100 per year. (sold the car)

Car insurance dropped $100 per year when we replaced the sports car with a Jeep.

Canceled an online course assistance web service and saved $480 per year. (son graduated)

Canceled the home alarm system and saved $410 per year. (The homeowners insurance savings does not offset the cost.)

 

[Buzzsgramma]

I have stopped randomly going to Mall to shop....

using more cash...


hubby is getting more deals for golfing...

try going to movies on Tuesday...it's $5....even ultra screen!

 

[DawnM]

What is the difference?

Ours is a big difference with Time Warner Cable. We pay roughly $60/mo for internet, with tax. That is for the higher speed, almost the highest, due to DH needing to work from home some.

Adding TV would be $50 additional for basic (regular full price, no discount) without DVRs or anything added.

Dawn

I'm cutting out Disney for at least the next two years. That should save me about 12 grand. Seriously though, we back our cable to the basic cable package and saved about $100 per month. I didn't cut it out completely because the cost wasn't much more when bundled with high speed internet than the cost of internet itself. Does anybody know how to get cheaper internet?

We also cut out dog grooming and I'm learning to do it myself from you tube videos. Saves about $300 per year.

 

[SM101]

I started making some of my own cleaning products and that saved me a lot. It costs me about $25 to make a batch of laundry detergent that lasts over a year, and I was paying that about every 2 months for regular laundry detergent. Basic cleaner, bathroom cleaner, and glass cleaner is pennies a bottle to make versus buy.

Every year I spend time shopping around for insurance rather than just renewing (car, house, etc) - you get better rates as a new customer whereas most insurance companies will up rates on renewing customers. If nothing else, it saves me the rate hike.

When I had to buy a new car last year, I went searching for leftover models/dealer cars. I got a car with 6000 miles on it that was $7000 less than a brand new car of the same make/model. You can't be as picky about colors but you can get a really good car this way.

"Shopping" and "browsing" are no longer allowed as a recreational activity. I only go shopping when I specifically need something. If we want a recreational activity, we go to the local parks.

On that vein, I now go with a "less is more" wardrobe - I buy fewer articles of clothing and have a smaller wardrobe, but I buy better items and wear them more often. All I need is 7 or 8 outfits for work total - and keeping that in mind stops me from buying lots of things I don't need and don't wear much.

 

[dawnball]

What is the difference?

Ours is a big difference with Time Warner Cable. We pay roughly $60/mo for internet, with tax. That is for the higher speed, almost the highest, due to DH needing to work from home some.

Adding TV would be $50 additional for basic (regular full price, no discount) without DVRs or anything added.

Dawn

We get cable TV (with the digital box) and higher speed internet access for $10/month less than just the internet access costs. Apparently people here will pay through the nose for internet access, but not pay for cable TV.

 

[hsmamato2]

Hmmm....no satellite,save 50 per month,600. Per year...
Cut my sons and hubbys hair,60.per mo,700 per year...
Cut the dogs hair..40 per cut,maybe 500 per year....
Paint my own nails and toes,30 month, 300+per year...
Buy clothes,furniture,etc at thrift stores...saving ? Per year...
Make my own coffee,at 3 cups dailyx3 per,thats 9.00 ,so 100 per year
Funny, these things are all automtaic,so i don't think about them much....

 

[abmitch01]

I'm a hospice nurse that goes from home to home. I'm on meds that make me really thirsty. I've given up $2 drive through diet cokes, somedays I'd have 2. So that saves $10-20 a week. $500-ish a year.

I also try to buy my clothes using Discover's cash back bonus through the Discover site where I get even more cash back, so I rarely pay cash for my clothes

 

[Lisa71]

When we married I had housekeeper twice a month and gardener same time..saved over $200 a month. Switched to HMO at work that is cheaper and saving $3000/year. I want it all back!!

 

[3boymthr]

The biggest - Oil Heat. We switched to pellets and save about two tanks (200 gal/tank) a year which right now is about $1800/yr after factoring in the cost of the pellets but the savings would possibly be more for most people as we pay dealer cost for our oil.

I also switched cable providers and saved $100/month.

Cut my cell bill by $80/mo.

We've cut out netflix which was up to $24/month for the plan we had.

We've also paid off our car loans and were considering dropping the coverage levels on our car insurance which would have saved about $50/mo. Then decided maybe not since DS just had an accident (his fault).

 

[3boymthr]

Hmmm....no satellite,save 50 per month,600. Per year...
Cut my sons and hubbys hair,60.per mo,700 per year...
Cut the dogs hair..40 per cut,maybe 500 per year....
Paint my own nails and toes,30 month, 300+per year...
Buy clothes,furniture,etc at thrift stores...saving ? Per year...
Make my own coffee,at 3 cups dailyx3 per,thats 9.00 ,so 100 per year
Funny, these things are all automtaic,so i don't think about them much....

I feel the same way about these I do them too. I save a little more on the haircuts as it would be x4. I do have to buy a new razor for the hair every other year or so. That's an investment of $35.

 

[wishesuponastar]

Make DH morning coffee instead of him buying McD's - save $2 week or $6 week if he went to Dunkin Donuts

Use baking soda and vinegar for cleaning, don't know the savings

Eat at home more on the weekends - save approx $60 week

 

[mrsbicewdw]

Things we have cut over the past few years:

Diapers. Savings - at least $50 a month. We cloth diaper and only use disposables for sleep time. My oldest is now basically potty trained but we still have a baby in diapers. My roughly $300 investment in diapers has gone through 3.5 years of use and still going strong!

Wipes. Savings - $10/$15 a month. Since we cloth diaper we also use cloth wipes. I just keep a small pack of store bought ones in the diaper bag, and that lasts a month or more ($2).

Paper towels. Savings - $10 a month. We keep a roll in the car for oil checks. That's it. Haven't bought more than one roll a year for about four years now.

Cleaning Supplies. Savings - not sure. Haven't bought anything but toilet cleaner and dish washer detergent in a long time. Several years at least. We use baking soda and vinegar, etc.

Cell Phones. Savings - $50 a month. We moved to prepaid for both of us, so compared to our old plan we save a good bit each month.

DVR. We still have cable but we cut DVR. Saves $15 a month.

There are other things I am missing I'm sure. Things like shopping thrift stores saves money and I don't buy the kids clothes new very often. We try to hit yard sales or eBay/etc for things. I make a lot of things at home for holidays and gifts. I repair clothing instead of throwing them out.

Many of the things that save us money are actually done out of environmental concerns or health concerns but they have the added bonus of saving money.

 

[mrsbicewdw]

Oh, and I cut my husbands and sons hair and trim my own bangs (I have a "fringe" so it has to be cut every couple weeks). That save a lot! My DH and DS's hair grows freakishly fast so we do cuts at least once a month.

 

[usnuzuloose]

I no longer buy glass cleaner, I hate the streaks. I use plain water on windows and mirrors and it cleans better. If I need clothes I shop thrift stores. Same with DH. The work he does not require special clothes, so we find jeans that are fairly cheap and look almost new.

 

[hsmamato2]

oh yeah.... you all are reminding me of the normal moneysaving things I do .... it's hard to remember when it's automatic anyway!
make my own spray general cleaner, save maybe 5.00 a month, maybe 60.00-
we have a woodstove in the l.r.- use it about 50% of the winter to heat the whole house, so we fill up with oil maybe 2x per year, save possibly 2k that way over a year (?)
washing machine is cold water only (and 25 years old and still great!)
no landline, it was $$$ for a junky service- save 45.00 per month (and more when you include the extra for LD!!!) that's 540.00 per year
my cell line is 30.00 per month for all our talking and texting needs-
I use an older droid phone that works quite well,saved by buying 2nd hand-
For haircuts for my guys, I was figuring approx. 20 per cut (the going rate for supercuts here) times 3 guys.... so maybe a bit more including a tip....

 

[sherreis]

We just got rid of one of our landlines. We had 2 cause I need one for working from home. Now, the one landline is mine for work during the day and the house for evening when needed. That saved $15/month.

Just got out cable TV and saving about $90/month. Unfortunately, the internet/phone bundle is still a lot of money, but, I need high speed internet to work from home.

I cut DH and both boys hair. I have searched and searched for someone at a Hair Cuttery who can do a nice job on my hair and save a lot of money with that. I also color my own hair and gets lots of complements on it.

I need to get more consistent in making my own cleaners. I do use a lot of vinegar for cleaning. I need to learn how to make my own laundry cleaner for a HE washing machine. Anyone have any good "recipes?"

We raised our thermostat for air conditioning since we moved to central FL last year and have it set at 78 degrees. Don't know how much it is saving us but it is.

I am learning how to groom the dogs. So, looking forward to cutting out those bills.

I stopped getting alcohol drinks when we eat out. I can't pay $7-$8 for a glass of wine. Of course, I did have a Lapu Lapu when we ate at Ohana on Saturday night to celebrate DS high school graduation! Paid with Disney gift cards that I bought at Target.

 

[Monte Cristo]

I have an 85 mile round trip commute to work every day. I was driving a car that required premium gas.

I went out and bought a Diesel car. I went from at best 20 MPG to anywhere from 48-55 MPG. Diesel costs about the same as premium gas here so there was no uptick in cost of fuel.

85 miles/20 MPG = 4.25 gallons per day *$4 per gallon premium gas = $17 per day in gas

85 miles/48 MPG = 1.77 gallons per day *4 per gallon diesel = $7.08 per day in diesel.

A $10 savings per day....*about 260 work days per year is $2,600.

I paid about a $1,800 premium for the diesel version of the car which as you see gets made up in the first 9 months of the year.

It's been a huge money saver.

ETA: I guess I didn't really cut anything out which was the purpose of your thread but still a big money saver.

 

[drcmk]

Stopped buying breakfast and lunch in the cafeteria at work - I just recently made this change. I was spending an average of $100/month doing this and it was so easy to do because my work takes it out of my check so I never "miss it." But once I realized how much I was spending, it made me sick! I now pack my breakfast and lunch.

Were you buying two meals a day, five days per week, for $100 per month? If so, that sounds like a deal to me. If you work twenty days in a month, that's about $2.50 per meal. I wish I could spend that little. Even if you are packing lunch and breakfast, you still have to buy the food from the supermarket. You should run the numbers to see if you are actually saving money.

 

[drcmk]

Our neighbors and our accountant recommended that we can an insurance agent to see if we could reduce our insurance fees. We were able to switch to another insurer that charged use $1000 EACH on our car and house insurance.

 

[abmitch01]

for non-disney trips, we visit friends in other cities. We don't invite ourselves but take them up on offers. This weekend we did Phily and had a blast. My brother lives in Boston so we go there as well. We try to eat at home and do inexpensive activities and museums. Or we do a staycation and try new things at home. Disney is the huge splurge.

we recently bought a handicapped accessible house for my mom. My dad, DD and I live here too. I try to cut corners but it's hard when my parents like to spend on the house. I am trying to get my dad to get rid of the premium channels but no go. I'd miss them but they are on Netflix soon enough.

We went to Woodbury Commons and I spent nothing! in fact I returned a VB bag and got a $40 credit!