What are you doing to cut costs during the shutdown?

[Anonymous]

Since this feels like this will go on forever, what are you doing to cut costs?

Not eating out?
Asking to skip paying one mortgage bill?


Now that I have time to go shopping, I really don't want to spend any money.
Now that we've got time to stay home to have contractors work on our house for home repairs we've been putting off forever, we don't want to spend that money. We did cancel a trip we had planned for this weekend.

[Anonymous]

We've already cut into everything we could, since we are coming out of more than a year of unemployment and have not had time to rebuild our emergency fund. Then this hits us...

We carry on, at reduced speed. It could be worse!
Still, we have not had one instant of spontaneous spending in 3 years. Everything, down to the little $10 purchases, is debated and budgeted. It wears one down after a while.

[Anonymous]

cleaned my closets, donated most, consigned some. got new kids clothes in thrift store. Cooking and freezing meals. Spending time with kids. Exercising. A few small DIY projects as we wait up for the big renovation.

[Anonymous]

Eating every meal at home. No spontaneous purchases, including even a cup of coffee. Cutting coupons, which I normally do anyway. Finding free activities for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since this feels like this will go on forever, what are you doing to cut costs?

Not eating out?
Asking to skip paying one mortgage bill?


Now that I have time to go shopping, I really don't want to spend any money.
Now that we've got time to stay home to have contractors work on our house for home repairs we've been putting off forever, we don't want to spend that money. We did cancel a trip we had planned for this weekend.

Reid and McConnell seemed to think it might be over this week...

[Anonymous]

We are just paying for "needs" and not wants. So no eating out, no spontaneous book purchases, no specialty food purchases like South Mountain Creamery orders. Definitely no clothing purchases, day trips, plays, etc.

[Anonymous]

We've postponed a few big purchases, but not too much other than that. Have a decent savings cushion to fall back on and I'm feeling reasonably confident that back pay will come through so not too concerned as of yet. If a deal isn't reached this week, we probably will dial it back a bit more.

[Anonymous]

Not eating out/ordering in but I'm home so it's much easier to cook now anyway. Also putting some meals in the freezer for when we are back to work, to reduce the eating out/take out then too.

Cutting out the impulse spending or picking something up "just because." (Treats, magazines.. whatever)

Sorting through clothes to see what is really needed for winter. Hoping to cut back some spending there, too.

Not driving near as much so not spending the money on gas, and not having the work related expenses right now helps too.

[Anonymous]

No eating out. No fun or "on sale now" purchases: clothes, books, craft projects, Halloween stuff. Grocery shopping with a list only and after looking at sales flyers. No extra car trips to stores to look at stuff. Returned all the clothes purchased last month that had tags.
I already paid for my yoga classes for the fall/winter otherwise I would not sign up.

[Anonymous]

I too returned some clothes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No eating out. No fun or "on sale now" purchases: clothes, books, craft projects, Halloween stuff. Grocery shopping with a list only and after looking at sales flyers. No extra car trips to stores to look at stuff. Returned all the clothes purchased last month that had tags.
I already paid for my yoga classes for the fall/winter otherwise I would not sign up.

Same here. Using as many freezer items as possible. No fun Halloween stuff. Avoiding Trader Joes (since its mostly fun snack items) -- have been wanting to go since the shut down, the desire is pretty much gone now. Even paying a little more for random items in a regular grocery stores saves me more money in the long run than a trip to Trader Joes.

[Anonymous]

We also returned clothes, new sheets we had bought. Suspended the gym membership, suspended student loan payment. Opted for regular instead of organic milk, significantly reduced eating out.

[Anonymous]

Nothing... In fact, I've done a lot of shopping for both the kids and myself.

[Anonymous]

Stopped eating meals out. Stopped buying meat. Stopped buying coffee out. Eaten through our freezer and pantry. Delayed our annual boiler and water heater service. Not turned on the heat at night (only one or two nights when I might have in the past). Not yet bought new shoes for me or boots for DH. Delayed haircuts. Delayed replacing our broken CD player.

[Anonymous]

No eating out.

Eating from the freezer and pantry. Trips to the grocery are limited to the exact item needed and no more.

All other shopping limited to the essentials. Debated with DH at Target if it was worth it to buy two things of dishwasher soap so we didn't have to come back.

He needs to call and see what wiggle room we have on the mortgage and life insurance policies.