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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here: Thanks everyone.  It does feel great.  I think the hardest part was just owning up to the fact that we had to deal with the problem, particularly as a team.  But since a couple people asked, here's a couple of things we did: we had been paying a little extra on our car payment, to the effect that we didn't actually owe anything for many months - as opposed to continuing to make payments, we stopped, which freed up $500 a month for about six months.  We refinanced and lowered our mortgage by $600, but due to the timing of it, we didn't have to make payments for 2 months ($5000), we submitted for FSA and dependent care savings reimbursements (total of about $4000).

That was the easy stuff - the hard part was the spending.  We had been using mint.com for a while, but never really checked in on it (probably because it was too painful), so once we fully owned the problem, we started checking it every day.  We looked at the spending as a challenge in "how low can you go?"  We ate from the pantry/freezer and for a couple of months our grocery budget went from $1100 to $500, its probably stabilized around $700 now (3 adults, one child).  For one month we totally gave up all coffee shops and brought our lunches every day.  That helped us break the habit and establish new ones.  Now we aren't quite so militant, but it has significantly reduced from former levels.  We used to be Amazon Prime junkies.  Now before we purchase anything that's not an absolute necessity (diapers), we check with each other.  This has significantly reduced impulse buys.  Anyway, this is what worked for us.  [/quote]

I gotta stop buying lunch out.  If I did this things would be so much better...maybe that will be my resolution.  It is not like I am eating great food everyday.  I might as well make a bologna sandwich.[/quote]

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