I track every single thing I buy, even the $1 I spend at a parking meter and the $1 I give the homeless guy on the corner. I think it's interesting and helpful to see where the money goes. Once I know where it's going, I can decide where (or if) to make changes. I label the charges by categories like Food-Home vs. Food-Takeout, Alcohol-Out, Fitness, Beauty, Household, etc.

When I need to cut back, I try to cook more at home and get less takeout, though I LOVE takeout. I'll cut back on wine. (my two big expenses, lol.) We mostly use the library instead of buying books. I've stuck with a cheaper gym (golds) vs. joining crossfit or a yoga studio. I sometimes use the YMCA's kids' club vs. getting a more expensive babysitter on a Friday night.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spend less than you make. The end.

Asking this vague, open-ended question doesn't make sense.

Agree Op.

You need to give some context, family size, how much you need to reign in, do you have debt, car payments, curreent HHI, etc.

How can dcumers offer you realistic advice without you giving a little more info.

Seems like many posters found a way to do it. Are they smarter than you? More creative? Just generally more willing to make the effort to assist another human instead of being a prick? You decide and get back to us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having a low mortgage and no car payments (paid cash), combined with automatically deducted retirement and savings amounts meant that we did not have to cut back in other ways. We still eat out, have cable, netflix, buy new clothes, etc. Having a low mortgage is much easier than doing without all that fun stuff!

THIS! The smartest things we have done that have made the biggest impact on our financial situation were to limit ourselves on what we spent on our home and to buy cars in cash and drive them for around 15 years before swapping them. The little stuff adds up too, but controlling your fixed monthly costs is easy to do and has long lasting financial benefit.

what do you define as a "low mortgage" in terms of percentage of take home?

That's my post. What we did was buy a house that was about 2x our annual income with a minimum monthly mortgage payment that is about 23% of take home pay. We pay 1k extra per month which is effectively converting our 20 year mortgage into an 11 year mortgage.

We are doing something similar. Our house is around 2x our annual income. We add 1600 a month to our payment to make it a 15 yr.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having a low mortgage and no car payments (paid cash), combined with automatically deducted retirement and savings amounts meant that we did not have to cut back in other ways. We still eat out, have cable, netflix, buy new clothes, etc. Having a low mortgage is much easier than doing without all that fun stuff!

THIS! The smartest things we have done that have made the biggest impact on our financial situation were to limit ourselves on what we spent on our home and to buy cars in cash and drive them for around 15 years before swapping them. The little stuff adds up too, but controlling your fixed monthly costs is easy to do and has long lasting financial benefit.

what do you define as a "low mortgage" in terms of percentage of take home?

That's my post. What we did was buy a house that was about 2x our annual income with a minimum monthly mortgage payment that is about 23% of take home pay. We pay 1k extra per month which is effectively converting our 20 year mortgage into an 11 year mortgage.

Anonymous wrote:Eliminate premium channels on cable
Unbundle your triple plays
Mow your own lawn
Clean your own house
Keep older cars
Minimize eating out
Eliminate the use of credit cards

I always see these responses but we haven't been out to eat in three years, have one, paid off car with 100k miles, and live in a far out rental. I always wonder what else we can do but it seems like we just need to increase income at this point.

I've saved $20,000 by cutting my own hair. Well-maintained, affordable car and home. Exercise regularly as form of entertainment: instead of mall-walking, go museum walking; go on hikes; fun runs and swims.

Definitely eating out. My boyfriend and I only go out to eat maybe once a week and then it's usually something where the bill is under $50. We go for cheaper entertainment like bowling or watching a movie at home.

I drive a car that is cheaper than what I probably could afford...the payment was only $200/month (I paid it off so now it's 0). I have friends who complain they have no money, yet one person has a car that carries with it a $500/month payment. That's totally unnecessary, in my opinion.

A lot of it is determine what is really a "need" as opposed to a "want."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having a low mortgage and no car payments (paid cash), combined with automatically deducted retirement and savings amounts meant that we did not have to cut back in other ways. We still eat out, have cable, netflix, buy new clothes, etc. Having a low mortgage is much easier than doing without all that fun stuff!

THIS! The smartest things we have done that have made the biggest impact on our financial situation were to limit ourselves on what we spent on our home and to buy cars in cash and drive them for around 15 years before swapping them. The little stuff adds up too, but controlling your fixed monthly costs is easy to do and has long lasting financial benefit.

what do you define as a "low mortgage" in terms of percentage of take home?

I buy used clothes, toys, etc. I make and freeze meals to eat at home. We only drive used cars and keep them a long time. I somewhat disagree with the "small house" theory in that a big house with a pool, playset and butt-load of toys keeps them entertained and from spending $$ every weekend outside the home (when we lived in a small townhome temporarily we spent a ton of money entertaining our kids outside the home).

I absolutely refuse to buy from SAHMs who try to sell whatever MLM product so many sell. I go to work to support my family (WOHM) and have no interest in supporting your family. I find that to be a huge savings vs if I bought into every pitch I heard.

Small things:
We don't really scrimp here, except for not having cable.
We go out to eat frequently and modestly and we take $150 Target trips pretty regularly. I just bought $30 of books for my kid but we also use the library heavily. We buy nice gifts for each other and are generous and live comfortably.

Big things:
We tend to save on bigger things, like renting a house that is about $1K less than we can afford so that we can continue to save for a down payment. We have one car when we probably could use two, but one is fine and we can supplement with extra long transit routes or a $15 Uber once a month when we both need to be in two car-only places at the same time. We don't take vacations beyond visiting family, though we may take one this year that costs about $3K, which is small for many on this board but significant for us. Would be the first vacation like this for us in 7 years. We do enough that we don't really miss it (and sometimes we travel for work).

I'm trying to do a "spending fast."
http://www.michellesingletary.com/21-day-financial-fast.html

Only use cash. Take out a set amount from the atm each week and use this for groceries, dining out, incidentals etc.

If you don't know where every penny goes, very little of this is going to help...

I like YNAB, they just rolled out a new version that is everything I've ever wanted in a budgeting tool. You can try it free for a month, but if you and your spouse (if applicable) are serious about cutting back, you need to have a plan. YNAB (and others, but YNAB does it better than most) gives you a plan.

Anonymous wrote:Having a low mortgage and no car payments (paid cash), combined with automatically deducted retirement and savings amounts meant that we did not have to cut back in other ways. We still eat out, have cable, netflix, buy new clothes, etc. Having a low mortgage is much easier than doing without all that fun stuff!

THIS! The smartest things we have done that have made the biggest impact on our financial situation were to limit ourselves on what we spent on our home and to buy cars in cash and drive them for around 15 years before swapping them. The little stuff adds up too, but controlling your fixed monthly costs is easy to do and has long lasting financial benefit.

Curb eating out - set a budget and stick to it.
Set an allowance for you and spouse (if you have one). Money that can be spent however you want, but keep the amount low.