I went grocery shopping last week and no matter where I go it seems prices are rising, not only for our food but for our gas, our oil, everything is rising. Now I am not going to sit and talk about economics, because I honestly just do not get it. From what I understand is that the worth of the dollar is lowering and so that means the price of items are rising, however, I could be completely off base on that theory!
There are services such as Fuel Assistance, Electrical Assistance and other resources to show you how to insulate your house to make it more energy efficient. There are how to’s on using less electricity, all you have to do is go to Google.com and insert what are you looking for assistance on. I am not saying you have to get monetary assistance, what I am saying is that there are so many resources out there to use when searching for ways to save money, cut costs and be able to survive in these tough economic times.
One thing in our house I would love to get rid of is our cable, why do we “need” television? In reality we do not need it, and it doesn’t need to be on 24/7 – wasting money monthly to try to pay the bill and wasting electricity having the thing running all day long when we don’t even watch it that much. So my opinion is, let’s cut it, but my husband says otherwise and I have yet to convince him in a nice way to allow me to cancel the cable. To be honest, I am ready to cancel it without consulting him again, because as a family we are suppose to cut costs that are not important, and if cable is ever so important to him then we can get it back when we can afford it.
Luxuries are extras .. I enjoy having cable because I watch PBS Sprout with the kids, I watch my local news every night and I watch Headline News in the later hours to see Nancy Grace and Jane Valez Issues. Can I live without these shows!? Certainly! After all if I really wanted to know what’s happening locally – I can punch in the local news website and read it, watch it or whatever! Nancy Grace and Jane both have websites where I can catch up with them too. The joys of having eInternet access, which by the way is something we do need in our house, as it’s our secondary income, and for a while there our primary income source!
You see … as a person you need to determine where you can cut costs, what you are willing to live without in order to survive financially through this economic hardship. Then you need to consult with your spouse, if they can’t see the why behind getting rid of an “extra” then maybe it’s time to make some decisions on your own that will better your families overall happiness and save money. Once your spouse sees the end result, I bet their mind will change for the positive.
Make it a Happy Day!
We did this, we cut out our cable for a total of 9 years, yep 9 years. Did we miss it? At first yes but it was a hidden blessing for us.
Now that we have it again, I do enjoy certain shows. At first I have to admit when we first got it back, I watched hours and hours of it BUT the thrill of having it again quickly wore off and I barely watch it now. I have some shows seasonally I enjoy but am not obsessed if I miss them.
The long disconnect with cable did us good, if it wasn’t a luxury we got from where we live we still wouldn’t have it but it’s included so we will take it LOL.
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We still have cable, but we now have the most minimal service. We spend a lot less, and everyone watches less TV now that we no longer have a DVR and the expanded range of channels. We save about $60 a month, which isn’t a fortune but certainly adds up over the course of a year.
It’s true that you need to be in agreement about where to cut costs. This change went through because cable ended up being a lower priority to my husband than some of the other things I suggested we cut back on.
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You’re absolutely right. When we decided to have me stay at home, we cut everything back and gradually reintroduced it all into our lives.
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Great tips. We need to see what we can cut in our budget now that my husband lost his job. I don’t understand exactly why the prices are going up either. It doesn’t make sense. But yes, the value of the dollar is going down and to me that is scary.
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We do have cable at our house so the kids can watch playhouse disney channel. It is relatively a small price as we are on the cheapest basic plan. I too would cut it if not for the kids.
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I agree 100%, but if I cut the satellite dish expense my husband would snip my internet connection. Most of the shows he watches can be viewed online and he has a wide array of DVDs to keep him busy so I don’t see the big need for the extra cost. If it wasn’t for the kids watching their favorite shows I would try to convince him to get rid of it and use the savings towards more important things—like groceries and bills.
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