So someone else in my inner circle of family/friends is losing a job. This loss cuts their income to the lower of the two incomes and is something they haven't gone through before.
Well Kent and I have--for 31 months. And while neither of us are advice-giving people, we did a brain dump this weekend about what's worked and not worked for us regarding managing a restricted budget and also how we've handled the emotional/relational issues that are part of the unemployed territory.
Much to my shock, I ended up with a six page document, and it's not even double-spaced. I guess we have learned more than I realized.
Here's an excerpt:
Coupons. We tried this probably four or five times but realized that (a) we buy very few processed foods and (b) even being on email lists for getting coupons, it takes a lot of work to track down the one or two that might apply to us. If you buy more processed foods, you can save a ton with coupons so consider doing the work if that’s the situation. For us, the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.
How do you handle reduced finances?
5 comments:
Shucks, I thought you should publish this as a series in a local paper.
We haven't had to deal with reduced finances, and I hope we don't have to, but we are both very frugal by nature.
1.We cook all of our own food, including enough for lunches, which reduces dependence on processed food and saves money since we're not eating out as much, and when we do eat out, it's actually worth it.
2. We've found coupons to be helpful on household items, but not really on food.
3. There are a few things that make Costco totally worth it. Dog food and oatmeal come to mind.
4. Garage sales and Craigslist. Sarah seriously found our entire kids room of furniture for $300. Retail would have easily been $1500.
I remember when you were asking me for recipes so you could cut your food bill and quit eating frozen dinners that smelled like burnt tires!
I have no suggestions, aside from not watching television, which seems to make my kids' friends want "stuff."
I'd like to hear more suggestions!
Jeanne, I think you are right--TV and generally all sorts of print media do trigger that want for stuff. I'll post more from what I wrote. As I said, I was pretty surprised with how much we've learned.
Post a Comment