Maybe I Should Write a Book

I laughed one day watching Oprah. She had someone who had written a book because they had cut their budget around $30,000. When Fred quit his job to go back to school, we cut ours $55,000. I was a stay at home mom the first ten years of our marriage and I knew how to live on a tight budget. I was able to do it by pulling out our budget from 1996. We had the money for his tuition and books set aside in savings. I had just hit the top of the pay scale so we were going to have an increase in my pay. We sat down and came up with a plan.

Here it is maybe there is something you did not think of that you could cut out of your budget too.

Yearly savings

· Before we started we paid off our credit cards saving $6,000

· Cut out weekly pizzas $720

· No hair cuts or perms $ 300

· No donations to anyone $1000

· Cut cable $600

· Cut house phone service $1200

· No lawn service $650

· Cut out weekly dinner out or breakfast out $1000

· No more newspaper deliveries $360

· No magazine subscriptions $100

· Bought a junker to get rid of a car payment saving $4,800

· No new clothes $300

· Plane Fairs $ 1200

· No Christmas Cards $100

· No exchanging Christmas gifts extended family $1000

· No new converse $ 200

· Cut food budget in half

Used coupons, generic and made everything from scratch $4,800

· Deferred student loans $ 6,000

· No exchange of birthday gifts $ 200

· No exchange anniversary $ 100

· No vacation at the shore $ 4,000

· Car pooled every other week $ 600

Additional income

· My pay increase $ 5500

· Worked extra period per day $4000

· Stipends/A plus $ 3,000

· Fred side work $ 7,000

When he graduated and got a real job, the pizza came back first, then new car, and the house phone.