Are you spending less?

Be honest... the economy is in the crapper, people are losing jobs. Are you and your family spending LESS than you were 1 year ago? 2 years ago?

I will be honest, we are not. Granted we have always lived on a necessity driven budget for a long time. As the "house banker" and the one making all financial decisions I will say that we have not spent LESS, but we have been making our money go further. How about you?

I'm in a similar situation to you. We aren't stingy, but we're a cash-only entity. My wife recently began as the organist at our church, which adds some monthly influx that is going straight into savings and IRAs and the like.

Not afraid yet. Nothing says I won't eventually be, however.

We have always been very careful with our money, so I'd say that we are not spending any less, but definitely no more. We pay cash for everything, so we don't have any debt, and we are very frugal.

Still we live well, and I have no complaints. Being debt free and owning two homes (one's a cottage) feels really great!

Nope but we are very frugal to begin with.

Actually the government is about to get wildly successful in stimulating me to borrow and spend. Interest rates are in the toilet, industry needs to move product, and the Feds are giving away free money to those bold enough to build. I really want to build anyway, so our future major project is advancing under an economic green light.

I put $24,000 on my Discover Card last year...

I am a NO-cash operator. We love credit...

I am a floor covering contractor and work is DEAD. New construction came to a complete halt (seriously) and remodel work is almost completely gone because home values are going down (no re-financing going on). In the last 3 months I've done a total of 5 jobs (which take 1-2 days). I haven't brewed a batch of beer in a long while because I have pretty much been flat broke. Living off of credit cards is over (cause they're all maxed). I have a group of about 10 close friends and over half of them aren't working. I've been in business for 7 years and have never seen it like this. If things keep going at this pace, me (and my wife and 3 kids) are going to be knocking on my parents door looking for a place to stay.

The belt has tightened for me. Got laid-off on 12/1

Up until yesterday I haven't spent more than $40 on home brewing.

I broke my cherry yesterday with regard to kegging.

I bought 3 used ball-lock cornies for $15 a piece. A local distributor was getting rid of them. So no shipping, too good to pass up.

I'm debating as to whether I should get ingredients for a Boddington clone...

We are not really spending less, but we are keeping track of what we are spending and trying to set a budget. Before this year, we really did not have to think about budgeting.

I am fortunate to work for a company where the owners are very aware of market conditions and adjust according. While the next few years will be tight, we have positioned ourselves to be in a position where we are a go-to company in our field.

It just irks us that congress makes corporate jets the bad guy as we supply equipment to business class corporate aircraft.

The Pol said:

I put $24,000 on my Discover Card last year...

I am a NO-cash operator. We love credit...

Click to expand...

Holy crap, really? We just paid off an AMEX card that we thought was high at 3K. I'd have a heart attack if I had that much credit debt.

Well, being a pilot I will tell you that congress doesnt have to kill the corporate jet... any accountant will. For decades that has been the downfall of any corporate pilot job... when times get tough, that is a HUGE and somewhat unnecessary expense that gets axed. Corporate pilot jobs are freaky things. It is a huge expense, and it is easy to axe... it is a major luxury

shecky said:

Holy crap, really? We just paid off an AMEX card that we thought was high at 3K. I'd have a heart attack if I had that much credit debt.

Click to expand...

I didnt say $24,000 in debt... I said we put $24,000 on it... we pay it off every month as any responsible party should. We invest nearly 30% of our GROSS income.

The Pol said:

I didnt say $24,000 in debt... I said we put $24,000 on it... we pay it off every month as any responsible party should. We invest nearly 30% of our GROSS income.

Click to expand...

Oh, you sneaky little bugger.

I do that with my Marriott Visa. Loves me some Marriott points.

Unfortunately we arent spending less, but we have tried to tighten up a bit. Having a kid doesnt exactly help (specially since she broke her teeth several months ago) Her final dental bill is a grand. Gonna surpass the 10K mark on the credit card soon to go on our 10 year anniversary.

On a positive note, 2 of the cars will be paid off and hopefully one will be sold soon.
-Me

shecky said:

Oh, you sneaky little bugger.

I do that with my Marriott Visa. Loves me some Marriott points.

Click to expand...

Exactly... $24k on the Discover pays some decent dividends as well!

shecky said:

Holy crap, really? We just paid off an AMEX card that we thought was high at 3K. I'd have a heart attack if I had that much credit debt.

Click to expand...

He said he charged 24K, not that it was debt. Gotta rack up those miles baby. In the Pol's case I'm not sure why he would need them.

SWMBO and i are actually spending more. We both finally have decent out of college jobs and are almost done paying off our during college credit card debts. We are being frugal though because we have practically no savings as of yet since we just started off and would like to have some backup in case something happens. We haven't charged anything sans online purchases to credit cards in 3 months and have used our debit card for everything. It does feel good to finally be making more per month than we spend.

Yeah I agree. While Cesnna and Dassault are scaling back, Gulfstream and Embrear are ramping up. We have to put some faith that they know their market.

shecky said:

Holy crap, really? We just paid off an AMEX card that we thought was high at 3K. I'd have a heart attack if I had that much credit debt.

Click to expand...

SWMBO & I use the credit card quite a bit since its safer than a debit. We pay the bill every month. I'd bet we spend at least that much.

cellardoor said:

He said he charged 24K, not that it was debt. Gotta rack up those miles baby. In the Pol's case I'm not sure why he would need them.

SWMBO and i are actually spending more. We both finally have decent out of college jobs and are almost done paying off our during college credit card debts. We are being frugal though because we have practically no savings as of yet since we just started off and would like to have some backup in case something happens. We haven't charged anything sans online purchases to credit cards in 3 months and have used our debit card for everything. It does feel good to finally be making more per month than we spend.

Click to expand...

Hey, Discover offers cash back, and you can trade in $40 cash back for a $45 gift card to a restaurant. Being that I am away A LOT, I take my wife out on a date once a week, sometimes I take my daughter on dates too. Discover foots the bill, so that I dont have to.

So not only am I getting FREE money, I am trading in that FREE money for MORE FREE MONEY... hells yah!

nope we lived two months on ccards, wife grad college two weeks ago, bring it on she is a travel nurse $110 an hour. its time for me to relax a little i spent 6 years sending her through collage I am spending money......

Sheck,
I think he cycles his monthly bills through his Discover to get some additional cash back.

I work in the construction industry and we have been hit pretty hard, however our company has a good backlog of work so we may not see the full impact yet. We haven't been spending more or less, just enough to live. ( Fingers crossed )

No, I'm spending more than ever!
New Car
New Laptop
High speed internet-upgrade from dialup.
My house is for sale, and even with the ton of equity I have, my housing expense is going up by about 300 a month for the new house. If this guy can't come up with the money, I'll do a rent to own for $500 more a month than what my mortgage is.

But, I'm single.
I heat with wood, so my neighbors bill will be about $400 this month, mine will be $80.
I don't like restaurants, so very few meals out. I have a fish dinner special every friday at a local place, and maybe a good lunch 1 or 2 days a week.
I work from home, so have no
commute/clothes/other bs expenses I used to have. It was at least 100/150 a week, which is way more than my car payment.

Being a commissioned employee, a good budget is key. I know EXACTLY what it takes to support my house. On variables like electric and gas, I go high estimate.I try to keep 6 months in the bank, and I screwed up on my taxes last year and my previous employer wouldn't change my withholdings, so I am getting a huge tax return.

I just started using the cards- I was told my credit would be better if I had some credit card debt, by my manager at the mortgage company I was working for..
I have had no CC Debt and no car payment for the past 9 yrs. The only thing I had was my mortgage. i was in the low 700's for my score-never missed a payment on mortgage or anything else, and bought a car for cash 3 yrs ago.
I now have the discover 0% for life card on balance transfers, 2.9% on purchases for life. I also use the Citi Cash Rewards card for everything. 5.9%
balance transfer for life, 5.99% purchases for 1 yr.
I also have 3 other high limit cards, which I have 0 balance. I closed 3 cards with lower limits.

As long as I put everything on autopay, never a late payment. You have to watch the cards, because if you go 30 days late, the automatically default to the highest rate allowed by law, which i believe is 29.99%

I pay for EVERYTHING that I can, on Discover... food, fuel, utilities, meals, clothing etc.... EVERYTHING. Down to my 99cent cup of coffee at the gas station. I have not had as much as a DIME in my pocket for three years.

Hugh_Jass said:

Sheck,
I think he cycles his monthly bills through his Discover to get some additional cash back.

Click to expand...

I got that, thanks. I'm a little slow today (and most other days, come to think of it.)

on my citi I get 5% cash back on everything, on my discover I get a insert in my bill telling me what is eligible for cash back per quarter. Apr/may/June is travel, July aug/sept is food and gas, etc.
I just took my mortgage off autpay from my checking acct, and will be putting onto my citi card, the putting the citi card on auto pay from the bank. 5% of $1100 is only $55, but that's 55 more in my pocket, plus all the other stuff I put on the card.

I don't carry cash!

NJTomatoguy said:

on my citi I get 5% cash back on everything, on my discover I get a insert in my bill telling me what is eligible for cash back per quarter. Apr/may/June is travel, July aug/sept is food and gas, etc.
I just took my mortgage off autpay from my checking acct, and will be putting onto my citi card, the putting the citi card on auto pay from the bank. 5% of $1100 is only $55, but that's 55 more in my pocket, plus all the other stuff I put on the card.

I don't carry cash!

Click to expand...

Discover always offers cash back... but they do have a rotating 5% cash back award that applies to different things. But there is cash back on all purchases.

The Pol said:

Discover always offers cash back... but they do have a rotating 5% cash back award that applies to different things. But there is cash back on all purchases.

Click to expand...

Yup, 1 percent on anything, even balance transfers, plus if the quarterly purchases line up, you get that also. I am very happy with my discover.

Spending more and earning more and getting more for what we spend.

A big part of the more we spend is on housing. That cost doubled+ since moving to Texas after Katrina. This is a mortgage as opposed to rent though.

The truck is paid and the car, while modest and a higher note, is better than the one we were paying on before it.

We drive fewer miles. $4 gas nearly made that a wash.

Back taxes are paid off.

Credit cards are paid off. We think about getting a card to do like ThePol, but... we is

SWMBOs student loans come due soon but, that's an investment in a yet higher income.

We used to buy the cheapest stuff to get us by but now buy better stuff that lasts longer.

Instead of hiding away a few bucks, maybe, sometimes, we have retirement accounts. Meager still, but more than the mayonnaise jar ever saw.

Health insurance. We can go to the doctor now instead of eating some grass from the back yard and hoping for the best. We ain't 20 somethings anymore. We spend more on health care, even with insurance (maybe, a hospital stay with no insurance is a MAJOR expense), but we get more and better care.

The big keys for us is being out of credit card and tax debt coupled with earning more and spending it more wisely. I've earned more at one time before than I do now but, with debt (and interest and penalties on it) plus my wife earning more than she did at that time, we are better off.

I chose spending less because I am spending less on "stuff". I am still spending the same amount of money, but as of now I have some medical debt and student loans that are taking money from the pot.

We are definitely spending less on stuff and more on us. We used to eat out a lot but seldom do now and when we do it's because we have a gift card from christmas or a birthday or some other holiday. We spend more on ourselves in terms of our savings account. We are still both in our jobs, but mine is in relative jeopardy. Survived 2 layoffs in the past 6 months. Hopefully they're all done, but the general vibe in the office isn't good. ****ty Management is running a wonderful world preferred Brand name into the ground to save $0.30 in china. It's very sad. Can't say I wouldn't jump ship if an opportunity presented itself, but I have to stay where I'm at until forced out. Wife is a teacher so we're not really concerned about her. We're just trying to pay down debts and pay up our savings.

Definitely spending less. I'm not worried about getting laid off (especially when there's a shortage at my job), but my wife works part-time. And I'm not getting any raises for the next year and probably not the wife either.

Fortunately having a secure job (AKA the US Navy), I don't have to worry about the threat of getting laid off. During times like now, having that bit of security is pretty much worth all the BS and job dissatisfaction I've had for my job over the last 17 years. Therefore, my spending habits haven't changed much.

I honestly feel for those of you who have lost your jobs or have to worry about losing jobs. It must really suck. Good luck to you guys and gals, and I hope things work out for you.

Not spending less. Spending different.

olllllo said:

Not spending less. Spending different.

Click to expand...

+1. Same here. Not necessarily spending less, but spending differently. Less eating out, less drinking out, etc...

I am concerned about the economy. I think it will eventually straighten itself out but how long this drags out is what I don't know (or anyone knows for that matter). I think that things are going to get worse, before they get better...

I blame corporate greed for this mess we're in...

cellardoor said:

He said he charged 24K, not that it was debt. Gotta rack up those miles baby. In the Pol's case I'm not sure why he would need them.

SWMBO and i are actually spending more. We both finally have decent out of college jobs and are almost done paying off our during college credit card debts. We are being frugal though because we have practically no savings as of yet since we just started off and would like to have some backup in case something happens. We haven't charged anything sans online purchases to credit cards in 3 months and have used our debit card for everything. It does feel good to finally be making more per month than we spend.

Click to expand...

im in pretty much the same situation. both the swmbo and i have jobs that should last through any economic hard ships we shouldnt have to worry too much. now we spend a lot, but most of it is going to get all our dept paid off, anything we buy now is cash only.

Not to be a ******, but im thriving right now! Spending $350 a month on gas instead of $1000. Most of my work accounts (small grocery stores) are seeing good profit increases due to the fact people are cutting back on restaurants and eating at home more. Swmbo's booked 6+ months ahead for her customers (not a hooker a cosmetologist). I know it's hard times for some, but im ok for now.

I'm on 32 hours a week until things pick up, and my wife got a salary reduction by 30%. So, now we have to be careful what we spend. It's not like I WANT to cut back. I'm just hoping that there are enough people out there willing to spend their extra money to buy cars and other things and get this economy back on track.

I guess I'm kinda lucky. My wife works in a university library that isn't going anywhere considering the kind of bling bling that college pulls down (and her boss is the pres of the American Library Association to boot), and I work as a web monkey and sysadmin type for a company handling 10 of their clients (out of a total of 13). I doubt they'll be throwing me out on my arse anytime soon, especially considering that I've been there nearly a decade and know the ins and outs of how most of the baling-wire-and-duct-tape "cross your fingers and hope it doesn't break" software and hardware setup the company runs on works and the black magic necessary to keep it working or fix it when it doesn't.

knock on wood

I bought a new truck last year and I regularly spend money on brewing equipment, but that's lots of second-hand stuff, for the most part.

I probably have spent less on going out to bars, tho. Not necessarily because of the money, but I'm just sick of that scene.

I've never spent a lot of money...I buy all my furniture, electronics, even my clothes used.