Comments on: What, If Anything, Have You Given Up During This Recession?

By: Betsy Bargain

Betsy Bargain — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:24:52 +0000

I live pretty bare-bones to start with, so there’s not much to give up. I don’t have a car, I have a cell phone, but it’s a pay-as-you go so I don’t have a plan, I only use a few minutes a month. I don’t have cable, I share a Netflix subscription with my family, so movie rentals are cheap. I don’t have a gym membership, there’s one where I live I can use for free. I grow some of my own food, and don’t eat much meat, so groceries are cheap. I do eat out sometimes, but not to where I need to cut back. I guess it’s pretty much business as usual for me.

By: Golfing Girl

Golfing Girl — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:20:33 +0000

I purchased a golf pull cart so I’m saving $13 every round by not riding. The $50 used cart paid for itself in only 4 rounds.
Also we’ve been brown-bagging it alot and have done more meal planning. We were already pretty frugal so it’s hard to find more areas to cut back. Direct TV might be the next one, but I’m pretty addicted to TiVO…

By: Bocarat

Bocarat — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:32:09 +0000

Here’s what I did the first week I got laid off. I ditched my cell phone.

Well, it wasn’t hard. I had a company phone but I had the option of keeping it and start paying for it on my own.

I thought prepaid phones might be funky but did some shopping and found out that I could still get a good, no-frills phone for around 20-30 dollars and didn’t have to sign a contract or even have a credit card or credit check.

It turned out that I got a phone from net10 and I’m VERY happy with it and can really control my costs.

I don’t give the number out to everyone and that helps too, and I can control the costs up-front. Sweet!

By: Stephanie S.

Stephanie S. — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:26:08 +0000

That would be really hard. We’ve already given up so much to pay off debt.
I guess the gym membership, but that’s only $20 that is taken out of DH check. We don’t have cable. We have to keep the house phone because our youngest does not have a cell. Or maybe we could add another cell on for cheaper than the house phone.
I guess we’d use less water and heat. Oh, and the credit card payments would probably get closer to minimum due.

I just hope that we are out of debt before we have to cut back. Or at least the credit cards are paid off.

By: Slinky

Slinky — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:49:53 +0000

I’m pretty much just continuing business as usual. I’m actually thinking of starting a gym membership. The only concession I’ve made so far is to do a fresh evaluation of my minimum and ultimate eFund goals, and to make sure it’s stocked up to the minimum. The minimum gives me somewhere between 4 and 7 months of bare basic living expenses.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:08:17 +0000

I have cut back on Cable TV. I’m back to the basics!!

This past summer, I didn’t drive around as much. I usually take several trips to Six Flags, but I only went once this past year.

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:14:06 +0000

I haven’t directly been affected just have been trying to be more proactive about my spendings and savings.

By: Gene

Gene — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:51:10 +0000

It’s Gene here, from http://www.kitchentablenomics.com Turns out I’ve given up about 15 pounds since the recession wiped out my newspaper job in September. It’s probably a combination of eating less, eating at home more often and a lot of that kind of cutting back that you and others write about, plus more recreational walking, about four miles before sunrise to clear my head and organize my day.

By: Enrique S

Enrique S — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:43:12 +0000

We’ve cut dining out to a bare minimum – just dinner for my wife’s birthday. We haven’t been to a movie since last year, and have postponed some trips and major appliance purchases.

By: Pam

Pam — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:14:46 +0000

Well, I live beneath my means so there is not a whole lot I can give up.

In fact, I was laid off from my job a couple of months ago and was lucky enough to find another better paying job a month later. During the time I was laid off, there was not a whole lot I could cut since I do not have any expensive habits. But I did have to stop making retirement savings contributions since I had to use that for living expenses.

The fact that people could be laid off at any time gives me motivation to not acquire any expensive habits in the first place.

I am lucky to live in a place that has a pretty good library system. I rent books and DVDs from library for free and do not have to enroll in services such as NetFlix. I just have basic cable in order to get local channels and I can cut that if I want to. I don’t eat out as much. I could cut that out as well as the occasional latte. They would not make a significant dent in my monthly expenses. I actually do not have a cell phone but have been considering a prepaid one now that I have a job. The other thing I do is to watch for sales in local grocery and other stores and stock up anything that I know I will be needing in the near future. That saves a lot of money. I do not clip coupons, but I do take advantage of sales only for things I know that I will be needing.

All these things help me kind of live beneath my means and also helped not cause a lot of worries during the time I was laid off and I was able to just focus on job search instead.

Pam