I look at the weekly ad for my grocery store and adjust my menu/shopping list for real savings only. I also get mailers about once a week and sometimes use the ones offering things like a free tire rotation with an oil change, or a real deal on delivered pizza. But otherwise coupons don’t work well enough for me to go out of my way for them.

I’m sure I wouldn’t want to eat at a house where the groceries are nearly free due to coupons. Way too much junk food, and way too little fresh produce.

Even better, try eliminating buying some disposable items. Use dish towels instead of paper towels, and use plastic (or paper) bags in place of smaller trash bags.

The best advice I could give for food is to pack/cook your own meals and limit eating out. It is hands down the best way to save money.

1. While I appreciate your list, and have seen many similar, what always frustrates me is that I already don’t have almost any of the things that you are suggesting that I eliminate or reduce. No cable. No internet at home. No second car. No debt other than my home. No entertainment budget. Only one phone (a cell, because it is less expensive than a land line). No services of any kind. No hair cuts. No insurance, due to being self-employed and not having the resources for such. How might someone like me eliminate spending (so that I might, for example, be able to afford insurance)?

While the above is true, I do appreciate your suggestions for energy savings and the like. Our society is overridden with things we only think we need.

2. In addition to being in agreement with Michele (#113) above, and recognizing the needs that churches fill that are much more than financial, I cannot help but mention that in my experience, as well as many people I know, increased giving is actually a financial benefit. Charitable giving should also be done, as all else, within one’s means.

I would challenge you to find a spiritual leader who would support your resolve not to give. From both financial and spiritual standpoints this would be poor advice. Remember also that what is given to an organization such as a church is, as Michele stated and among other things, paying the salaries of others.

I’m well acquainted with other ways to give, as I do so myself, but please do not encourage people not to give, as giving is a spiritual discipline and responsibility. “God understands” is a poor argument, when in fact, it is God who asks us to give what is his, as we are to give to the government and to others what is theirs. In terms of other charity, it is also a social responsibility for those who have to give for those who do not.

No matter what you might be able to save, suggesting that it would be a benefit to cut charitable giving in any sense is in bad taste for a financial advisor.

Remember, the church is there for YOU, too. When you are beat up by life, it is a place to go away and hide for a while. When you are broken or sick (emotionally and spiritually at least, sometimes physically too) or out of control, church is the place that will heal you. Sure it is the heavenly father who actually does the healing, and sure he can do that outside of church… but the church is the best place I’ve found to fascilitate it. Sometimes because it forces you to spend a whole hour in one go with God, sometimes through the people there or through some other situation. But my point is that church is a place where YOU can recieve what YOU need.

And if you are having to trim every area you can think of, chances are, you are going to be pretty beaten up by life – noone is so holy they can take it on the chin the whole time. So when these times come around, and they will, why put pressure on a budget that’s super-tight already when (if you are honest with yourselves) it feels like the church is simply taking from you and not caring about what you need as much as what it needs? that will just make you hate the church, or stop seeing it as a place that YOU can get help.
But when help comes through the church and you feel better, you will be so happy, so grateful and so full of love for them that you will GLADLY put extra in on top of a budgeted amount that you can afford (or even without a budgeted amount and just make one off contributions) instead of wanting to blow it on this or that. Perhaps faithfulness to the church in a monetary sense would be better measured in how many times you gladly want to put in 10, 20, 50 (or 5) % of your disposable income, than in how many times (”come hell or high water”) you have put in your budgeted 10%?
And you never know, someone else may well have put in extra that covers your portion of the bills of the church etc on the days that you can’t do it. Even if you have to say “six months with no budgeted offering”, firstly, chances are you will put in at least some money during that period anyway, and secondly, you don’t know who else just got a promotion and upped their portion accordingly or anything else that means the church will be fine.
This is why it said “temporarily”. When you’re in dire straights, not to pay for some unneeded luxury. (Although if you would rather buy the luxury, do it because it doesn’t mean much if the offering is begrudged anyway.)

These things help the church too.

Where I live, we have a trainstation a block away, very close deli’s, supermarkets, clothes stores, restaurants, Staples, etc and those are when conveniences arises.

It is true the more convenient the area is, the more it costs which is why my parents pay $1,000 rent every month just because we have all these things around us. However, if you think about living in a place with no stores and such, it MAY be hard to find food, or even need items in an emergency. If we weren’t living around here, I wouldn’t have local mosques around here, good friends and a nice neighborhood. We wouldn’t have Subways or McDonalds on days where my mother is too tired to cook.

If you ask me, moving to a cheap place often means you have to use more time and pay more than you really do in an expensive place having the best around you. That’s why I have heard homes in New Jersey (where my cousin lives) and on Staten Island, NYC are a lot more cheaper. That’ just my opinion…

i live with my parents after more than 8 years of a steady-well paying job…
i find this model a very good one not just for ur pocket but also on the environment and society…

1st the financial side:
1. i have personally saved in not having to set up a new home and all the other things that come along… didn’t need to buy a TV or a fridge or subscribe to cable connection or lots and lots of other expenses because it was already there…
2. as we are a bigger family we tend to buy things in bulk… and that is lot cheaper than buying small…
3. we hardly need to eat out… with some 5-6 people at home cooking, washing and every other activity is fun…
4. mother is a good cook and so all our snacks come right out of our kitchen… thats again a very healthy and cheap option…

evidently the more we reuse the better for the environment… the lesser we pollute… the lesser resources we use… the better our carbon footprint…

and a happy family is surely the starting point for a good society…

this means at a personal level you need a lot of patience and commitment… a strong sense of belonging… ability to taking responsibility…
and ofcourse lots of compromises… i sometimes miss some TV programs when father whats to see something else…

but thats a small price to pay for the care and the love and the sense of belonging i receive when i get home after work…

i guess being happy is what we are after and its for each to see how the resources at our disposal are utilized to that end…

cheers… vinod

as to disposal of the newer light bulbs, even out here in boonieville usa our transfer stations have hazardous waste pickups scheduled a couple times a year. there is always a bin for these bulbs.

i don’t buy any cleaning products at all, which saves on both money and having to deal with all those containers to recycle. i make laundry detergent and a basic glass cleaner. i also buy jugs of the plainest dishwashing liquid i can find and dilute it a couple times, pour into smaller bottles and that is used for washing bodies, hands, dishes. not my hair tho, i draw the line at that, but i do use coupons and can generally get suave products for about fifty cents a bottle or less. then i dilute those too.