These are hard times to be sure. Economy is in the dumps, more people are unemployed now than it has been in recent decades, credit is tight but people are afraid to spend anything for fear of the unknown. It is a time for sacrifices, big and small.
I too am feeling some financial pressures these days. Buying a house last year and all of the associated expenses with it has really put a strain on the family finances coupled with the fact that only I now work full time as Andrea is now a semi- full time mother. One pay cheque can only go so far these days as my father used to say.
So we have cut back on many things. We do not eat out as much anymore. Fast food drive throughs and K&W cafeteria are pretty much it. Steak restaurants are strictly special occasions now. Even something like the Village Tavern is now out of my price range.
I have cut back on my magazines and subscriptions. I do not buy general interest magazines like Atlantic anymore; just some specialty magazines for photography and Macs. Which is a pity as it those general interest magazines that do provoke thought and discussion in ways that newspapers and television never do.
Even little occasion things like going to the coffee shop are becoming rarer now. Movies are once a month at best now.
In terms of household expenses, there is not much to work with in terms of cutting back as we were never extravagant to begin with. We do not have landscaping services nor do we go out antique hunting to fill the house with knick knacks. Put the home on equal payment plans with the electrical and natural gas companies so that we can at least budget for a constant dollar amount for them rather than have it fluctuate wildly month to month depending on the season.
So when I look at the budget now, there is not much fat there to cut. When our wireless contract ends in May, we will cancel the plan and then go to a pay as you go plan. That will save about $40/month. Other telephones expenses including DSL are stable and needed for us.
Everything else on the budget is necessary and can not be cut in any fashion except for one thing. The cable television subscription.
Right now, I am paying $80/month for a package deal that includes basic, standard, digital tier and high definition channels. Including all of the On Demand choices from Time Warner Cable, there are perhaps 300 channels available for viewing. Most of them though, we never watch. Madeleine watches pre school television like on PBS or Noggin; Christen similar channels especially for Law & Order; Andrea watches Hallmark, Lifetime and some reality shows on TLC. As for myself, I tend to be more diverse in watching the Discovery lineup of channels, news like MSNBC, broadcast television and plenty of sports on the ESPN network.