10% less, what would you cut first?

[Mackay]

I use this phone company over the internet.

www.teleblend.com

$15 a month for all the extras plus free long distance in US and Canada. It works great and I've been with them for more than a year. The only down side is if your electric goes off no phone.

 

[me&thegals]

Hey-thanks! Reviewing my phone plan is LONG overdue. This is the nudge I needed.

 

[enjoy the ride]

One of the things I would do is check to see if your current reduced income would allow earned income credit with IRS or allow you to file for any part of the stimulus from last year based on this years income. Maybe also to make your withholding match the actual tax due so that instead of getting a refund later, you could increase what you take home each month now.
Hopefully work will go back to normal soon.

 

[breconbcs]

I use this phone company over the internet.

www.teleblend.com

$15 a month for all the extras plus free long distance in US and Canada. It works great and I've been with them for more than a year. The only down side is if your electric goes off no phone.

We went with Vonage as soon as we got high speed here. To get around the outage problem, we decided to save up and get a generator ($500) and ran it's own plug outlets throughout the house for the necessities - fridge, water heater, furnace (which cause they are all in the same room can be switched to washer/dryer if needed), main computer (where the Vonage modem is) and most important for DH the t.v/satellite. This way if the power goes out, like it will probably do today (winds are picking up and I've heard a few trees break and fall in the lot behind us), the kids can start the generator, and then unplug and plug in the needed equipment. They've been shown plus we leave instructions they can understand plus we did "generator drills" (like fire drills at school lol). This way we don't have to worry about backfeed when the power comes back on, we just unplug and plug everything back into the house outlets.

 

[Dace]

T
It's just seems weird, we have such a mix. Keeping up with the Joneses type situation and me trying to be SS. It feels very conflicting. Maybe this situation will help the rest of my family see my side. My husband said he was going to take over the finances I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. I said bring it on baby. Show me how you can make it work.

Your hubby likes to keep up with the Joneses right? Mine is the same. I swear he kills me sometimes and I understand your conflict. I have resigned myself to just doing what I can and eventually he will come around...like with the chicks and ducks. Last year he thought I was nuts and now the little fuzz balls are cuddled up in their brooder in my laundry room.
I have to remind myself that we both bring interesting perspectives to the table...he is a can-do kind of a guy thinking that everything is possible and I am much more of a realist, even pessimistic compared to him. I guess we keep each other in line.

You will work it out, just keep thinking of things that you can do to bring in money while looking at what cuts are possible.

 

[miss_thenorth]

T
It's just seems weird, we have such a mix. Keeping up with the Joneses type situation and me trying to be SS. It feels very conflicting. Maybe this situation will help the rest of my family see my side. My husband said he was going to take over the finances I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. I said bring it on baby. Show me how you can make it work.

Your hubby likes to keep up with the Joneses right? Mine is the same. I swear he kills me sometimes and I understand your conflict. I have resigned myself to just doing what I can and eventually he will come around...like with the chicks and ducks. Last year he thought I was nuts and now the little fuzz balls are cuddled up in their brooder in my laundry room.
I have to remind myself that we both bring interesting perspectives to the table...he is a can-do kind of a guy thinking that everything is possible and I am much more of a realist, even pessimistic compared to him. I guess we keep each other in line.

You will work it out, just keep thinking of things that you can do to bring in money while looking at what cuts are possible.

Mine used to be the 'keepin' up" type. The best thing that has happened is that we moved away from the Joneses. In the year and a half that we have lived out here in the country, he is finally breaking away.

As a matter of fact, we were talking about how he has to get something from one of the "Joneses" shop, and talked briefly about how happy we are that we are not living there anymore.

Change CAN happen.

 

[me&thegals]

No kidding. And when it does, it's like a 2x4 to the side of the head! My dyed-in-the-wool conventional farmer of a husband is totally supporting my organic CSA business, future beekeeping, and even is talking about going organic himself on our grain farm. Will wonders never cease?!?

 

[TanksHill]

I can only hope!!! I do have 2 x 4's in the garage. Maybe I could help him along.

My dh isn't to bad. He has come a long way in the last 15 years. I must give him credit for walking the line between me and them. He is a great mediator. He helps any way he can with my construction projects and house stuff. All the while doing the normal weekly work stuff. So I will give him big credit for that.

 

[cjparker]

As far as the "keeping up with the Joneses" issue, I think I "win". My husband is an only child and his parents are upper middle-class, with pretensions of being upper-upper class. When they retired, they sold their lovely 1800sf home in a beautiful part of the country, and moved to a FOUR THOUSAND SQUARE FOOT home in another lovely part of the country. A four thousand square foot home...........for two people. Unimaginable to me. Other than their rampant consumerism (his dad owns well over 1000 music cds) they are nice people. But that is what I've had to work with. Hubby is doing really well considering that he came from that backround, but he still feels wistful about the days when he had a standing order for all new rock cds that came out each week.

Back to cutting costs, today I found a new source for chicken feed that is about 15% less than what I was paying. For the same stuff. Nice.

 

[miss_thenorth]

As far as the "keeping up with the Joneses" issue, I think I "win". My husband is an only child and his parents are upper middle-class, with pretensions of being upper-upper class. When they retired, they sold their lovely 1800sf home in a beautiful part of the country, and moved to a FOUR THOUSAND SQUARE FOOT home in another lovely part of the country. A four thousand square foot home...........for two people. Unimaginable to me. Other than their rampant consumerism (his dad owns well over 1000 music cds) they are nice people. But that is what I've had to work with. Hubby is doing really well considering that he came from that backround, but he still feels wistful about the days when he had a standing order for all new rock cds that came out each week.

Back to cutting costs, today I found a new source for chicken feed that is about 15% less than what I was paying. For the same stuff. Nice.

We bought this house with my dh's Joneses mentality. it is 2000 sq ft plus full basement ==4000 sq ft. Now,he thinks we can do with much less. I wanted a smaller home with a bigger barn and more land. It will happen. we have since agreed that when the kids are in college or as soon as they are out on their own, we will downsize. financially it doesn't make sense for us to sell now after only living here a year and a half.