There are a lot of things I have been willing to give up in order to meet our goals of building a dream house. As Dave Ramsey says, "Live like no one else now, so you can really live like no one else later."
Maybe with this current economy you have had to let some things go as well.
Here's some things I gave up during our last 5 years of extreme savings:
A big house
Cable TV
Gourmet coffee
Ready-made and packaged foods
The latest fashions
Brand name products
Here's some things that I consider splurges that I'm just not willing to let go of (unless I really had to):
Coffee creamer
Brand name dishwasher soap (I hate spots!)
Healthy foods (lean meats, LOTS of fruits and vegetables, nuts and occasionally fish)
What have you given up (or thought of recently that you should give up) for helping you get in a better financial situation?
What are some splurges you just can't live without that you allow for in the budget?
Erin
Oh fun! We're giving up convenience foods. I'm staying home again so I will make all our meals again. We are going to line dry our clothes, make our own laundry soap, and we're growing some of our food! We only do free Redbox movies and free movies from Randy's on Thursday nights. That is super hard for my husband! We're also giving up silly little purchases like things from the gas station, that again is hard on Joe.
ReplyDeleteWe are getting the newspaper for the coupons. I consider that a splurge. I am going to start doing the coupon/cvs thing again. It saved us lots of money last time I did it. One other splurge: we have a Rhapsody subscription for our mp3 players. Looking for something cheaper than that though.