"Spendin' Money?" What do you do??

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
Yeah, before I got this job working for the county, I was a barista. Tips were good and on top of the $8/ and hour. I would sometimes get upwards of $25/hour (tips included). Unfortunately my boss was stealing money from the company and all of our paychecks bounced. So I only got the tips. Now there is a Starbucks in town and I used to work at the roasting plant...so I'm hoping I may be able to get a part-time job there on weekends....as a barista.

 

[Oblio13]

I think it's a lot easier to save a dollar than it is to earn a dollar, so we're concentrating on tightening our belts rather than trying to work more.

Just gave away my old truck that gets 13 mpg. It was going to need tires and brakes soon anyway - and it had 186,000 miles on it, so it was just a matter of time before the engine or transmission went. Still have a diesel truck that averages 17 mpg, and a diesel car that gets 53 if I drive conservatively.

Am having some land selectively logged. That'll bring in some cash, and open up the views to improve the lot's value at the same time.

Our garden is planted with things that are prohibitive in stores, like raspberries and watermelons.

Other than that, we're simply doing things like combining trips and thinking twice before buying things.

 

[JennsPeeps]

We were already pretty careful about money. We eat out even less and we plan our meals. I've put off getting any new clothes - needed to lose 20 pounds to get back into stuff anyway, right?

Movies are still on the docket... sometimes.

We got rid of our WoW accounts for the summer (yes, uber dorks, ok?!?). We're talking about getting rid of cable, however I still need internet for work.

I'm putting up lots of food for the winter. Even though it's expensive now, it'll reduce our food costs for the winter because a) we'll already have it on hand and b) it'll reduce impulse buys and 3) no imported produce in January!

 

[AussieSharon]

Another thing we do when we go out and eat is DH and I split a meal. At the Italian, Mexican and Chinese restaurants around here it's more then anough for the 2 of us. Also order water, a soda can cost as much as $1.90 a glass at a restaurant.

If you like to eat out consider going out for lunch on the weekend. Lunch menus are cheaper!

We raised the AC by 2 degrees. Don't even notice the difference but it helps on the electric bill. So does only washing full loads of laundry.

If you buy online try www.mrrebates.com You get a % of your purchase back and after $25 you can cash it in. You even get $ back from shopping on ebay. All you do is go through their link first.

www.slickdeals.net is also great. I find all sorts of incredible online and instore deals and sales that I otherwise wouldn't know about.

 

[bluebirdfarm]

i do a waitress job ever now and again for xx $$$.

I have a public service job , so the pay is minimal.................


we have done 100 meat birds this yr , so we hav enuf chicken for around 3/4 of the year in the freezer. LOL.

we have a small veggie garden this year and i have been collecting aluminium cans for xx $$$, fished a bunch of the trash and made 14 $$$ ha ha .


planning less trips to town( 2 hr round trip !!)


moomlighting anywhere i can get a little work.

 

[MoonbeamQueen]

Great thread! We're trying to economize too. I'm a nurse in a skilled nursing facility, I pick up almost any and all overtime I can. Husband works there too and is a cook. One of his job benefits is lunch and dinner for him while he is on duty. Works great as I work swing shift and he'd be on his own for dinner anyway nights I work. Our daughter is a nurses aide and works there in the assisted living dept, and thankfully, has the same schedule as me. So we carpool and she helps out with the gas money. She lives at home still (only 19) and helps out with a bit of rent and groceries. The main reason I got back into having chickens this time around was because of the outrageous prices for eggs at the store ($5.99/18 eggs). When I've kept them in the past I was always able to sell our surplus eggs at work and that covers their feed. I'm planning on sharing some of our eggs with my grandparents (89 and 90 years young) to help their budget as well. Will be trading some eggs for homegrown tomatoes with my doctor. (Gee, I might just have to get a few more chickies!

).
I'm switching over, too, to buying fewer processed foods in favor of doing more baking, homecooking, etc... Will be picking more blackberries soon and will be freezing all I can. Talked to my next door neighbor the other day and he'd like to go halves with me on a batch of cornish x's to butcher this fall. He said he'll help with the processing, too. I've been watching my diet and trying to exercise in an effort to lose some weight. I've lost 14 lbs. already and have quite a lot to go! I'll need a new wardrobe before too long, so I've bought a couple of patterns and will be making my own pants and skirts, and/or altering some of what I have. With the gas prices we're doing less driving around. I consolidate trips to reduce the running around I used to do on days off work. My grocery is open until midnight, so I hit it when I need to on the way home from work since I'm going past there anyway.
Our 6 poodles get professionally groomed about 3-4 times a year. In between beauty appointments for them I try to trim them myself. I'm lacking in grooming skills but these are pets, not show dogs! Husband keeps his hair in a short and either he clips it himself or I do it. Now and then I insist he go down to Supercuts to really clean it up! I looked around the house recently and realized my collections are overflowing and don't necessarily reflect my current interests, so I hope to learn how to do the ebay thing and downsize some of these things. I know this is a long post, but you asked!

Looking forward to reading other replies!

 

[DuckLady]

I have a shop on Etsy (see link in my sig line) and I vend at craft sales. OF course, I put it all back into fabric, so I am really not making anything, but I do pay for my fabric!

We don't eat out as much as we used to and we stay home on vacations. We combine errands to save on gas and use online bill pay to save on stamps and errands. I can fruits and veggies as much as possible, cook from scratch, like that. We sell eggs so for the most part the ducks and chickens pay for their feed.

If we really wanted to conserve more, we would get rid of the cable TV and cable internet and go to dial up, but we are not ready to do that.

 

[s6bee]

I have apllied for a per diem job with the town that will hopefully go FT as a dog warden. We board our horses so I'm cleaning more at the barn to reduce the costs there. My daughter is a heavy competitor within Pony Club so an insentive they offered this year was that if you attended all the mounted and dismouted meetings ( and I made my daughter to do it ), clinics, etc. All your competive fees were waived ( that's saved us a bundle ).
Less driving. Less eating, no haircut for me, a pony tail will do. I tried to plant more in my garden this year, but it's not going too well. Been a wet start to summer and everything is way behind. Trying to get my husband to get the coop from a friend so I can add to my flock and start selling eggs. No new clothes.
I guess really just the general stuff everyone else is doing.

 

[summerwindsfarm]

Because we live so far from where my hubby works the gas prices are killing us. 1/3 of his income is going for gas right now sigh.

We are raising all of our own meat and eggs right now and by spring i will hopefully have my nubian nanny in milk. I didnt plant a vegetable garden this year because with the baby here so much i knew i wouldnt have time to take care of it. So im bartering meat for veggies.

I sell some things on ebay and i sell chicks and hatching eggs locally. Ive seen a large increase in my city buyers wanting to keep a small flock of hens in the city. Victory gardens and small chicken flocks are starting to be really popular ways for city dwellers to try to eat healthier and cut food costs a little.

I also sell off our extra lambs as butcher lambs and do pretty well on them.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

I think it's a lot easier to save a dollar than it is to earn a dollar, so we're concentrating on tightening our belts rather than trying to work more.

Which is true! Especially in a tiny town where jobs are at a premium.