This is another fun meme I haven’t done in a while so thought I’d start it up again. Kailani over at Island Life hosts this one and it’s alot of fun.So if you’re interested in joining make sure to stop by her blog.

My questions for today is: When it comes to budgeting your finances, which non-essential things do you tend to cut back on?

We are at the point where we have to cut back on alot. Times are really tough for us right now and my hubby finally understands why I’ve said we need to budget all these years (even though he never has helped – up until now). Some non-essentials we are not doing anymore are:

1. Eating out – we haven’t eaten fast food or at a restaurant in I can’t remember how long. We used to at one point eat fast food maybe once a week. I’d have to say it’s been about 2 months since our last Big Mac. My parents have taken us out to eat but they footed the bill.

2. Netflix – I just suspended my account on that this morning. Even though it was only $9 a month – that still adds up and is something we just can’t afford right now.

3. Busch Gardens passes – we’ve had passes to Busch Gardens ever since we moved here to Tampa. Luckily we have paid our last payment on them already this month and they are due to be renewed January 1, 2010. We won’t be renewing them. For a family of 5 they were costing us $63 a month. That’s $63 more then we can afford. The kids will be sad because we always have alot of fun there, but we don’t have a choice right now.

4. Dunkin Donuts and Star Bucks – no longer going there. I have a ton of Tastefully Simple “Oh My Chais” and some of those Swiss Colony specialty coffees to use up. They’ll probably last me 2-3 months!

5. Cigarettes – ever since Sean had his teeth done he’s quit smoking!!!!!! Number 1 for his health and number 2 he doesn’t want to get his new sparkly white chompers all yellow! (They look AWESOME on him by the way.)

6. Grocery shopping – I used to buy fruits and veggies and have 1/4 of them go bad by the time we ate them. No longer. I buy exactly what I know I’ll need and then incorporate them into our dinners, lunches, snacks. Now that we know Caelie is lactose intolerant, she eats alot more fruits and veggies and her bloated belly looks so much better!

If anyone out there has any budgeting tips, I’d love to hear them!

Tags: Aloha Friday

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 11:03 am and is filed under Aloha Friday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.