With the economy the way it is, where is the first place you will/have cut?

[bazoona]

For me I know it will be the cell phone (over the loud objections of my wife). Somehow we became convinced that something that we did just fine without for years is now essential and worth spending over $1,500 a year for.:crazy:

[Dr.Phool]

1. Dog food.

Then eat the dogs.

:sarcasm:

[bazoona]

2. I am a dog trainer.....

Guess that makes me a rancher now.:rofl:

[driver8]

4. Ha Ha -- good one!

I love when people put that "ROFL smiley" after their own jokes! That cracks me up!

[bazoona]

8. I'm usually the only one that laughs at my jokes.

My wife tells me I live in my own little world.

[driver8]

12. Hey -- my wife tells me the same thing!!

She is always saying, "You cracked yourself up with that one, didn't you?"

Then she adds, "Well, at least you thought it was funny."

[bazoona]

18. When she tells me I live in my own little world...

I tell her at least everyone there likes me.

[Donnachaidh]

3. I'd love to see less cell phones.

We were sitting at a light in the left hand lane and a car SLAMMED into the car next to us, hitting it so hard it slammed into the car in front. Damaged on both sides, by a county sheriff who was too engrossed in her conversation to realize the light had turned red. She tried to tell the officer who arrived that she wasn't on the phone, but three witnesses came forward to say that she WAS.

Get a tracphone for emergencies and keep it in your glovebox. Pre-pay for minutes. It's FAR cheaper that way. No contracts, and no huge bills to pay. We have 3, and our yearly bill is $180. And that's with a teenager using one.

[driver8]

6. I am seriously considering getting a Trac-phone. I never use the phone I have,

unless it is for something important or my wife ABSOLUTELY needs to get in touch with me for some reason.

We just got new phones because my wife's phone died. She called me from the AT&T store and was telling me that if I brought my old phone in, the guys at the store would transfer my stored numbers onto the new phone. I told her, "I don't have any stored numbers." The guy at the store couldn't believe it. My wife said, "I told the guy that you never used your phone..."

One of my friends who is constantly on his phone is always leaving me messages on my cell phone and then gets pissed that I don't call him back. I told him, "I never use it -- why would I check for messages?"

I just don't feel the need to be attached to a telephone all the time...call me crazy!

[RebelOne]

21. A pre-paid phone is the only way to go if you

don't use your cell phone all that much. I have a pre-paid Cingular phone mainly for emergencies. I rarely use it to call anyone. I have a phone at home, a phone at the office and a computer at home and one at the office for e-mail. So I am never out of touch with anyone.

[bazoona]

24. Do the credits expire after a certain amount of time if they aren't used?

I am hoping there has been some progress made in the last year since I last looked at them. Here in Kosovo, the length of time you have to use the credits depends on the amount you buy. 50 Euro will give you a year to use them.

[Donnachaidh]

27. The cheapest we've found is Net10

And I meant to say that in the earlier post. They charge 10 cents per minute, the customer service is MUCH better than Tracphone (which actually owns Net10 -- figure that one out!) and we've save bucketloads of money using this service. You don't have to go with the cheapest phone they have, but the charges otherwise can't be beat.

[lumberjack_jeff]

7. We have four cellphones, our yearly budget is $480

Still a lot, but a Virgin mobile phone can cost as little as $80/year if one is really disciplined.

[bazoona]

11. I will go to pre-paid too.

We have 3 teen age daughters on our plan. As the contracts expire I will move them all to prepaid. It would be a good way to teach them some discipline. Don't expect me to win the father of the year award in their opinion when that happens.

[driver8]

14. My wife and I had to get new phones yesterday because my wife's

died. My six year old daughter was checking out the phones and asked us when she could have her own phone.

We told her not for a long time, and that she would be getting a prepaid phone. When we explained to her what that meant, she wasn't too happy about it.

[Donnachaidh]

28. Discipline IS the key

My teenager went nuts for a month with texting his girlfriend. He then had to justify why we had to get him more minutes so soon. We gave him the option of more GRUNGY chores like cleaning closets and bathrooms (and the cat pan) for extra minutes and he suddenly forgot how to text. :evilgrin:

[Cresent City Kid]

10. Pet peeve

I saw a guy, not only on a cell phone, but fiddling with a laptop on his seat. He blew through a 4-way stop sign, a block away from an elementary school, where kids cross. That beat my previous favorite, a woman with a phone in one hand, waving the other and rolling her eyes, who also ran a stop sign.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. I dropped my Teminex contract. It just kept going higher every year and this year was over $350.

They haven't seen a termite in 8 years.

[SoCalDem]

9. I would dearly love to get rid of ATT & but I just got off the phone with them

and apparently we HAVE the "cheapest plan" they offer.. I ordered Vonage, but it sat there in the box for 5 months , unused and i finally sent it back ...

Our actual "charged" phone calls with ATT last month totaled $2.85 and our bill was $47.23..
I cannot find a cell package that offers 2 phones for less than $50, so I guess we are just stuck with paying all those damned taxes & surcharges, so that strangers can call and bother us with fantastic offers we should never refuse..:eyes:

[driver8]

15. We have the same plan.

Not only that, we have all of these long distance minutes that we don't use because the service we get in our home sucks! We live in the mountains, and it is hard to get a signal.

[bazoona]

16. Sounds like trac phone or prepaid would work great for you.

The only problem I have seen with these is that the minutes "expire" if not used within a certain amount of time. I am in Kosovo right now (Coming home in a few weeks) and have used prepaid here for the last year. I don't have a land line in my apartment so I use cellular for everything. Since I use it pretty much only for business I haven't spent more than 50 Euro for the year. Making plans to return home has me looking closely at where we will cut expenses and nearly gave me a stroke when my wife told me what the cell phone bill was running.

[kwyjibo]

13. espresso.

I'm so tired though :(

[bazoona]

20. I hear ya...

and it just isn't the same from the cheap home machines.:cry:

[AlCzervik]

17. i already cut back on things about 2 years ago, no more magazines unless i can get them

with mileage from one of the airlines, cable bill is down due to me dropping to a lower prices package and as for cell phones, i have the basic plan and it runs me about $35 a month. I also stopped eating meat and thats saved me about $30 a week. Last thing----i almost never buy clothes, i detest shopping so in order to make them last longer i hang dry almost everything and when i do have to replace something i do it at the clearance rack.

[Ganja Ninja]

19. Satellite TV if it comes down to it.

I could always get by without it.

[RebelOne]

23. I would miss satellite TV, so I would probably switch to a cheaper package.

[Butterflies]

22. I rarely buy clothes

I have plenty, and I was never one to try to keep up with what's in fashion.

I also throw out mail order catalogs as soon as I get them.

[emilyg]

25. Same here. I go for comfort and

jeans last for many years.

[Blue_In_AK]

26. I hardly ever buy clothes...

...which is fine because I work at home and jeans and a T-shirt are my uniform. We don't go out for drives in the country as often as we used to. We're planning our summer camping trips for places close around here instead of driving hundreds of miles. We shop at Costco which helps with food prices.

[alfredo]

29. Meat. Land line phone. Eating out.

[Johonny]

31. same here

Eating out is going and my land line went last year.

[alfredo]

34. I was thinking about just going pre paid cell, but I decided to stay with

my regular cell contract. I can cut another $100 a month, but I will do that when needed.

[cynatnite]

30. Cell phone would stay...cable TV would go first...

Hubby's a truck driver and we have a teenager. Cell phones are a must for our daily lives.

I would get rid of the cable before anything else. That's close to what you're spending on a cell phone.

[Mountainman]

32. Stop taking long drives on the weekends.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

33. Probably Starbucks....

And I might take toll-free Interstate 95 as opposed to the Florida Turnpike to work.

[taught_me_patience]

35. Eating out for sure

I've already cut back on that one. Others include:

Concerts
Sporting Events
Movies
Vacations
Golf

The prices of these things have really gone up over the years.