Saturday, March 28, 2020

Things I am doing to save money..........

I want to clarify first that we are fine financially, however what worries me is that we don't know what is going to happen after this pandemic ends; or even when this pandemic will end.  So I feel for the moment it makes sense to tighten our belts on our outgoings and try and save where ever possible until we see how things pan out.

The first thing we did was do up an excel spreadsheet of all our monthly outgoings.  When I did that I realized I could save some money if I did a couple of things.

1. Cancel our weekend newspaper.  It's a want not a need at the moment, and with watching so much news online and on the tv, we have no need for the newspaper as well.  Saving $20

2. Try to lower our internet/cable/telephone bill.  Did that and will end up saving $35+ a month.

Doing both of those things, which took me half an hour means a savings of $55 a month.

In Ontario we now have off peak hydro/electricity rates all day, seven days a week for the next 45 days.  I am hoping that will be extended, but meanwhile I will take what is offered.

The weather is starting to get better, so I am hanging out my laundry.  Some people can't/or are not allowed, but if you can, hang out your laundry and that will save you even more money.

Cooking from scratch. With all the restaurant closures due to the pandemic, other than ordering in, cooking from scratch is the way to go.  I am hoping to give you some easy ideas on homemade cheap meals as the weeks progress.

I cut/shaved my hubby's hair on Friday.  I do this regularly anyway.  With the hairdressers being closed now would be as good a time as any to try your hand at that.  We bought a one similar to this one and it works great. At $20 a haircut, we were saving money by the time I had cut/shaved his head twice.

What are you doing to save money during this trying time?  Looking forward to hearing about your great tips.


8 comments:

Caree Risover said...

I was planning on cancelling a credit card that I use to pay for my petrol on but has a small monthly fee attached in return for cash-back. As I can’t see me using anything like enough fuel I thought I’d cancel it, but have just had an email explaining all the difficulties in getting through to the Customer Service Helpline now that the Bank has closed its branches, staff are self-isolating, etc.. Looks like my grand idea might be frustrated!

mamasmercantile said...

Great savings and a good plan to start cutting back on expenditure now. Who knows what the end of this pandemic will bring, stay safe.

Evelyn said...

Just simply being at home all the time is saving gas money

Jackie said...

Great frugal moves.

God bless.

Angela said...

I've been cutting my OHs hair for sometime now. It has saved quite a bit of money. Nce all this is over, many of us will have learned new skills.

LoriF said...

Looking forward to some easy recipe ideas of things you can make with a bag of coleslaw, two burritos and 7 strands of spaghetti...but seriously...I agree about ordering out, but I often laugh about the "eating healthy " afficionados. Wish I could afford to! I'll be here with my coleslaw and burritos...
Caree, if you do some research online, I think you'll find some good articles about credit cards that do NOT charge annual fees, and which still provide good benefits. And everything these days can be done online.
Evelyn yes!! I'm loving that. That alone has probably saved me $40 this month.

Chris said...

I'd be interested to know how you managed to reduce your cable/internet/phone bill. Short of reducing the number of channels I have (a basic package and I really need to have them right now) I have to fight every few months to keep my payment the same as it keeps getting increased!

Susanne said...

We are definitely saving money by eating out of the pantry more. My hubby is complaining that he can now feel his hair growing long over his ears. In the past he has let me trim the back on the nape of his neck, but I'm not really game to try and trim over his ears. We will see how bad it gets. I had just gotten my hair cut the shortest I have had it in years, so I'm willing to let mine grow and grown.

And thanks for the reminder to do something about the cable bill, we need to look into that.

{{{SIGH}}}

Tuesday was a mixed bag type of day. Had the appliance repair guy come again to install another circuit board in the fridge.  When hubby got...