what have you been doing to cut cost during this bad economy?

I'm a lot like you... I have always been a very frugal person and tried to save as much money as possible and spend as little as possible. I haven't really made many changes yet in this bad economy, but I have a feeling in a month or so after I move I will have to. The biggest change that I have made is keeping my heat set at 60 degrees all winter. I used to leave it at 68 or 70, but I was getting electric bills that were around $120 per month which is WAY too much to pay on my income. I will probably be getting rid of cable next month and stop going out to eat so much.

The things that i have been doing is making sure that there are things that we are not using that we can turn off, just to save abit of money on the electric, also the other things that i do is buy things in bulk, as that also saves money in the long run, even though there is the initial bayout.

I cut down on drinking vodka from 8 jugs a day to only 4. Naw just kidding What I have done tho is cut my rent by moving to a cheaper place, and I shop at dollar stores more. I also use public transportation rather than driving; it sucks sometimes but it's much cheaper! Also instead of going out to eat so much I eat home-cooked meals.

my hubby was out of work for 9 months so we learned how to save a lot of money! we visit the library at least once a week and shop at thrift stores a lot too. we eat lots of soup during the winter and make our own bread.

My "fun time" spending has been reduced pretty much to nil. On the plus side I have enough games and so on to ride out any bad economy.

I've been much better about using coupons when I need to purchase things, but not to purchase things I don't need just because I have a coupon! I'm also trying to be more conscious about how much I spend on gas and going out, that I could feasibly cut back on. I'm doing my best to save wherever I can, and hopefully that will be enough!

Our lifestyle hasn't changed during these rough economic times. We haven't altered our fun times on the weekends if we go to the casino, out to eat or both. We enjoy life as much as possible because one day we won't be able to get around as well and might be limited to what we can spend. Not that many years away from retirement.

Pretty much the same goes for my husband and I. We are both on low fixed incomes, so we spend what we normally spend. the nice thing about being on a low income, is that income can't legally get any lower! Mine's gone up, somewhat, and that's pretty great. My husband and I live in Canada, where the cost of living is lower than where we were before in the USA, so that's another plus.