Do you live more frugally these days? What have you cut back on or cut out?

Hello! Karen! You are doing the wise thing by saving on lot of activities like not dining out or saving your electricity. I also do not like spending unnecessarily. I also do not prefer going out to watch a movie in a theatre or going for dinner outside. I also try to save electricity and water, as much as I can. I also try to read old magzines instead of buying new ones. Good Post!

That sounds like awesome ideas and tips. I am frugal by nature and love the spirit of saving and being frugal, use coupons when I can, freecycle and enjoy requesting freebies when I can, however only the ones I can actually use. I started using skype long time ago to call my relatives and friends overseas and estimate that we save around $30 in international calling a month. That has helped us quite a bit. When we do skype we always use a webcam that makes the whole experience much better. When eating out (we do allow ourself this once in a while as we do not really have any family or relatives close) but when we do we try to use coupons or any other promotions and usually only order 2 entrees and an appetizer, we are only 2 adults and a teen - thats usually plenty of food, the servings at many restaurants are usually huge anyway - we don't see any sense in bringing home the boxes then rather just order what we eat and share the food.

This recession has not been that hard on me... because I have lived frugally for 30 years. I know how to save and how to economize and how to spend money wisely...and I learned it from personal experience. This last year I have bought more things than I have in 30 years put together! Prices are really low and I have hte money - for the first time in my life I can say those words.. I have the money!! But.. I have not changed how I save, spend or economize. I write a blog about all my "ways" and it has been so profitable all these years.. (the ways I used, not the blog!). I also learned a different way of life.. like.. why go to the theater? I guess for a date or something like that, but just cause you have to wait a few months to see the new movies, won't kill you! To me, it is much more fun to rent the DVD and have a family night with all the trimmings than to go to the theater and have to spend a ton of money on the snacks (not much fun watching without snacks) and then if you need to "go", the movie doesn't stop, but the DVD can! And so many other "reasons" why home movies are better than theater. These days they are on DVD after about 3 months anyway! And you can buy the DVd and watch it over and over if you want to.. can't do that at the theater! I have eaten out more this past year than my entire life I think! I found the resturants that have the best meals for the lowest prices... like early bird specials, coupons for buy one get one free etc. My only problem is I can't afford a home.. oh I qualify for $350,000 mortgage loan but I can only afford the payment on a $250,000 laon and homes at those prices are trashy, crummy, delapidated old places in less than "nice" parts of town!

i have always had to live frugally so w/the economy being so bad it hasn't been near as bad on me as i'm sure it has alot of people. U have really cut back & that's good. I did alot of that 4 years ago when i had to quit work,

We are cutting back on gas, electricy, meat and extras. We are careful to repair what we can and not buy replacements. We are luck because Hubby was raised on a ranch in Texas and is very handy.

Because of the worldwide recession and inflation, I also made adjustments regarding my lifestyle. In the past, I always dine out and go watch movies every week in the mall. Also, when I buy clothes before, I did not care about the price even if it was really expensive. But now, I just watch movies at the mall with friends once every two months. Now, I just dine out once every two weeks. Lastly, when I go shopping for clothes nowadays, the first thing I do is look at the price. If it is too expensive, I don't buy it anymore no matter how much I like the design. I also don't buy that much clothes anymore as I used to.

Being a person who is addicted to shopping, I have just had to stay home, I am not the type to like window shopping and not used to to just looking, so I just stay home a lot and play with my friends that live in my computer....

well we have lived frugally for a long time and now its even more important because my hubby has been out of work since August. we visit the library a lot, use thrift stores, make inexpensive meals as well as staying home more.