How have you handled the current times?

We have decreased our spending on non-essentials - eating out has definately been decreased.

We have been watching on what we buy too. Trying to save on electricity and water so to save on bills. We are cutting expenses. © ronaldinu 2008

To be honest, we're kinda scraping by ourselves. Food-wise, we're stocked up for a few months due to our saving a can here, a can there this summer. (Plus some cereals and recent purchase of dollar-a-pound-honey from local beekeeper) But we go to the food banks to make ends meet, so if you're not doing that...that might be a good idea. We've been going to the dollar store for the non-food necessities like toilet paper, tampons, dish soap, laundry detergent, etc. There might be a non-food bank in your area too. I've been getting non-neccesary goodies via a barter website to cut down on my temptation to spend money I shouldn't. We've also been trying to keep our electricity usage down.

I combine coupons with sales. I plan our menu around whatever the best deals are that I can find each week. Last week, I was able to get $40 worth of groceries for only $6.00 after coupons. I've been keeping a running total of the items that I have gotten for absolutely free and the value since January is over $1,900 and on some items I've actually managed to get money back after coupons for antoher $97.00. (I also track and make sure I give at least 10% of that away.) My biggest surprise this year was using coupons for clothing. Before school started I got my step-daugher 3 shirts on clearance for a total of $15.00. I had a $10 off coupon - so we got all 3 shirts for only $5.00. That was a big help with with the school wardrobe this year. When my husband needed socks,I got another $10 coupons from Penny's. They had packages of socks on sale buy 1 get one half price. So I got $24.00 worth of socks for only $8.00. Earning gift cards from sites on the Internet has been a big help also. I've earned $500 in gift cards so far this year. I've done lots of things to bring in a few extra dollars each month. All small amounts, but they add up. I've sold books on Amazon, items on ebay and had a yard sale. I also save my change and roll the coins from time to time and then deposit it and put it towards debt. It's kind of like having a part-time job, but for me I consider it a hobby. It's a challenge and I make it fun. I'm still learning, but over the last 10 months I have learned to stretch a dollar a whole lot father than it used to go in our house.

My budget has been pretty spartan for a long while. I have cut back on driving, though, and I've further pared back on my grocery budget. There really isn't any more that I can pare back on.

I havent really bought a stock of food for a year. Foods does have expiration date and I'm afraid that some of them will expire in the same date that I don't want them to be in waste. Maybe you can start plating some vegies in your backyard so you could save some money.