Cutting Expenses

The money you have has to last until several weeks after you start your next job before a money stream is restored. Frugal living is your friend, but that may mean reviewing and denying some of the things you have done habitually. Almost any aspect of life is available in many categories of expense. Here are some things I used to do before the sucker punch and how they were handled during unemployment.

• Go to movies - if continuing, go only to matinee performances. If the habit is dropped, parts can be replaced with a DVD. Redbox Rentals are OK here. When you were employed you bought a large screen TV and promised yourself that this was cheaper than movies. It is. Use it! Popcorn is far less expensive when prepared at home. If you need pop, off-brand pop costs around $.25 per can. This compares very favorably with the concession stand price of $3 for a small. 
• Sports - A professional sporting event costs a lot. College sporting events are far less expensive. If there are athletic facilities at the local community college, that's a better price again. Women's professional sports are far less expensive then men's. Public park pickup games cost nothing to watch. Participants play with a lot of heart.
• Coffee - Give up fancy drinks prepared by fancy people who give themselves titles. The $5 spent at the BigBucks or the bookstore will buy a 12 ounce bag of coffee. Find your old Mister Coffee machine and brew your own. By the way, before there was such a thing as Mr. Coffee, the size of a cup was standardized at 8 oz. The Mr. Coffee carafe is labeled 12 cups and holds 60 oz. That means that Mr. Coffee changed the size of the cup from 8 to 5 ounces. But they didn't tell you to use less coffee. 1 tablespoon per cup means 5 tablespoons per 8 of the little cups that they mark on the side of the carafe. Use less coffee!
• Food - You cannot stop eating. But since your time isn't money anymore, don't trade back money to get more time. Convenience is expensive. Use it wisely. For instance, a large box of oatmeal (the off-brand is OK) costs about the same as 12 pre-measured foil packages, but holds about the same amount as 30 of the packs. Take the time to do your own measuring. You have enough time.

I may get back to this frugality later and will probably look at rents and mortgage payments in another post. Please feel free to comment with frugality ideas of your own.