Bare Bones

calleyw

I read a lot of frugal sites. Mostly US sites. And one thing that they talk about is bare bones frugality.

In other words when it gets really tough what would you get rid of.

So what would you get rid of and cut back on.

For us it would be:

Broadband
Only use the telephone at weekends as they are free. (well 50p a month it costs)
Cut back even further on food
Would say get rid of one car. But already did that as it failed the MOT big time.

I can't really think of anything else. As we don 't have TV or cable telly.

So might be able to save about £50/£60 a month if we are lucky. Over a year that is £600/£720 a year. Better than nothing I suppose.

So what about you.

Yours

Calley

Ticklemouse

Heavens, what a thought! Yes, there are loads of things I could get rid of if I needed to. In fact, when I was a student and then a new grad, I had very little money (surprise eh?:D ) I saw the people who lived in the bedsits around me moan about not having money, but they had enough to smoke and drink etc. At that time, I didn't smoke (not that I do now), drink, go out for meals or nights out very often. I've never been a clothes/shoes addict and all I had was a B&W portable tv.

Nowadays I COULD give up lots of stuff if push came to shove - sky, mobile, broadband, 1 car, alcohol (Mr TM's vice) - oooh, makes him sound like an alcy & he's not:o . I could cut back on food too.

In my defence (well, we have to have one, right?) I need a phone and my car really cos mum is disabled and dad terminally ill so I need to get to them often, ferry them around and they live 10 miles away. I get my only work via internet so would like to keep pc and some sort of connection, but I'd really hate to go back to dial up. I'd like to keep my tv cos I don't go out much anyway and I like some banal entertainment sometimes (OK, I'm a Corrie addict)

Luckily, what we have is paid for (mostly) so I would only be cutting down on service bills.

Ok - final thought - I love my cosmetics/beauty products. I have enough to open a small shop so could give them up - if pushed.

Curry_Queen

What would I give up ....

Well, I don't have much that I'd class as luxury in my life anyway (as I'm on benefits) but in the last 12-18 months I've had Sky installed and upgraded to broadband, which could both go, although I do need to keep an internet access as it's my lifeline to the outside world for shopping, banking and communicating with other life forms

I don't have a car anymore ... I do smoke but long ago switched to tobacco as normal fags are sooooo expensive! ... I have the odd glass of wine on an evening, which again isn't a necessity, but then I don't go out so it's one of my little treats and costs next to nothing ... I buy basic foodstuffs and cook myself so can't see anything there that I could cut back on, not without being a detriment to health!

My main vice is Ebay!!!! ... I could definitely get rid of that to save a few quid :rotfl:

Lillibet_2

I really need to think about this one. We already have only one car which Hubby needs for work I guess we could reduced the insurance to third party if we really had to but I think this would be a very last resort. I don't have a mobile but Hubby does, again for work but it's PAYG & costs about £5 every other month. We are only just getting round to getting home internet as we have previously used it at work but I will be giving up when Spud arrives & I think the savings I make online far outweight the costs, however I guess we could downgrade to dial up or a cheaper deal if we had to.
My one real vice is books, I try to use the libriary but find it terribly out of date & getting hold of new releases is impossible for several years so I buy them cheaply on Amazon or similar but do try to re-sell them & re-coup most of the cost where I can. Our entertainment is mostly free or very cheap, we don't have any pay TV packages & I consder the price of the TV license very good value when you think it works out about 30p per day for round the clock on-tap entertainment. We don't have a daily paper. We take country walks & garden at the weekends & Hubby is researching his family tree & so far has speant less than £30 going back over 400 years.
I already shop around for cheap gas & electric, I am loyal to BT but my dad works for them!
About the only thing I can think of doing is trading in the dog for one that eats less!!

halloweenqueen_2

Theres lots of stuff I've bought over the years that I don;t really need so i guess that would bring in a couple of pounds! I'm only of dial up so would have to keep that for the amount of money that I save using this site alone!:money:
I would ditch freeview and if I had to the tv, but I guess if we didn't have the tv it might cost me a bit more to keep the kids entertained on some evenings! We don't watch it all the time but some weekends we have a family film at home - like a diy cinema evening!
We don't buy cd's anymore as there are so many that come with papers and we copy them from friends , we've stopped hiring videos at £3.50 a go cos if you wait long enough you can buy the dvd for a fiver!!!!!!
I am very tight with the food shopping, clothes shopping etc, apart from using up my life times supply of candles instead of electric lighting I'm not sure what more I could cut back on.

alec_eiffel

A couple of years back I was in a situation where I had to cut back on virtually everything :

Got rid of the car for 6 months - this was the first thing to go, I didn't sell it as I knew I'd probably want it back eventally, I just took it off the road ond got a rebate on my road tax.

got rid of sky tv.

Stopped eating meat and drinking alcohol. In fact when things were at their worst for 2 months I lived on a diet of tea, rice, popcorn and peas. (I didn't eat rice again for over 18 months) I almost wish I had smoked then I could have given up and saved some cash but alas, no.

I stopped going to shops altogether apart from to buy milk, it was a big surprise to me how little I wanted when it wasn't there in front of me.

Got rid of the phone,and internet - used the net at the library and also used this for other forms of entertainment.

To be honest I was surprised how much stuff I had, I was fine for clothes and toiletries thanks to years of over spending and never using and managed to find out about loads of free stuff in my area so I was never bored.

I eventaully got the car and sky back, but alot of the other stuff - like recreational shopping, overeating and going out every weekend never returned. there is still stuff I could cut back on now, but I save really hard in some areas so I can have sky sports and stuff like that.

JCL

I would ditch the TV. Really hate the TV tax but like watching Sky News and Sky Sports News.

Just a shame I can't opt out of the BBC subscription as I never watch their channels.

Other than that I've really cut back on my expenditure.

My football season ticket is going for a year to help me pay off debt. I'm cutting back on food expenditure. Have ditched ntl TV and phone and using VOIP for making and receiving phone calls.

Could probably ditch my car if needs be but enjoy the independence it brings.

Austin_Allegro

I could:

Give up flat and move in with parents: saving of £500 a month.
Give up bus pass and cycle to work: saving of £40 a month
Give up gym/social club membership: saving of £50 a month
Give up eating out/going to pub: saving of c.£50 a month

But life would be a bit dull!

Penny-Wise_4

I worked out that if I got rid of the car, SKY, broadband our 3 cats, I got cheaper contact lenses and took the bus to work instead of the train I could save about £214 a month. :eek:

But:

Car running costs = £113.00

My mum, dad & sister live 17 miles away and Mr Pennywise’s family lives in Anglesey (120 miles away). Train fares to visit them would soon eat up any savings as would bus/train fare for Mr Pennywise to Uni nearly every day and shopping, etc.

Sky = £19.50

This is just about our only entertainment. We don’t get out much.

Broadband = £19.97

Mr Pennywise needs this for Uni course work, etc.

3 Cats = £37.50

Who would keep Mr Pennywise company when he is on his own all day when not in Uni?

Contact lens savings £4.50

This saves me having to poke my eyes every day as I have continuous wear contacts so only have to poke them once a month. To me this is worth an extra £4.50.

Train fare savings £20.00

Getting the bus instead of the train would take over an hour (depending on traffic) instead of just 20-30 mins. I can save more money by having the time to cook from scratch, etc.

Curry_Queen

I purposely didn't count my two cats as they are part of the family and I could never get rid of them :eek:

They hardly cost anything to keep though ... food = £8 a month and cat litter = £8 a month ... also as they are indoor cats I don't need to worm/de-flea them so that saves around £30 a year

furrypig

Wow you lot are really good already!

I have tried reducing the amount of wine I consume, I am not an alcoholic honest but find it very easy to have 'a glass' every evening with my hubby. This is always a bottle gone! So on ave £5 a bottle so am restricting myself to 2 - 3 nights per week only. (plus keeping an eye out for more online wine bargains!)

Don't want to get rid of broadband, would be happy to get rid of cable but hubby loves his sport! Have already changed over gas, electricity and phone. Going to join April Grocery challenge to try and make me plan and budget better. I am really good at hunting down bargains but then forget what I have in/always have full larder but nothing to eat etc etc. So no more will be menu planning and buying what is on my list only!!

You lot are an inspiration to me!

Keep it up and thanks!