The Cost Savings Continue!

Along with Tom bringing breakfast and lunch from home, we're really going to cut down on take-out.  It's kind of necessary because of my new food guidelines anyway but it's also a relatively easy way to save money.  I am guilty of taking the kids out to lunch at least twice a week which, along with "out" food for dinner once a week on average, really adds up.  The lunch will be a much bigger challenge for me than dinner.  I don't mind cooking a meal but I do kind of hate coming up with a lunch menu for my picky little posse, not to mention that until recently, I was all about skipping breakfast and loading up on soup and salad at The Olive Garden for lunch.  Boooooooo to lunch at home but YAY! to the $200 we estimate we'll save on dining out for the kids and me or during Tom's workday.

We dropped some monthly charges, one of which we'll barely miss at all.  I haven't worked out at the YMCA in months and their children's programs were subpar so we decided to cancel our family membership, saving us $77 per month.  Woohoo!  That reminds me -- Tom needs to cancel his membership at his work gym ($20/paycheck) since he never gets up early enough to go and he'd get home so late if he went after work.  Must remind him to do that today.

Lastly, we cancelled our premium cable channels.  We never watched any of the movies and while the kids will miss the HBO Family morning line-up and I really enjoyed some of the HBO and Showtime series (Farewell, Big Love!), they can be happy with Playhouse Disney or Nick Jr. and I can catch up with my shows via Netflix once they come out on DVD.  Dropping those channels netted us an extra $30, bringing our monthly cost savings to a total of -- drumroll, please! -- approximately $347!!!  Along with the $$$ we're saving now that gas prices have gone down since the summer, I'm feeling positively wealthy compared to this time last year.  Buying diapers won't make a dent in our budget now.  I love saving money almost as much as I love spending it.