We Trimmed $2700+ of Yearly Expenses...

So budgeting has been going pretty well so far for us.  Its really the first time we have tried to be really strict about paying down bills and puffing up our savings account.  Surprisingly it is not as hard or stressful as I thought it would be.  Its actually pretty rewarding and I feel like we are living better for it.  Its weird how I actually feel like we are accomplishing something important.  There has been a certain amount of pride with making smarter choices.  

A few of the major changes we have made that are saving us lots of money are:

1. No fast food or other drive thru runs - eating out for lunch or grabbing a coffee here or there was a major hit to our budget.  I've been taking my lunch to work everyday since the beginning of this month (eating better too) and bringing coffee in my travel mug.

Fast food or coffee was about $20 a week/$1,040 annually

OMG over $1000 in fast food and coffee a year, I almost had a heart attack and if I kept eating fast food I just might.  That is just insane when you add it all up annually.

2. Staying out of stores and if we need to go we get the item we went there for and do not buy anything else that.  I'm learning a big difference between WANTS vs. NEEDS.

3. Cancelled our Recreation Center Membership, I use my treadmill and weights in the basement so this really was a waste of money for us - SAVINGS OF $600 annually

4. Cancelled our Cable, this one was a little tricky because we were paying anywhere from $150 - $200+ a month with On Demand Rentals.  We still wanted high speed internet access so we now will be paying $60 a month + $8 a month for Netflix streaming service.

So lets say on average our month bill was $175 x 12 Months = $2,100 annually

Reducing to just internet and Netflix at $68 x 12 Months = $816 annually

That is an annual savings of $1,284

So just with #1, #3 and #4 we have trimmed off $2,924.00 Annually (give or take a few dollars)

Its hard to say we can live without, but when budgeting you need to ask yourself that question "what can we realistically live without" for us canceling these two things was a step in the right direction.  As you can see from the math aspect we made the right decision and are going to be saving a lot of money we could use elsewhere in the budget/savings.