Fun to share the good and the bad

The bad is that money is tight, bet you did not know that! Well, most everyone knows that. So, based on my post about fossil fuel consumption I decided to challenge myself. So Jim and I sat down last night and said...Okay, so what if all our expenses were not so cheap, what would we be willing to get rid of. Much like my reflection on fuel prices, so much of what we do and use is so easily available, but what if it were not?
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For the last two months I have been forcing myself to wait to make calls until I was home. Gee, like the five minutes it takes to get from Beltline to my house is going to matter. I thought back to something one of my many therapists told me years ago. Impulsiveness is a sign of immaturity. The "need" we feel to call the newspaper and inquire about an ad while we are driving instead of waiting until we get home is certainly impulsive, and thus, immature by my therapist's opinion.
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It is just so hard, delayed gratification is so much more rewarding than being impulsive, but not right away, and that is what is so hard!
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So back to my reflection on expenditure, what would I give up if it were not so cheap. By the way, I have not closed a deal since December, so we are somewhere past broke. I made a list last night of optional expenses. And as of today this is my progress (talk about putting myself out there and being accountable to the WORLD!!)"
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Cut our newspaper subscription from every day to Sunday only. I will still get the grocery and coupon ads. Did you know if you do not subscribe you get a freebie paper on Wednesday with the ads?? I need the coupons, they save me money. But all we use the rest of the days for are comics (Zach) and puzzles (Jim). You can get those online for free. Plus, newspapers, in my opinion, are one of the easiest ways we, as a society could relieve the stress on our beautiful planet. Monthly savings: $4.89, annual savings $58.76
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Canceled our Oregonian delivery. All I needed it for was the Sunday coupons, but I realized, if I am going to spend a coupon, I am going to want 50 of them, not one, so I always ending just throwing them out. Monthly savings: $8, annual savings $104
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Private School
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We made the decision, and this was THE HARDEST, to enroll Spencer in public school next year. There were reasons other than financial, like the 2 hours per day I spent driving to south Eugene, and the rising costs of fuel (oh, that is financial). Annual savings $4500
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I wrote to the person from whom I lease my billboard and asked him if he had any ideas of somebody to whom I could sublease my spot. That hurt, that was really really hard! I love driving by and looking at it, but it is not making me money and vanity is not a good enough reason to keep paying on it. I have a year left, so if I could get out of it sooner, that would be great. So, if you know anyone who might want to sublease, let me know. It is on the north side of Barger, at the intersection right before Dari Mart in a vacant lot.
Monthly savings: $200, annual savings $2400
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Several months ago I leased an office for my real estate company. I think it has been six months now. Nobody has used it, not ONE time! I wrote to the landlord, asking (similar to billboard), if he had any ideas for a sublease. I only have six or seven months on the lease. But, I will need to have some sort of address for the office, which will have an expense, but it needs to be less than this! Monthly savings: $175, annual savings $2100.
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I dried our laundry outside today. We don't have a line, so I had to do it on hangers which was time consuming. Not sure how much it costs to dry a load of clothes, but it takes an hour to 90 minutes, so it has to be worth something!
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Fuel consumption
This is a big one and as I wrote the other day, we have already cut way back. By not driving Spencer to south Eugene five days per week we should save about $1800 per year. We had considered another private school, which was closer, but still would have been a lot of driving. Annual savings $1800 (based on today's fuel prices).
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I have a few more calls to make and more things to cut. I read a book a while back....they call it creative deprivation. I have other words for it, but they are not fit for my family friendly blog!