May 2007 Weddings
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Poll: Cost Savings
What things do you do to cut costs/save money/cut back?
Have you always done those or are they new(er) additions?
Does the economy have anything to do with them? If not, what caused you to start these habits?
Re: Poll: Cost Savings
What things do you do to cut costs/save money/cut back? we have been eating at home A LOT more...and we have been using our food saver too which helps a bunch. We don't do things often. We are starting to do things that don't cost much like hiking or just working around the house.
Have you always done those or are they new(er) additions? the eating at home is older, but the not doing things that cost money is newer, especially now that the weather is getting nicer
Does the economy have anything to do with them? If not, what caused you to start these habits? the economy has everything to do with it besides it's good habits to start
What things do you do to cut costs/save money/cut back? We've been a little more diligent in watching for sale items at the grocery store and have been careful to turn out lights and not leave things plugged in that don't need to be plugged in.
Have you always done those or are they new(er) additions? Most things we did do, but the sale items is kind of new (we don't necessarily buy the brand we're used to now).
Does the economy have anything to do with them? If not, what caused you to start these habits? The economy may have had something to do with it but it was more looking at our budget and thinking "We could save a lot more!"
What things do you do to cut costs/save money/cut back?
--We use an Excel spreadsheet as a check register and plan out expected costs a month in advance. (So we see what?s leftover AFTER all the bills are out for the month, not just what?s left-over week-to-week.)
--We have set up and are changing over one of our savings account to online accounts so they automatically will withdraw money from our checking each week. (We used to just withdraw the money from an ATM and then eventually deposit it when we finally got to the bank.)
--We plan meals at least a full week ahead before grocery shopping (trying to get up to two full weeks at a time so we get all that we can now for the next two weeks and then just have a very small, usually produce only stuff later in the week since produce won?t last two weeks.)
--We take a calculator and add up what we?re putting into our shopping cart to make sure we?re on budget. (This stops us from adding impulse extras into the cart.)
--Eating out comes out of our food budget as allotted by our budget..
Have you always done those or are they new(er) additions?
--Excel spreadsheet we?ve done since we got married.
--Savings accounts have changed to online accounts with automatic weekly withdrawals. (This means we won?t have the cash on hand to ?borrow? from.)
--We always made a grocery list, but never planned WEEKS at a time out in advance.
--The calculator is new ? I used to do it when I was a teenager and shopped for my mom.
--We didn?t always pay attention to how much we spent TOTAL on food.
Does the economy have anything to do with them? If not, what caused you to start these habits? Somewhat: I know my job is in jeopardy (more so than ever) and we want to be on better financial ground when I do lose my job since finding a new job is TOUGH (especially to start out at even a remotely similar salary). But we also are starting to save more for things like a car, a house, etc., and knew we couldn?t get those things without evaluating our spending.
What things do you do to cut costs/save money/cut back? We put together a budget and stick to it each month. We have also cut way back on eating out...and when we do we are aware of how much we're spending. When I go to the grocery store I've planned all my meals for the week around what's on sale. Also instead of going out for drinks with friends we'll have them over to our house or go to their house to hang out.
Have you always done those or are they new(er) additions? We've always had a budget but never really followed it all the time.
Does the economy have anything to do with them? If not, what caused you to start these habits? Yes because I'm going to be losing my job...but it's also because we're saving everything we can for when the baby comes.
What things do you do to cut costs/save money/cut back? We bring lunches to work with us, we don't eat out nearly as much as we used to, we started a budget and are doing a good job of sticking to it
Have you always done those or are they new(er) additions? These are new additions since moving into our new house.
Does the economy have anything to do with them? If not, what caused you to start these habits? The economy sort of has something to do with it, but it is more because we bought a new house and we want to have a baby soon so we are trying to save as much as possible beforehand so I can stop working when we do have a baby.
What things do you do to cut costs/save money/cut back? Shop sales/cut coupons, eat out less, bring lunches, play the Wii more to prevent being bored.
Have you always done those or are they new(er) additions? We used to go bowling/see a movie/ go to the batting cages but instead we will play the Wii or go for a walk more to save money. Besides that I've always been HUGE at shopping for sales and such.
Does the economy have anything to do with them? If not, what caused you to start these habits? More the baby coming then anything. It's amazing how much we have been able to save with eating out less and following a budget more. We both want me to be a SAHM so saving now for us is more important then ever.
What things do you do to cut costs/save money/cut back? We don't really eat out much and when we do it's usually to not very expensive places, almost always bring our lunches. We are not going on a big trip this year, just to Vermont
Have you always done those or are they new(er) additions? For the past few years we have been trying to do this. I have to try to get my clothes, etc spending under control. I just love to shop.
Does the economy have anything to do with them? If not, what caused you to start these habits? Definately the economy but we also really want to buy a house and have a baby so that has a lot to do with it also.
What things do you do to cut costs/save money/cut back? I try to mostly shop sales for both food and other items. I also cut coupons and am a member at CVS so I get extra care bucks. We also have a Costco membership, which saves us a ton on meat, cheese, cleaning products, and cat litter.
Have you always done those or are they new(er) additions? We've being doing all of the above for about a year now, except the CVS thing.
Does the economy have anything to do with them? If not, what caused you to start these habits? No, the economy doesn't have anything to do with them. We're pretty frugal anyhow (or so we like to think), so I suppose that is why we started the above habits. I love a good sale.
Instead of going out to dinner one night a week, some weeks we've been cooking at home. Been more conscious about clipping coupons and using them at the grocery store. Bringing lunch and/or breakfast to work.
It's a combination of the economy and the babies coming.