reduce our monthly expenses

We use a spreadsheet & post everything we are spending or expect to spend, except that each of us has some “petty cash” that we don’t have to itemize. Just writing down everything has been helping us become much more aware & careful. We’re going to keep that up for a while.

I keep debating whether to stop buying a monthly Metra train pass & just use the CTA (bus + elevated train) for my daily commute. The extra $63/month would be nice to have, but there would be several disadvantages. Haven’t made up my mind about it yet.

The other side of this coin is increasing our income. (1) I won (against three other hopefuls!) a large freelance project that will pay me at a higher rate than I have ever charged before, over a period of 6 months-plus. (2) We’re getting ready to create marketing materials for my husband’s business to help him find new clients/projects.

but my husband & I are looking carefully at our income & fixed expenses & will be considering ways to be more frugal where we can. As we come up with ideas that work for us, I’ll post them here.

Yesterday I cancelled our cable TV monthly bill, switched to a cheaper, faster cablemodem plan, and fixed our cell phone plan to avoid overages. Not bad for a single day.

I can see the difference right away, but not a single person has commented. Guess I’ll continue with the free haircut experiment.

My Dad is doing this for me, and he’ll probably adjust the cut each time to be a little better.

I’m taking a deep breath today and trying an interesting experiment. Instead of going to the expensive hair salon I’ve been going to every 4 weeks for 12 years, I’m going to let my Dad cut my hair for free.

I’m figuring it’s got to be so-so, or worse the first time. The real test will be how the second and third times go.