How We Saved $8,450

I was reviewing the bills and our household budget for the past year, preparing a new budget for next year in comparison with our income and expenses. I used an on-line calculator that compared "normal" household expenses with ours. I realize that what some people consider to be "normal" is not normal for us. Our "unnormal" spending habits resulted in an estimated annual savings of $8,450.

Here is how we have not spent $8,450 this year:

1. We prepare our own meals and eat at home. Breakfast, lunch, dinner -- all prepared from groceries that I cook and serve daily. We just don't eat out. A reliable source indicates that the average US middle class couple spends $279 each month on eating dinner out. Since we don't do that, our savings is $3,378.

2. Preparing our own meals includes making lunch to take to work. We do not eat lunch out. Another reliable source indicates that we save $2,080 a year based on the assumption of eating lunch out at the average cost of $8.50 each lunch x 2 of us x 5 days/week LESS $8.50/week for the cost of what we buy to make our lunches for the whole week. (Yeah, it costs about the same to make and bring lunch for a whole week as it does to buy lunch out on one day.)

3. We don't go nuts with media. That is, while we subscribe to services that provide television and internet, we have no-frills, basic services. We get the full range digital & HD channel line-up, but do not pay for subscription services like HBO, etc. We do not pay for "on demand" movies and sports packages. We have high-speed internet, but locked in a three-year agreement that saves about $25/month from what it could have cost us. Therefore, I estimate the savings on television media is $576/year (not paying avg. $48/mo. for extras) and $300 for internet = a total of $876/year. (But don't get me started on the vagaries of dealing with Verizon and their absolutely horrible so-called customer service.)

4. We don't go nuts with cell phones. I have one plain old regular cell phone. That's it -- no other cellular devices in the household. I do not have a data package on my cell, by choice. Therefore I do not text nor receive text messages, or have web-access on a mobile device. I once had that (when my former employer required it). My monthly savings for going "cell only without data" is $68/month, or $816/year.

5. We mow our own lawn and maintain it ourselves. Neighbors spend $900/year on lawn mowing services while we enjoy the exercise and the cost-savings. We also use compost as fertilizer, and spread it ourselves. We rake, aerate, and weed-whack. Yes, it takes time from other things (such as riding my Harley) but it's good exercise, much better for the environment than spreading chemicals, and is cheaper than what some of my neighbors pay $400/year for a lawn service company. So what if our lawn isn't perfect -- it's a lawn, not a golf course.

All-in-all, the savings by eating at home, choosing to reduce media and cell phone costs, and mowing our own lawn totaled $8,450 this year alone.

There are many other intangibles that affect our annual budget. For example, we have zoned heating and cooling, so we only heat or cool parts of our house as needed in certain rooms. We have active solar, which produces electricity and hot water. We estimate our annual savings for solar alone to be about $3,000 in reduced electric and natural gas bills. But that is hard to estimate directly since I cannot measure what we do not consume and some of the savings are offset by increased costs of maintenance on this complex household system. Nonetheless, "going green" does save us a lot of money in the long-run, and saves the planet a little bit, as well.

Life is short: be financially sound.