How many days can I go without spending money???

[Koolaid]

I'm so sorry to hear about your situation. I hope things turn around for you.

We're a single income family because of my autistic son...and it is hard but there are tons of things we live without because we can't afford it. Just remember there are lots of things you can do for free as a family...you don't need to spend money to have fun!

[NuCoupon]

It doesn't hurt to shop around for insurance. We had a broker for car insurance that my husband used for YEARS before we got married. His insurance was very high. Finally I called around and got a quote from TD that was $1,000 less than the broker offered him (same type of coverage). When he emailed her asking if she could beat the TD rate, she never emailed back. This is after years of working with her. His email wasn't rude either. It just stated, "I got this rate. Can you beat it?" So, even if you've worked with someone for years you can't always trust them unfortunately.

[forestry]

If your part of another organization you may get cheaper insurance. For instance I insure our vehicles through Anglers and Hunters and have our life insurance through the Knights of Columbus. I saved about 30% on both because they are both in group plans. Just some ideas for you.

[lilo0003]

Kudos to you for sharing. I have no doubt you will inspire many of us to do the same. I think the tips and support here will be invaluable as you face this financial hurdle. As for insurance a broker is a good idea and lok to putting all your insurance with one provider. Don't forget to consider if you have coverage from work. Be careful about canceling as the rate will go up. DH once accidentally cancelled ours and it was two years before I realized we were still paying the policy that should have been cancelled and had no life insurance Thankfully we were able to get reinstated but the costs had increase.
I am always inspired by the no spend threads
I think SDM may think I am in jail as my credit card statement today was 22.98. It was kind of nice.

[jocelyne2]

I'm afraid we received some terrible news last week about huge debt we were unaware of (Real Estate fees from my husbands company.) We are talking THOUSANDS. Its amazing though how much we just cut out of our budget over the weekend.It seems like my coupon addiction or hobby has now turned into SURVIVAL. We are still working on our budget.Right now we are questioning life insurance. How much is too much for a family of 5. If you have a family this size and care to send me a message stating what your family was convinced they needed I would be so grateful. We are paying an outragous amount and I think our insurance investor is taking us for a ride. We will get that worked out too. So in the meantime I'm going to see how many days I can go without spending anything. Right now our house is full of food and because of all the deals I learned on SC I really can't complain. Thank you so much for your help. Appreciate you all more than you'll ever know.

Sorry to hear about your problem hope things turn around for you soon ...be strong ....as for the life insurance don't make the same mistake we made ...we got regular life ins at first and we were paying out the butt for barely any coverage ..Getting a temporary in my opinion is the way to go the fees are low for the first 20 years then it goes up big time but when you really need it is when your kids are young not when your 60 lol...We pay 110.00 a month for 700,000 coverage between the 4 of us 300,000 each us and 50,000 for the kids ...I know 50,000 high but it was the same price as 10,000 hahaha

[avoncallingu]

Good luck! Don't forget there are food banks and some churches offer "Friendship Meals" or food store GCs.

[schwarzie]

I can't speak for the insurance, I agree with everyone else on getting a broker, they can shop around and get you the best rate out there.

Other things you can do to save $$ (some are already listed)

Unplug all appliances you aren't using and only plug in when you use them.

Turn your furnace down at night and during the day if no one is at home. I paid about $60 for a programmable thermostat and I have it set to go down when I leave for work and come up again about 1/2 hour before I come home. It also goes down at night and back up in the morning. I put a sweater on the dog during the day, LOL so he is fine.

Track all of your expenses for a month. And I mean EVERYTHING. If you haven't done this, you might find that you can cut back on those little expenses that you don't realize. I know when I did this, I found I was spending over $150 a month on lunches out (not even expensive ones) and Diet coke. It was very revealing. Even being lazy and going to 7-11 for convenience rather than RCSS for sour cream etc. made a huge difference (RCSS is only down the road, that is just being lazy).

Cutting your cable bill, although having said that, if you can't afford to go out, then maybe the money you put towards the cable bill might be a worthwhile expense.

Go on the jar system. Gail really has something there. I am single and have a satisfactory amount of disposable income, but I use the jars anyway, I like to keep my money, not waste it away which I was doing before the jars. When it runs out, it runs out, even if I have money in the bank. This also helps you plan for future expenses. When a birthday is coming up, you don't spend the clothing and gift money like you could because you know that you can carry that money over to the next month in anticipation.

Just some ideas.

[2010ontest]

I'm sorry to hear that also.

Some period are more difficult than other. But this is time to be creative with the stock you have already. Look at all your "other money" like $avvy$hopper talk in her thread if you need something really essential.

Plan your trip when you use the car to combine all your shop, appointment, ect in a single trip to minimise fuel spend.

I saw you have 3 teens, explain the situation to them. So they could understand your reaction if you become impatient because of this situation and they also could help you and your hubby in one way or an other. This is important to stay strong all together.

I'm sure you will found a way to pass this hard time.

[wolfwoman]

I am truly sorry to hear about your situation. At one point in my life we were actually taking rolls of toilet paper from gas station restrooms as we couldn't afford it! We would get packets of ketchup from A&W too. This is a situation when a LARGE stockpile is a blessing. Use the jar system for cash, it really works. Save up any and all bottles to return. Amazing how much you can get for them. We saved up for a year, filled up a 4-horsetrailer and got HUNDREDS in return! Unplug all electronics when not in use( including the stove and dryer), they use electricity when plugged in. I hope your situation gets better and keep in touch with us. CHIN UP!

[danip467]

Maybe an independent insurance broker who shops for life insurance for you, at the best rate, may be the answer right now.

Good luck with everything.....

Totally contact a broker. We did this last year switching from state farm to a broker. We were able to double our coverage and even ended up paying a bit less.

[NovaScotiaGirl]

Good luck and sorry to hear of your circumstances but you are already prepared to cope and move on because of your already frugal ways You will come out on top for sure. And all of us should think what if and do the same as you but before the hammer comes down!! Thanks for the reminder to keep our heads in the game and not get to cozy in our situations. take care.

[minouchefreedom]

check if your insurance has a loan possibility.........mine does......and I have used it many times to bail myself out of a bind! The repayment of the loan can be tagged onto our policy payment, and that can be done as interest repayment only.
This way you can pay of that debt, and still be frugal and repay the loan on the insurance policy.
For me if I kick the bucket, the loan is deducted from my total insurance policy paid out........and a few thousand will not harm the now grown up kids.....lol!!

[minouchefreedom]

Check with your morgage holder if you can either get a better rate, and or remorgage and extend your morgage term back to a longer time period, so that your disposable income is freed up to pay other costs of living.
At a later time you can renegotiate it back to faster payment off times period.
Survival is important and sometimes it is not always the best thing to be paying an arm and a leg to try to pay off a morgage at a faster rate, if it means that you cannot make other ends meet.

oh and good luck, some of us have been there before........and are still struggling .........ak!!

[jonesy]

Life is tough at times and it gives us the opportunity to show just how tough we can be.
We don't buy coffee or lunch out, we always bring what we need from home.
I make a big pot of soup once or twice per week using what's on hand. Split peas, lentils, diced tomatoes, onions, canned beans, small size pasta... anything goes as long as you bought it cheap/with coupons.
My kids have paper routes so that they can buy for themselves the things we can't afford. We also make sure they save as much money as possible. We take our trips to the bank and they watch their bank book balances grow. They are proud of their hard work and look after what they have because they know the value of it. He has a thousand dollar drum kit that he paid for himself. She has an iPad 2 that she paid for herself at 12 yrs old.
We also get all the leftover coupon booklets so that helps with saving money when we shop.
We don't exactly go without what we need, but we have nothing leftover to take a vacation or buy anything just because we want it.
I cross my fingers that our future will be comfortable, but you just never know. Good luck to you and I hope you find enough great ideas to get yourselves through this tough time. You can do it!

[marseille-2007]

I use to have insurance with Transamerica and it costed us an arm and a leg. We meet Primerica, through a friend and ever since then our life insurance was made for our needs and not our wants. They evaluate your realistic needs (age, # of kids, morgage, depts and so on) Not only did they help us with our insurance but they help us out with our depts. Making it realistic to pay it off in a short time without making a huge whole in our budget. Give them a call you'll see they helped every one I have recommended.