Home Economics

There was a great article a few weeks ago in the New York Times about budgeting during these touch economic times, and I set it aside to comment on. I can related to the story about homeowners who find themselves buy large quantities of food because of a good price. We installed open shelves a few months ago and unearthed a good deal of food supplies...and discovered we have all sorts of dry goods that we'll never eat!

Tom and I both feel very, very lucky to have what we hope are stable jobs. We were even luckier to have found tenants earlier this year for our house. But now is the time for everyone, lucky or not, to take a step back and look a their home finances.

Recently we canceled our gym membership. I think this is the first time since my college days that I don't have a membership somewhere, but we found ourselves wasting it for months on end. I've been rationalizing that by not paying $110 or so a month, within three months we'll have saved enough for a Wii! On a more serious note, we're hoping to walk the dog more and get back into running, maybe buy some weights off of craigslist.

As for food shopping, we've seen the prices go up and quality go down at our local Shaws. We've been buying more items in bulk, where appropriate, at BJs. I got a big kick out of picking up a three-pack of Chai tea mix. It's the same stuff Starbucks is using to make my $3.78 Chai lattes, and I got at least 20 or so-worth for just $7. Now if only I could find bagels that Tom likes nearly as much as those at Dunkin Donuts!

Tom rediscovered the local butchershop, McKinnon's in Davis Square, where the prices and quality are outstanding. We're still participating in the meat CSA, but find for cold cuts and one-off items that we don't plan to freeze, McKinnon's is the way to go. We ended up dropping the vegetable CSA, feeling that we wasted more than we ate. We recently dropped by Wilson Farms in Lexington, and while the prices aren't complete bargains, the quality and selection is so much better than the supermarket, it's worth shopping selectively.

We sold my car last year and have survived 13 months on one car. This cut back on insurance, taxes and fuel costs significantly, and we were pleasantly surprised at how we dealt with the change. We plan our weekend errands much more carefully now, so I imagine we've cut back in a small way on one-off trips that waste time and gas.

What have you cut back on? What habits have you changed to save money/energy?