Climbing Out One Family’s Adventure in Becoming Debt-free

When it comes to trimming the budget there can be big cuts like “Sell the stupid car!” or moving to a cheaper house, but lately I’ve been having fun finding replacements for smaller things that add up.

I’m not talking about small things we deemed unnecessary, mind you, these are things we genuinely enjoy. Some we cut immediately when we began our total money makeover, others we gave up reluctantly, and a few we were happy to give up when a replacement revealed itself unexpectedly.

Here are some of the replacements we have found that made a difference in our budget each month.

Netflix ($16/mo) was replaced by our local library. I was dubious about this after walking through the video section at our library and seeing nothing but dusty Nova VHS tapes, but thankfully our county’s library system has a great website. You can search for anything you want, including dvds, from any of the county’s eighty libraries. They then email you when you can pick the items up at your local branch. All for free. Brilliant! Some can take a while to get, but that just naturally creates a queue, much like Netflix.

Both The Wife and I have a love of actually going to the movies as well and instilled that same joy in the kids. Sadly for them Mom & Dad woke up and are broke. Still, we have found two replacements for going to “The Big Movie Theater”. A local dollar theater (sticky floors and bad sound, but hey, the screen’s big!) and since I found Flavacol (available much cheaper than Amazon if you find it in a local store), movie nights at home! The kids love closing all the blinds, turning up the volume and munching popcorn while pretending to be at the movies.

Cell phone minutes can get pricey, but we have paired our plans down by resorting to text messages for most things. Just a quick call about nothing could easily become a five minute chat. Instead, a text message is fast, to-the-point and automatically saved as a reminder to swing in and pick-up that gallon of milk on the way home.

I have been homebrewing for ten years, but like other hobbies that became casualties of a tight budget, it was hard to justify spending money on it while we are getting out of debt. Then out of nowhere I was approached to do some graphic design work for a homebrew supply shop that had no budget. They paid me in supplies and liked my work so much that it is now a monthly arrangement. Yay for creativity!

Date nights have really gone by the wayside but for 13 weeks The Wife and I had a guaranteed night out together that was pretty darned great! FPU as a date night? Why not! I must admit that we haven’t found a continuing replacement for this one since FPU ended. The real cost is not so much the outing, but the babysitter.

Replacements. It is funny to me that these opportunities to save were there all along, but it took a shift in our perspective to put them into practice.

the Dad