Cutting expenses.

     So I posted earlier about my trip to Germany and putting away my credit cards.  That is step 1 to saving money and getting debt free.  So beyond putting away the credit cards, I must cut expenses.  So here are a few ideas that I come up with to cut expenses and SAVE MORE MONEY.

1.  Clipping coupons.  My goal is to save $200 a month, shopping sales and using coupons during my shopping trips.  And although couponers say that stock piling is important, I will only buy what we need, unless I can get something for free.  So any cash left in my "grocery" envelope at the end of each pay period will be deposited into a bank account or locked jar that I will break prior to my trip to Germany.
2.  I am going to try to only drive 3 times a week.  I will only leave the house other than those 3 days on emergencies.  This will require planning of errands and such around those three days.  (Driving to and from drill will only count as one day.)
3.  I am going to save half of my monthly allowance every month for my own personal spending money for the trip and/or clothes for the trip.
4.  I am going to eat out as little as I can (we all know that we get those urges to go out) and save any money left over at the end of the month into the jar or bank account.
5.  Any other money left over in my envelope system (except hair cut money that must carry over for me to get a haircut) will also go into the jar or bank account.

     Do you have any other ideas that I can use to cut down on expenses every month?  I will add to this list as I figure out more ideas.

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

     So many of you may know and many of you may not, but Scott, Maggie and I are going to GERMANY for 15 days this November.  We are very excited about the trip for multiple reasons.  Mainly because it will be the first time in over 8 months that we will all be together.  Another perk is that Maggie will get to spend her 2nd birthday with her daddy, despite his deployment, IN ANOTHER COUNTRY!  We are also generally excited about spending 15 days in Germany.  A place my husband has ALWAYS wanted to visit and that I am warming up to.
     But as you can guess this trip is going to be expensive.  Even with the deals we are getting, it will still cost a pretty penny.  And I need to save as much as possible for the trip between now and then.  So you must know a few things to understand how I am doing this.
     1.  I am not working, but I am living with my parents.  I will not be working as I will be staying home with Maggie and going back to school to get my MBA.  Going back to school means I will have an income, especially once I pass my PT test in May, but it will not be much.
     2.  I will no longer have to pay my student loans every month because I can defer them because I am in school.
     3.  We still want to pay off debt.  So the more money we save, and the quicker we save it, the faster we can get back to paying off debt.
     4.  While we have a specific amount of money we want to save for the trip.  We are planning to do as much as we can over there that is free.  And if it is not free, we will try to do it as cheaply as possible.  We have a few things we want to splurge on, like renting a BMW to drive on the Autobahn.  We will take advantage of the activities our resort has to offer as much as possible, especially food.  This is so that we do not have to drive anywhere and because we get 40% off of food that is served in one of the resort restaurants.  And so, we will be as frugal as possible and we hope to come home spending less than we saved and will automatically use that money for either Christmas presents or our debt snowball.

     And so, I will admit to you my problem.  Having access to credit cards and money through several accounts.  So today I decided that if I really am going to save as much money as humanly possible, I must lock up any unneeded debit cards and all credit cards.

     These cards are in my husband and I's names, so they are not all mine, but they are all of the ones that I have access to and COULD use.  So these 8 cards went into a sealed envelope.  On the seal of this envelope I signed my name and dated it.  This envelope was then placed in my lock box with all other vital paperwork.  This will keep me accountable.  And I will do my husband proud and save the money we need and pay off as much debt as possible.  This included paying off the balances on our two credit cards before I ever start saving to go to Germany.  

     So I will do this!  I will live frugally.  I will live only on cash and for gas, my gas card.  (I have another post planned on how I plan on cutting expenses to save even more money.)  

     What drastic measures do you do to save yourself money?