That is probably the one question I have been asked over and over again...."where did we make the biggest cut to our budget". The answer....ENTERTAINMENT!!!! Yep, that is the way to go.
Our entertainment budget includes: movies (theater and rental), eating out, taking our son places, books, nights away, etc. In our mind, anything that is not a necessity. We love to go out to eat, so that was the biggest cut. And, we did not miss it much. We actually felt better eating at home and the savings were incredible! You forget how much going out to dinner (or even lunch) adds up on a daily basis. I think at one time, we went about three weeks without eating out once. We still did have money on our entertainment budget, so we could go out once in awhile.
I also stopped going places with C and did more at home. I said earlier in another post that we were supposed to go to Monkey Bizness one time and could not because we didn't have money in the budget. It was hard to not go, but necessary.
And, it doesn't last forever. Now, that we have paid off the debt and have our emergency fund in place, we do try to go out a little bit more, but we still reign it in. It is nowhere near what we used to do!
I know..it will be hard, but if you are determined to become debt free things will have to change. You have to cut back on dinner out, movie nights and activities with your children may be few and far between, and trips away will have to go away, but remember that someday you will be debt free and be able to "Live Like No One Else". In my mind, dinner at an expensive restaurant is much less important than retiring comfortably and putting my son through college.
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