I am trying to decide what expense to cut, now that the first one is successfully out of the way. At least mentally, in reality its done the 7th and will produce an $8 refund.

Two expenses that are convenient but not quite necessary are the daily newspaper and our second phone line.

We have the second phone line because we have dial-up cable. If we drop one phone line its a savings of $20 a month. It is nice to have two lines so if one is online, we can still get our calls. We could do call waiting and have that ability also, but last time we checked it was more expensive than the two lines. Our cell phones don't work at our house or that 2nd line would be long gone. We have to drive 1.2 miles from our house before we get a signal and then we pretty much have it all the way to town. We just happen to live between two foothills in a dead spot.

If I cancel the paper, it will save $14 a month, but since I paid for the whole year in January, this is not an expense that I am currently paying. It would reduce nothing out of the current budget. It would refund money, though, but the year is half over, so not that much, $84.

Even if I were to cancel the subscription I would still buy the paper on Tuesday and Sunday because that is when the store ads and the coupons come out. That is $3 a week. So that is $12 to $14 anyway just for that, depending on how many Sundays and how many Tuesdays fall in a month. I would not save money that way. We do recycle all the shiny paper out of the paper, but the newsprint we save for using in the fireplace. I roll the pages and then fold them into kindling sticks and they really help in starting a fire in the woodstove and getting it burning well. So the paper does have two uses, both to read and an afterlife. And I have also been known to use it as a weed barrier in the gardens. That does not seem like a good item for me to really cut out unless I cut it out altogether.

I do have another source of newspaper for the fire, both my parents and my in-laws get the paper, and my Mom will let me view her ads and take whatever coupons she doesn't want, but I am not always there before she recycles. They have weekly recycling pick-up in town, we only get it once every two weeks. So often it is gone by the time I am over there.

Another choice could be switching our ISP to a discount company like People PC or NetZero, but I hate the ads. There are enough ads on the internet with banners and sidereals on websites without adding another set of ads onto the page. We currently pay $220 a year for our dial-up, works out to $18.33/.34 pre month. We have been with them for 8 years, they are a good local company that never seems to go down. DH wants faster connection, but I don't see how. I don't want to change my main email addy, either.

I'll have to do some more thinking, but I know something can be cut. Somehow. I don't know how much longer our vehicles will last and we really have to save hard to buy a new one.