Discretionary Income
 

When money gets tight what is the top four things "to go" as far as what you "normally" buy?

Morning Coffee
Lunch Out
Cigars
New Clothes

Re: Discretionary Income
 

money's been tight for me for years.... college which transfered into unemployment so I'd have to say eating out, booze, and yes smokes. I still save up for cigars or pipes here and there but mostly it's singles and small stuff. Also aimless driving goes

Re: Discretionary Income
 

1. Eating 'out'
2. Cigars
3. Gas (limited or only necessary driving)

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Lattes

Golf

Stogies

In that order. And yes, money is becoming a little tighter. However, I am lucky enough to have a job that I believe is secure. When you do something nobody else wants to do, that makes it pretty secure!

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We've cut eating out as well. Trying to limit it to about once a week or less.
Buying in Bulk and cooking meals for a weeks worth of meals.
I try not to buy a bunch of useless crap now as well.

Chris

Re: Discretionary Income
 

Rum(Booze)
Cigars
Eating out



In that order..... luckily it has all been reductions rather than complete cut-offs.

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My Dad once told me to ensure a job and/or good pay I had to be one of two things:

1. Be willing to do what no one else wants to do or

2. Know something no one else knows.

3. Best of all - know how to do something no one else wants to do.

I have cut out a lot of stuff accross the board this year though nothing completely. With cigars, between small buying, trades/bombs out and bombs in, my number stays the same roughly.

On a good note though - I do have an out bound this week :ss

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gas - to go fishing (car)
dry cleaning (iron my clothes now)

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My wife and I are still adjusting to the thoughts of cutting back. We are a bit lucky right now as things haven't gotten too bad yet. But change is coming and I'm very afraid. Soon she'll be jobless and we'll be in expensive VA. I'm sure the first thing to go will be my recent and pricey cigar purchases. After that, will probably be my trips to Starbucks. Finally, we'll probably cut back on eating out. We seem to spend a fortune every time we eat out. It's like an $80 minimum for us anywhere we go. I haven't figured this out yet. Mystery of the universe I guess.

Re: Discretionary Income
 

1) Jade
2) Kristine
3) Tiffany
4) unknown
:r

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http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...flSmileyLJ.gif


Nice!



(As Al sends link to Jade, Kristine and Tiffany) :D

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Well, I dont buy them but they are expensive. Jade gambles too much, Tiffany likes to go eat stuff like sushi and likes nice things, Kristine is my little girl and she spends money like its going out of style. (Tiff is in my profile)

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Mortgage
Electricity
Cable
Food

Need to have money for the cigars!

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After looking at your profile, Tiff should get what ever Tiff wants...money be damned!!:D

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'Eating out' is the first thing to go... as a matter of fact I usually don't have much to cut there since I cook quite a bit at home and we take lunches to work... it saves us quite a bit in the long run...

The second is cigars... as much as I spend on cigars they have to be high on the list to get cut when I need to save!

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Im in the same boat

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In order of disappearance:

1. drinks out
2. coffee out
3. cigars
4. ??

I'm at #4. :(

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-eating out, followed by the "luxury" food items at home
-cigars (not a problem until the humi is actually approaching empty)
-misc. uneeded purchases.

couldn't say what else to cut... I try to be frugal with most things as it is (college and then college loans to pay tends to do that to you).

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Starbucks goes And I brown bag it or starve till supper (usually the latter due to laziness) Clothes drop to a when needed basis but is my normal

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definately :dining out
unfortunately:stogies....have to really shop,and leaning more towards bundles..

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Teaching?:D






Eating out
Cigars
Booze

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1. New "must have" electronic gadgets
2. Concerts and other costly entertainment
3. Dining out
4. Heat (set the thermostat lower)
...
....
137. Cigars

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1. Whiskey
2. Beer
3. Cigars in quantity
4. Books

I still spend on high grade. I also eat Vietnamese at least once a week no matter.

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Oh my God!! How do the Vietnamese feel about this?:r

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When it gets tight I use $20's to light my cigars instead of $100's. I gots to keep my street cred you know.

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LMAO!
:r:r

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hahahaha

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:r:r:r

This wins response of the month... :)

Send me your addy. That was some funny stuff.

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I'm the "go to guy" for handouts and I don't have a hard and fast "this gets cut out" rule. If I have money in my pocket the answer is yes. No money in my pocket and the answer is no.
One exception is that I make sure my daughter has a few bucks via her allowance. We have a standing deal that if she takes care of her education I'll take care of everything else.
She pulled a 96% average this 9 weeks and she's in all advanced classes.
It's the best investment I've ever made, so I pay that bill first.
If there's anything left after bills we do whatever sounds fun, whether it be eating out or just going for ice cream.

This dropping of gas prices makes a big difference, that's for sure.
There's an extra 100 bucks a week available for fun stuff now.

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I never buy clothes or shoes because they eat into my cigar budget. So when things get tight I give up these things:

4. Eating/Drinking out
3. Scotch and High-end Bourbons (I can just drink Evan Williams)
2. Going out (movies,golf,etc.)
1. Non-cuban cigars (they are expensive)

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First the cigars get cut from the budget, then booze goes, then eating out. Generally the first things I cut from the budget are luxuries for myself. Now that I've got my grad school stipend back I've finally been able to refill the stash.

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You are a wise man. :D

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Not necessarily in this order.

1) Ammo and trips to the indoor range.

2) Eating out. That goes for lunch at work and dinner out with just my wife or her and the kids and their girlfriends.

3) Cigars get cut back to on-line purchases only and then lower priced smokes.

4) Booze, I go to the cheaper stuff in higher quantities.

5) Spontaneous purchases of any kind for anybody.

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general shopping (clothes, homestuff, etc.)

eating out

tobacco products and accessories

that's about all my wife and I spend money on, so that's all that really gets cut out

but it sucks, we both like to shop

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Good subject. My first item to leave behind is:

1. Dry cleaning ( couldnt believe I was paying out $50 a month for this )
2. Starbucks ( $5 3x a week $60 a month,,,f'n ridiculous )
3. Eating out ( 3 times a week avg. $20 per meal ,,,$240 a month,,,am I shitten myself? )
4. Cocktails ( 5 times a month,,,,$5 per and if I add the wife $10,,,,$50 a month plus ,,,cmon,,I can buy a bottles of my favorite stuff for that kind of money )

Holy Crap,,,,thats in the neighborhood of $400 a month that is just going out the window whereas I could be spending half that on cigars and still be saving money.

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1. Ammo for the saturday range trips
2. Latte in the morning (I switch to regular coffee or just get it from the work coffee pot)
3. Grey goose vodka
4. Cigars

As you can see all the sacrifices are mine. The wife is entirely too spoiled.

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The #'d meals at fast food. I like to get stuff from the dollar menu and bring my own can of soda. $ 2-3 for lunch vs $6-7 adds up fast.

Clothes - Old and have plenty so anything new is pure extravagance.

My blindly paying the girls cc bills without comment. Have had a few unfriendly discussions of late.

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SUSHI!

used to be a goto favorite for me, now a very occasional treat.

~Vitis