huh
... i guess we're already doing a lot of what others are! we only do our bills online (we only have stamps at xmas time), we turn off lights if we don't need them.. we keep the house at a 78 level all summer/winter long.. we already have programmable thermostat's and i only buy clothes twice a year (i'm not the shopper i used to be! we're so frugal, it's not even funny!).
I've thought about selling the BMW but we owe the same price as a new car would be, so there's not much point in that right now.. unless we were to get like a used toyota or somehting - then we'd probably get back about $15K..something we're considering altho i like having an SUV around (just not the gas prices).
I love the idea of freezing the credit cards but we really don't use our credit cards unless we're traveling - which is an expense we're going to have to cut down (how, i dunno yet). we're going to leave that as a last resort!
I'm not sure if our BMW can take any other types of gas.. i guess i could ask my service advisor but i betcha he's say "no way".. and of course the manual says use supreme but we never have! hahaha
as far as selling things - we have a big garage sale coming up and we have a ton of stuff we could get rid of, that we've gathered TO get rid of..just that i'm not sure i can get even $10 for a work suit (skirt/jacket) that hasn't been worn hardly ever and i'm thinking we could actually get more money by donating most of our, what would be, expensive electronic items like camcorder, old cell phones, cameras etc.. i'm even thinking that i could get a better deal by donating my clothes even vs selling them in a garage sale.. cuz you know how those things go - they want to give you pennies for something that you would think would be worth $5 if not $10 in today's economy (esp when you need the cash!)...
so that's something i'm still mulling over...garage sale or donate & take it off on taxes?? one thing i know is that for taxes, you get 25% of what the value is.. since i haven't done a garage sale since like i was a small thing, do you think it's reasonable to ask for 25% of the value at a garage sale or am i pushing my luck?? from what i recall, people will typically ask to take it for 0.50 if your asking for a dollar!
Amber - you can use florescent bulbs in incandescent sockets?? we have halogen in most of ours - or maybe they are florescent..hmmmm...all i know, is they're tiny things with major heat coming off of them!! *keep in mind, that the florescent i'm seeing is like in commercial buildings where they tend to *flicker* hahaha
man, i wish i had someone around that i knew that did hair and would do my cut/colors for free.. those were the first things to go on the first round of concessions.. i'm down to getting my hair cut every 3 months and colored every 6 months.. it sucks cuz i hate when my roots are growing in and it's like i have this line around my crown! hahahha
selling the cd's/movies is a great idea! there's got to be some consignment cd shops around somewhere - esp since all our music is now on itunes & our ipods...but my VCR movies can definately go cuz we don't even have a VCR anymore!
hey.. anybody want any stuff??? hahahaha
in a sense, i feel like we already are minimized in our expenses.. sure a few more *wants* can go but for the most part, our big bills are doug's commuting costs, business costs, atm fees (which we're working on fixing that!!), car & house...