What are you doing to adjust to the higher cost of living?

How is the rising cost of living affecting your life?

Does your current budget no longer work?

Is your paycheck lasting until the next?

What are you giving up?  Meals out?  Presents? Gym member ships?  Clothes?  Shoes?

What won't you give up?

Let's have a serious dicussion about this.  Please no judging other member's lifestyles.  This thread is about what you personally have to do to survive when everything seems to be going up in price.

There are some great ideas in this thread!

(And I learned a new phrase ... "card tart!")

 

 

have finally started to get to farm markets -- able to buy just enough fruit and veggies to keep me going until the next visit -- I have been wasting a ton of veggies because I would forget about them or just not get to them (or, like berries, they'd go bad before all gone)

more freezer meals -- not processed ones, but homemade.  Cook in the crock pot, divide up place in the freezer.  Second time around I use the microwave and don't have to turn on the stove

No, lately our pay has not been lasting til the next payday.  We were contributing to savings each month and then pulling out more than we put in just to get by.

Recently I realized that our big tax refund ealier this year meant that we should have adjusted our withholdings, so I went to irs.gov with our most recent paystubs and last year's tax return.  The new W4's we submitted based on the allowance calculator should take effect at the end of this month.  Between that and getting rid of the GA state income tax withholding (that was erroneously being taken from my pay) we are looking at not having to dip into savings on a regular basis... until gas prices get to $7 or $8/gallon.

The cost of living really affects my life daily.
My husband and I are full time college students.  We are putting ourselves through school and it's really tough.  I have been on my own since I graduated from high school with no help from mommy and daddy.
We don't celebrate holidays.  We don't really spend alot of money anyways.  I walk to work and to do errands like going to the bank or laundromat(i have a lawn cart i put our clothes in).  We have to take the motorcycle most of the time because of gas prices.  Riding for 4 hours on a motorcycle sucks.  It's really painful.
We cannot see our family or friends as often as we would like because traveling is so expensive. 
We need to work as much as possible and get 4.0's.  Education is important.  We do not qualify for assistance (we don't have kids and work too much!) and wouldn't take it anyways.  We'd rather bitch.  Enough people are on welfare as it is.  And they get their damn nails done and tan and crap.  Alot of people in PA abuse welfare.  I come from (what is turning into) a welfare town.
I went grocery shopping last night and seriously almost cried.  Fifty dollars for nothing.  I am more worried about my husband being hungry than me. 
This past winter was horrible for us.  We couldn't turn our heat on and when we did it was only one heater.  We have a thermometer that tells inside and outside temeperature.  Our house was around 50-57 degrees.  We were cold. I got really sick for a couple of months. 
The cost of living sucks and I am just keeping my head up because I know it won't be like this for me forever. 
We do not have credit cards.  Bank cards-debit- we have one of those.  If we can't afford it we will not buy it.
You won't really feel poor until you have to stand outside in a snow storm waiting for the free health clinic to open.

I can't wait to graduate in February!