I think I’m going to work on cutting our family living expenses for 2025.
It’s not that I feel we had excessive spending last year, but when I saw how much we spent on interest last year, I had a renewed desire to get our debt paid down. What a difference the interest rate makes…
Our monthly typical monthly expenses include food, heat/cooling, power, TV/internet, and gas. Not much fluff.
Where do I even begin to cut expenses if I don’t feel like we had many “foolish” purchases last year?
What to Cut
My first thought for saving was eating out. When we go to a big town to get parts, occasionally drop cows at the sale, or go through a big town as a family we treated ourselves to fast food. How much would we save for the year if we packed a cooler instead?
Starting as we prep for calving, we typically go to Costco or Sam’s Club to stock up on packaged snacks. Then we continue to keep the stock through planting, haying, and harvest. It would be significantly better for our health to not be on packaged snacks and I wonder if it would save us money switching to fruit and baked goods, if it would be a wash, or if I would end up spending more money?
If it was up to me, I could easily cut our TV package! I wouldn’t miss it and would be excited to mark that as money in the bank. Kyle isn’t on board at all so we’ll be keeping the TV for now.
Thinking through our summer clothes inventory, we all should make the summer with no new clothes purchases. I’ll see if the kids’ feet grow and we have new shoes to buy; then again it feels like they would rather be barefoot all summer anyway!
Margins Feel Slim
It doesn’t seem like there is anything obvious to cut. It feels like we were already running a tight ship, but I’m excited to see if watching our food expenses can make a bigger difference than I think it can.
Perhaps, when I’m tempted to buy something that falls in the gray area of we need it, I’ll choose to pass for now.
I would love to hear from you if you found an expense or area of expenses that you were able to cut!
PS — You’re welcome to join the “challenge” and we’ll see how much of a difference we can make together.
The Comments
Shaye Wanner
I started packing my own snacks and lunches for road trips last year. Not that we leave the farm that much, but it probably saves us a few hundred dollars in the long run. Gas Station food isn’t cheap and I prefer to be in control of what I put in my body. It takes more prep time, but I’ve found it to be beneficial for my health and checkbook. Kennedy Younggren also known as the LegenDAIRY dietitian has some AMAZING tips for eating healthier as farm and ranch families. I also just stopped buying some of the packaged food so it forces us to eat healthier. Not always convenient but worth it in the long run.
chelsey
> Shaye WannerI’m on the verge of really jumping in for the health reasons also. Saving money plus taking better care of our bodies sounds like a win-win. Now to make it happen…
Denise Pardee
Sandwiches can be a good filler with lots of tasty varieties. Changes of bread, meat, dressings, veggies, pb&j, grilled cheeses, the list goes on. My parents and I ate sandwiches all the time. We never ate out on the road. My mom packed sandwiches. Always!! Healthier than hamburgers and donuts. lol! Good luck!
chelsey
> Denise PardeeThanks for sharing this! So encouraging to hear from someone that has made it happen!
Tracy Bishop
Hi
I’m an old farmer’s wife. 🤣 We are retired now.
I really believe that you can save money making snacks. There’s a young mom in our area (Wheatland, CA) that has a page you should follow. She makes lots of healthy snacks for her kiddos. She also deals with food allergies with her littles. Give her a look…
https://www.instagram.com/shine_mamas?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
In a past life I was a 4-H rep with the Ag Extension in two of our local counties. We had a program that taught children healthy recipies to make at home. It was called Cooking Academy. This is the entire booklet but search out the recipes. They are fun to do with kids.
https://ucanr.edu/sites/UC4-H/files/338789.pdf
You can also get an idea of our lives now if you watch my husbands YouTube channel, Failure at Retirement.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCNLTqOL21jr3aBUVNySJtA
Keep farming! 🥰
Tracy
Wheatland, CA
chelsey
> Tracy BishopThis is all so helpful! THANK YOU for taking the time to leave all these resources!
Lori
I am a farm wife as well. We are at different stages of our lives but I enjoyed reading your articles. I am an empty nester but with the farm economy, saving every penny is very important. For several years I have been writing down every penny we spend, keeping family living expenses separate from farm expenses. I have 25 or so categories and misc catches the odd expenses. I can tell you to the penny what we spent on most things. I would love to keep following your posts.
chelsey
> LoriThis is really encouraging! Thanks so much for taking the time to share! I really see that the more aware I am of our spending and the less “mindless” spending I have, it adds up to be significant.