What have you cut back on?

I haven't cut out subscribing to this site: http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/ It's worth it to not have the ads.

 

Make your player region-free.
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks

 

I moved to a third-world country. Obviously I wouldn't recommend that as a way to cut costs, but it's worked a treat for me.

* Rent actually went up $100/mo. from my last place, but it's a choice location and a 5-minute walk to work.
* Said 5-minute walk negates all car-related expenses (fuel, maintenance, insurance, etc.). I might spend $30/mo. on cab fare, and that's on the high end. Not having a car is surprisingly liberating.
* Going with a cheap-o, pay-as-you-go cell phone instead of a Verizon plan saves me about $50/mo.
* Schlepping all this way forced me to cut out runs to Borders, Best Buy and any other book/movie/music stores. That's at least $200/mo. right there.
* Cable isn't all that expensive ($40/mo.), but I'm leaning toward dropping it anyway. I only watch a small portion of the channels, and very rarely is there anything worth watching on when I get home.

Not eating out will have to wait until I can figure out how to cook something that doesn't require boiling. I refuse to cut out travel -- I've grown to loathe this city, and I need all the time away from it I can muster.

 

Wait, your wife won't let you get rid of the Playboy channel? How exactly does that work?

 

I'm assuming very well.

 

Moved across town into a house my friend bought ... I rent the upstairs apartment, which is separate from the downstairs (have my own entrance, etc.). Rent is $50 a month cheaper than at my old place, and I'm on a month-to-month lease so I don't have to deal with any ridiculous fees to get out of a lease if I choose to leave town.

My cable/internet bill at the old place was $115/month through Comcast. We split Dish now ($30/month per person) and Verizon internet ($21/month per person). Electric bill about the same as it was. I have a bigger space in a nicer part of town, so it's worked out.

Cut my Netflix down to one-at-a-time from three, but that might be cut altogether once I get done watching Season 2 of Mad Men. Just not using it as much as I did.

I'm going out about as much, but I drink cheap (go PBR!) and I'm friends with most of the bartenders at my haunt, so end up getting pretty good deals most nights.

Waiting for basketball season for the freelance money to supplement the regular income.

 

I only bought one piece of furniture for the apartment I moved into 10 months ago. I also gave up cheese. Not sure which one has saved me more.

 

Did a little research, and my brand of Sony is apparently unhackable --- or the hack is not permanent, and after 5 hacks the machine quits working. Not going to go there, based on what I read.

Also, it may not be simply a "region" problem. Reading further, it seems the problem may be a PAL vs. NTSC issue, amd what she is downloading is in PAL format.

And Region 1 DVD players almost never can play PAL DVDs both for reasons of Region locking and because the great majority of Region 1 DVD players have had their PAL playback ability disabled, not to mention the fact that most NTSC display devices cannot display PAL images.

 

Not quite, but I could grow a Zach Galifaniakis beard in about a week.

 

I can honestly say we haven't cut out anything in the past year, at least intentionally. And that's even with my wife quitting her job to stay home with our new baby.

We lived below our means anyway, so that helped.

Another thing that helped ... and this is going to sound crazy ... is having the kid. We don't spend as much money on going out to eat or going to the movies because we just don't have time. Yes, we spend a lot on baby supplies, but I think we're breaking even with the not ever going out, ever.

 

So you're saying you've cut back on tact?