Now, first may I explain that my idea of miscellaneous expenditures may be different than yours.  What I see as a luxury or a miscellaneous expense you may define it as a necessity.  My husband and I have communicated with one another and came up with our own list of miscellaneous purchases.  These are things we like to have but we feel the money not spent on these items can be used in many other ways (like me staying home instead of working full time).

1.  Cosmetics:  It is very rare that I purchase cosmetics.  I have simplified over the years.  I use a powder foundation, a little lipstick, eyeliner pencil, one color of eye shadow, and blush.  Now, I used to purchase the top of the line cosmetics way back in the day.  However, I guess with age it doesn’t seem like a priority any more.  I purchase my make-up at Wal-greens with their mail in rebates.  You can get your cosmetics for pennies if you clip coupons, watch their sale ad, and use their EasySaver rebate/coupon book.  For example, I purchased a lipstick.  I had a coupon for $.50 off.  There was a free with mail-in rebate for the lipstick.  Guess what?  They paid me $.50 for the purchase.  Check it out!!

2.  Hair:  When we decided that sacrifices were going to be made for me to stay home, hair was one area that was about to make the cut.  Instead of us all getting hair cuts, my husband and son have fallen prey to my attempts to be a beautician.  Now, the cuts are not perfect but they haven’t had to wear a hat….. yet.  I am making progress.  I am studying books from the library and on the Internet.  My daughter and I go every 2 months to get a cut instead of every 3-4 weeks.  I talked to my hair dresser and got the best cut to make the 2 month stretch.  So far so good!!

3.  Clothing:  First of all, new clothing must be at least 80-90% off before I will consider purchasing them.  The majority of our clothing comes from thrift shops, consignment shops and yard sales.  It is very rare that we even go shopping for new clothes just for the fun of it.  We wear our clothes until they are too small or so thin you can read a newspaper through it or belong in church because they are so “holy”.  You can find great items at Goodwill or any other thrift shop across the nation.  I jump for joy when I see the original tags on items in my size!!  We take our slightly used clothing to a local consignment shop.  There we have an account.  Our percentage from the clothing sale is put on our account.  The great thing about this place is that we can make purchases against our account.  So, it feels like we are shopping for free.  We always shop with an idea of what we need.  If we don’t find it, we don’t settle for anything else.  We wait.  We always check the cleaning instructions on the label.  If it says dry clean only we most likely will put it back.  If it is a suit and can not be washed other than dry cleaning we go to the Deaf school.  They have a dry cleaning department in their vocational department.  I can get my dry cleaning done for pennies.  Yippie!! Check out your local vocational departments in your local community colleges, high schools or residential schools for dry cleaning.

4.  Subscriptions:  We no longer take the newspaper.  We borrow from my dad or a neighbor.  It may be a week old or so but it is news to us!!  Magazines are read at the supermarket or purchased at the Dollar Tree for a buck.  The magazines are about a month too old but again the information optained is new for us!!

5.  Cable:  Did you know that cable is not a necessity?  It is a luxury.  We have not had cable for 8 years now.  We haven’t died!  It hasn’t killed us one bit. If it wasn’t for DVD’s our TV would hardly be used.

6.  Entertainment:  Our motto is cheap is good but free is better!  We do not rent movies.   We learn the art of patience by putting ourselves on the reserve list at the local library.  We have at least one movie a week to watch.  We are very fortunate to have a Dollar Theater near us.  They have older movies for$1.50.  On Monday’s the movies are $.50 for parties of 3 or more.  Also, the first showing each weekday is $.50.  During the summer, we go to the movies for free.  We have two movie theaters that run movies at 10am on a first come, first serve basis.  If we are lucky we can see two movies a week for free.  We buy popcorn and a soda one time for the whole summer.  It is a rare treat to have popcorn and a coke at the movies.  We enjoy our library.  They have reading clubs, art classes, knitting classes, computer classes and much much more for the whole family.  We also like to visit our state parks and our local parks as well.

6.  Internet:  This is one luxury we have decided to keep in our household.  It keeps us connected to family and friends through our web cam.  Hey it is free and we can see each other (we have family across the nation).   Email is cheaper than a stamp and a long distant phone call.  The Internet has helped us cut out our home phone because we can communicate through the web for free.

7.  Babysitters:  Ouch!  Do you know the price of a babysitter these days?????  Oh my!!!  I fainted when we hired our first and last babysitter.  By the time we had a dinner, a movie and paying for the sitter we were out $200.  It was a shock to our system.  When our kids were little, we were involved in a baby sitting co-op.  Another couple and us would sit for one another once a month.  We were guaranteed a date with free babysitting.  It just takes good friends and good planning not to pay for a sitter.

Related posts:

1. Saving Money on Groceries and Household Items
2. No Spending Day
3. Facing the Choice to Spend