Fiscal Cliff Negotiations....Thompson Style!

So unlike congress we here at the Thompson household understand

 INCOME - EXPENSES = NOT MUCH LEFT OVER SO WE HAVE NOTHING TO SPEND

 

 

 

 

Of course since we have actually ACTED like we have something to spend.... we ourselves are facing a financial cliff.  :0)  I don't think we are anywhere in the category of congress and we have no credit cards so we are not really accruing debt, but we have debt to pay off still and none the less we need to lower our spending. Period!

 

So a few nights ago night Dave and I headed out on a date night

(session of congress- which might not be all that different than a regular session? Eh?)

 

And we brought out the BUDGET ( do you hear gongs when I say budget?)

 

And we actually put on paper our expenses-- WELL I had already done it but we looked at it!

 

 

And then we both decided that we had to do something! ACTION! 

Oh wait are you confused Action is NOT generally performed in congress!'

Remember this is Thompson Style!

 

We made a note if it was SET (non negotiable because of pre set terms)

We made a note it is was NEGOTIABLE ( we could tweak or spend less)

We made a note if it was a GONER (cut out for the time being)

 

We quickly cut a couple of hundred over the course of the year--

For instance... we aren't at this point going crazy! 

We are not at a beans and rice/ rice and beans status yet! 

 Although its not a bad plan and if Dave would actually eat rice and beans we would totally go there!

 

But we have a Blockbuster account.  We cut one of the movies thereby saving us $60.00 a year.

We also have a NetFlix Account--

so we lowered it to streaming and ONE DVD out at a time saving us $96.00 a year

(yes, I know redundant but truly I use it for school mostly and the streaming will allow us to cut the big one CABLE)

 

and the big one CABLE (not Internet of course silly people) will save us around $1200.00 a year.

 

A few of those pesky monthly things you sign up for and find you don't really use (Jumpstart, Evanmoor, Club Penquin) will save us another $360.00 a year!

 

Cutting our gas budget (Dave driving the van a min of three times a week (assuming I am not driving very far at all those days!) will save us around $500.00 (plus maintenance and stuff on the old truck!)

a few other things and it equals to about 4000.00 dollars savings this year.  NOW it will not all be saved... we have some medical bills to pay, we owe lovely family members from a previous van repair and a few other smaller things will eat up that "savings"... BUT what it will do is allow us to NOT be quite so paycheck to paycheck.. hopefully!  And it will allow us to get our emergency savings back up.. most were used for medical and a different truck expense--- but we had them!

Anyway... all will not go as we plan.. we KNOW that from experience but still we have a plan!