[djmcmath]

I've been in rough places a few times. Growing up, it was years on end. My Dad raised 3 kids on about half the salary I had coming out of college. Some things we did:
Macaroni and cheese, ground beef, home made meals from the low-end supplies. Cold cereal is more expensive than pancakes, if you make the pancakes from scratch. Count pennies, because every single one is worth watching.

No new clothes. Hand me downs. Goodwill, or equivalent local thrift stores.

No new furniture -- hand me downs, local thrift stores.

Garage sales. In some places, garage sales are like charity events, without all the hooplah and "Look at me I'm a generous person!" nonsense.

Utilities are a bear. Don't use the A/C. Ventilate the house at night, when it's cool, then close all the windows in the morning and keep the sun out. Should stay reasonable until mid afternoon. Cell phones are right out, of course. So is cable, and high speed internet. If you must have the internet, use dialup.

Dry your clothes on a clothes line. Wash your dishes by hand.


That's all that's coming back to me off the top of my head. (shrug) I guess if I really needed to cut back on the budget, I could go a long ways.

Good luck,
Dan