The pets, I stock up on their food when its cheap, so I have a freezer full. At some point, when I have enough variety, I stop buying for a few months. We don’t want to compromise on what we feed because we think of it as an investment in lower vet bills. Plus, they are pretty much our only “entertainment’ and right now, they are our babies (until we have real ones!)

Fiance drives to work, which is far. I’m really trying to cut my driving down, I’ve got that as a goal (of course, right now I have no car, so thats helping cut that way down!)

The phone bill was a one time thing. I had a cell phone that was being paid for almost in full by this group I was in. That stopped, so I paid off the last bill (the group paid like 90% of the bill, and I’d been letting the other 10% build for like 12 months since they never bothered me about it or charged me late fees). I wanted to cancel the phone (and did) so I had to pay off that balance. Now, there is no more monthly phone bill.

We’re working on the emergency fund

Thanks for taking the time to read and make suggestions!!!!!!!

Groceries: Take the time to plant a garden. If your weather won’t allow that right now, then do it in the spring. Fruits and veggies. I realize that your dad supplies the produce, but maybe you could work another deal with him for growing some of your own produce.

Pets: A choice. Is that the lowest you can get that cost? Lower feed costs?

Gas: Came down a bit so that should help the budget in Oct. Do you have to drive that much? Are you consolidating the trips as much as you can and driving as economically as possible? Maybe there’s still some room to improve there.

Phone: Seems excessive. But I don’t know what costs are like where you live.

IRA: Glad to see you young’uns doing such an important thing Keep it up!

Make sure you build up the emergency account in case you have another emergency like the freezer.