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"One of the things that I truly admire about my significant other is that he is very fiscally prudent and has a rock-solid discipline when it comes to money matters. This is a man who, when met with tough times after divorce, ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day for a year so that he could keep his food costs down and still provide healthy dinners for his daughter. So lately, when my budget seems to be bursting at the seams due to over-inflated gasoline costs and rising heating bills, I spilled my budget out on the table and asked him to take a look at it. What was I missing? What did he see that I did not? Plenty. Of course. When he saw my food budget he was shocked. And this was after I already pared it down so much. I argued with him a bit saying that he was used to buying food for just himself and his six year-old daughter (who eats as much as her pet goldfish) and that he wasn&amp;#039;t used to the mighty appetites of two teens and a growing boy (think of feeding a sea of hungry piranha). He argued right back. And I&amp;#039;m grateful. He&amp;#039;s present at a lot of our meals and sees how rich they are in meats, etc. Thanks to him, I&amp;#039;m determined to do much more with pasta, veggies and beans (which they love). I will also incorporate more soups, casseroles and slow-cooker meals (thank you fellow blogger, Kim). I am determined to go from $350 per month to $200. I will let you know how that turns out. Next, the garbage. I pay $60 for trash removal and this almost gave him a heart attack. He pays $75 per year for a dump sticker (I drive a little sedan and can&amp;#039;t fit my trash in it. He will now pick up my trash twice a week for me. What a guy! That&amp;#039;s $60 per month ($720 per year) back in my pocket! Then there&amp;#039;s my gym membership. I hardly noticed it in there hiding. But I&amp;#039;m paying $65 per month for something I barely use, thanks to my commute. I will fill out the forms to cancel today look forward to putting another $780 back in my account. Finally, there was my telephone. &amp;quot;Honey,&amp;quot; he asked, &amp;quot;Why pay $60 per month for a phone when you have great cell phone service in the house and you barely use it?&amp;quot; Peace of mind\u2026I don&amp;#039;t know. He&amp;#039;s right. I&amp;#039;ll cancel it for another $720 a year savings. Just from having a fresh set of eyes, I have begun to save a total of $4,020 per year. Wow! I think I owe him dinner. I hope he likes pasta and beans. Are you willing to have someone take a look at your budget and tell you where to trim? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/a45893/fresh-set-of-eyes-738/>