I think if we cut our income in half, we’d be sunk. I would probably have to get a job at Walmart if that happened. There’s a lot that we would could cut even if that were so. I wouldnt have internet access and we would have to do things a bit differently. But being low income to begin with doesnt make things easy to cut out what we have or do. I would like to hear what others would give up if they had a lot less to work with tho. Very interesting.

I have done this a few times over the years in order to pay off debt or to significantly increase our savings. My first steps are entertainment, energy, food, gasoline and clothing. No cable or dish connections. Internet is via library. Cut electricity by not using the dryer and only cold water for laundry. Make my own soap for laundry. Don’t laundry clothes unless they are soiled and really need it, otherwise use them again. No paper towels and paper napkins and such. Reuse ziplock bags and don’t use foil. Cook only once a day, but cook everything that is eaten in the house. No eating out and buy nothing already made. No bread, no salad dressings, cut meat to 6oz per person per day and use only on sale items. Make a recipe book using ground beef and chicken and tuna and milk as primary sources of protein. Use every leftover food item. Don’t drive unless you have to do so and combine errands to save your time and gas. Buy clothes from garage sales and repair clothing to make it last. No movies or restaurants of course. You will be tired at the end of the day from working and need to use leisure time to keep balancing your income and expenses as you go. Know exactly where you are with your money at all times. Do not spend dimes, quarters without tracking and without it being required. Use books from the library. Take the whole family at least once a week. Do not buy any bottled beverages. Use milk, water, tea. Read every book you can find at the library on how to save money and use at least one new idea a week. You will be amazed at the savings that will accumulate

I’m with Maranda. Our budget is already quite austere. I’m not sure what we’d cut. My husband and I work from home and must have internet (no internet=no job in our case), we only have one car (and live in an area with little public transportation). We grow some of our own food and spend $250 a month on groceries. We don’t drive unnecessarily, and we shop at Goodwill. We don’t take fancy vacations. We pay $60/mo. for ballet classes for our daughter, so I guess we could cut that, but since she loves it and that is the only activity she is involved in, we’d have to be pretty desperate. I can’t imagine living on half of our income. It would be below poverty level. Still, it is an interesting question to think about!

I think some who has commented so far has missed the point. The point is not to see where and what you can cut in your current budget. It is to create a budget based on half of the income. You would be creating an all new budget based on an all new number. I REALLY like this approach better than looking at the budget to see what you can cut (because we all have already done that time and time again). I like this idea of creating an all new budget based on half the income.

FASCINATING exercise. I will be putting that in my brain-o as I’m reading through many other good ideas. I think that it would be extremely difficult, however, as our mortgage is about 1/3 of our income. Oy. One thought would be to downsize, but then we would have to forego some of our other money-saving efforts (gardening, goatmilk, etc.)…Food for thought…

Anyway, it’s just a mind-setting exercise. I think I can’t do that in real life! 50% cut is just to drastic for me that I think it doesn’t apply to everyone because I always find a way to earn if I feel that I really need more money for my basic expenses. But really a nice exercise. It makes you feel that your resources are too scarce that it motivates you to struggle even more.