My wife and I went over our checking account statements for the past few months and found the #1 thing that drains our account each month: restaurants. It is currently to the tune of approximately $250 a month (!)

Because of this, we have decided to attempt something very drastic: for the entire month of August, we are not going out to eat. None. Never. Nada. We're going to adjust our grocery spending (currently at around $100/month) to fit the plan, plan dinner rather than swinging it, and I'm going to start packing lunch to work or eating sandwhiches at home.

Also, on a good note, my wife asked if she could work a few extra hours each week (24, up from 20) which brings us an extra $100 per month. All of that will be going directly to the debt consolidation loan.

Have any of you ever tried anything as drastic as completely cutting out something you've enjoyed for years? How did it go? Are you still doing it?

Leslie and I have spent a bit of time this past week going over where we are heading with this and how we plan on going about it. Here are a few quick notes about what the plan is:

1) Find places in our fixed expenses that we can cut down (IE: lowered cell phone plan, remove unnecessary services, etc)
2) Evaluate our "unnecessary" monthly expenditures and determine where we can cut down (IE: restaurants, movies, etc)
3) Look around the house to find out what we do not need and can sell (likely on eBay)

With our preliminary guesstimates, we're throwing away over $300 a month that can go straight to paying off our debt - it's amazing what a little cutting down can do!

What types of cut-backs have you done in order to free up some much-needed money each month?