The easy one is the phones - you can easily cut that to well under half that price per month via a prepaid plan if you can use sprint or t-mobile towers, a little more than that if you have to use verizon towers. Find out how much it would cost you to terminate right now - if you have 17 months left I bet that your early termination fee + cost of new phones - profit from selling old phones is going to be less than the $1700 or more you would save over that time. (edit: if you need new phones - some phones can work with all carriers).
If you are actively trying to get out of a phone contract, be on the lookout for any notice that any fee is increasing or being added, even if it’s for a service you never used. While the phone companies can change their fees, if they increase them, they generally have to let you out of the contract without penalties.
While it’s certainly not easy, if you have a low income and are already saving, it can often be easier to increase your income than to increase your saving. There are diminishing returns when you’re already eating crock pot lentils and going to the library. A few hours working at some part time job or project might work better.
What are your grocery/cooking habits? Do you have somewhere where you could grow a few veggies? Have a few vegetarian meals a week? I am constantly boggled by how cheap it is to eat legumes and eggs and veggies, and how many veggies it’s possible to grow in a 5’ by 8’ raised bed, or even in a few planters on the deck. If you aren’t a member already, can you join a CSA near you to get high-quality local produce for not much money?
My main point was that there is Roth IRA and Traditional IRA and Roth 401k and Traditional 401k. I was making a distinction between the funds and the contribution options that are available for both. I was completely unaware of Roth 401k until six months ago. My (small business) employer had an employee participation Simple Retirement Plan until two years ago when it moved to Traditional 401k and it wasn’t until this year that Roth 401k became an option.
Roth 401k has been around for ten years but it’s still not entirely common. It has been picking up momentum in recent years. My post wasn’t intended to be condescending and I apologize if it came across that way.
Not condescending. Just wanted to save others the trouble of typing all that out again. No worries 
This is an excellent idea for saving money. Not having to buy meat one or two days a week would save a lot over the course of a year. Many different types of vegetables can be grown in one gallon planters, if space is a problem. The only thing I would add is to figure out the expensive veggies that you eat, and plant those. 5 pounds of potatoes is $1.99. A can of Lima beans is usually more than a dollar.
Dangerosa’s idea for visiting frugal websites … + 1
Grrlbrarian, it really sounds to me as if you are saving as much as you can, so I don’t know if this will be helpful. There is one thing I did when I was younger and wanted to start saving for retirement. I signed up for the 401K at work, and gave them my 5%. I opened an IRA. The max annual contribution at that time was $2000/yr. I was working as a server, and I went home with cash in hand, daily. It was too easy for me to stop at a store on my way home, because I needed bread, then find shampoo on sale, then before I knew it I was spending $20. My paycheck was about $100/wk, before taxes. I had to make myself save money, or I’d never have that $2000 for my IRA!!
I know a couple people will come in to say what a bad idea this is; you’re losing money on your money. My father was HORRIFIED, until he heard me out. (Even then he was not happy, but had to concede I knew myself better. 
) What I wound up doing was finding the line on my W-4, “Additional amount withheld,” and have them withhold an extra $25/wk. (You can change your W-4 at any time.)
My theory was that if I never saw it, I’d learn to live without it. I cannot spend money I cannot touch. My father was upset because if I’d put that money in the bank, I’d earn the interest on it, but instead I was just “giving” that money to my employer. I was, he was right, I was losing all that interest on my own money.
What I explained to him was; the “bulk money” in hand was the impetus I needed. If you hand me $25/wk, chances are I can spend it. If you give me a lump sum of $1300/yr, plus the tax refund I got anyway… that’s enough money to save for the future!! Most of my IRA contribution was saved for me.
*As a sidenote - Between the 401K, taxes, insurance, and that additional money, at least twice a month, I actually owed money to my employer . My manager used to joke that they had to keep me, at least until we were even! But when I left that job, I found out I was truly an oddball. Without calling me, or waiting for me to call them, the corporate office sent me a check for my 401K. They took out the taxes. :mad: You are NOT taxed if you roll that money into an IRA!! :mad: :mad: I didn’t cash that check, and a phone call was made to payroll. In a chain of 15 restaurants, with about 40 employees each - the woman that answered the phone knew my name as soon as I told her. :eek:
I’ve found that growing stuff that can be bought cheaply at farmers markets is not worth the effort. I grow expensive stuff like snow peas, stuff that yields a ton in little space like squash, and stuff that is just better grown myself like tomatoes.
As for meals, plan your menu around what is on sale, not your shopping around your menu. And learn when stuff is cheap and buy it (if it won’t spoil) when on sale. We like Starbucks beans, and we have tons at $6.99 so we never have to buy any at $10.99. But this only works if you have the money to spare to buy ahead.
About twenty years ago, a book called The Complete Tightwad Gazette was published. (I think it was based on a newsletter.) It contained various suggestions for saving money or spending less. I think, for example, the author suggested owning a deep freeze and making things like casseroles or lasagna and then freezing single-serving portions. You might see if the book is in the library.
Rent out a room short-term to foreign/foreign exchange college students. It pays very well, and you get your room back in a few weeks.
Thanks for the many suggestions! I’ve got a lot of good stuff to read. 
There’s good advice here, too, for educating the Babybrarians in finance so that with discipline and time, they might end up in better shape for retirement than I will be.
A good plan. My parents never had that talk with me. When I realized how behind I was I asked my dad why. His response was that he had no idea that I would not have a pension like his.
Still sounds like your budget is mostly under control, without a ton of fat to trim. Still, there might be a few things:
Buying a new car and paying it off quickly is great, but still more expensive than a decent used car. That’s a sort of blindingly obvious statement, I’m sure, but it can help to figure out how much extra you’ve been paying for the luxury of a new car.
In my case, I bought a new compact car in 2011 and sold it in 2015. I ran the numbers and found that, over the life of the car, I ended up paying about $2000 more than if I had bought a comparable 5-year-old used car in 2011. (Depreciation, financing, opportunity cost, and increased taxes on the new car, minus increased maintenance, repairs, and gas on the old car.) Over the time I owned that car it amounted to about $40/month for the luxury of owning a shiny and reliable new car.
Back to your case, I wouldn’t recommend selling your newer car to buy a cheaper older car, but you shouldn’t replace it with something new and shiny any time soon. The best plan would be to drive it until it the wheels fall off, and then replace it with a moderately used car.
When your contract is up, and you’re done paying the 2-year, $20/month subsidy on those “free” phones, you should be able to get a cheaper plan from Verizon. Going by their current pricing, you can probably pay $115-$130 per month.
Also, there’s a decent chance you qualify for employer discounts. My university has a 15% Verizon discount for employees and grad students.
After your Verizon contract expires, it might be worth shopping around for discount plans, which IIRC can be under $20/month/line without mobile data, or $30-$40/month/line for plans with mobile data. Some of those discount providers should even be compatible with your current Verizon phones.
My parents recently inherited somewhere in the low six figures from my grandparents. To my mom, it’s enough to make them RICH! I’ve had to repeatedly point out to her that if I had that much money for my retirement, I’d have to survive on cat food and whatever public assistance I could scrounge.
Luckily my dad is one of the last remaining Americans to get a decent pension from a private employer, on top of a military pension, so even if they blow the inheritance they’ll be OK…
Most of this is good advice but in my experience CSAs are not money-savers. High quality local produce…yes. For not much money…no.
One side is income which isn’t great but isn’t bad either. The other side is outflow.
You seem to be doing pretty good as an individual with putting money away for retirement. The thing is you’re married and with separate finances. How does this work and what advantages does it bring to the partnership?
What I mean by that is big picture things like the house, cars, furniture, taxes. If there isn’t complete agreement on those and a long term plan for the large items a lot of potential wealth and growth of wealth could be missed.
Married with separate finances is the only way we can get along well enough to remain married. You’re correct that a lot of potential wealth and growth of wealth are likely to be missed this way, but it’s where things have to be for now.
At this point, I’m looking to maximize retirement for myself, personally, with what I can control. Lest this seem selfish, my husband is in excellent shape for retirement with a good $250K in his retirement fund. So I’m the one who needs to scramble to get mine funded.
Although my husband is not a spender generally, he did absolutely insist on the purchase of a new car for me (this is back when our finances were joint) over my many objections; I don’t think new cars are worth their price. His truck is his; my car is mine, and both are paid off (we pay insurance, auto registration, etc. out of our separate incomes). Tax refund was split 50-50 this year. Not sure about next year, but it should be proportional to our incomes at least. He brings in quite a bit more than I do in an average year, so he may get more of the refund. So be it. We haven’t bought new furniture in our seven years of marriage except that I did buy desk chairs for the Babybrarians this week (both chairs were ancient and falling apart). I can’t foresee our making any other major joint expenditures.
We are completely deadlocked on how to handle issues with the house. Right now he pays the mortgage (which includes the taxes) while I may most of the utilities, an approximate 50/50 split. Both of us would like for the house to be sold, and to be in condition to go on the market, but that is not on the horizon until we break the deadlock and have work done.
Understood and I don’t think you are being selfish at all with the reality of finances being what they are. I think your comment about Babybrarians needing to practice discipline over time is really the key to retirement assuming you can put money away. The only other thing I can add is to check out Bogleheads.org for some information on how to allocate your money for long term investing.
These folks are huge on minimizing expenses because even 1% as a fee eats up many tens if not hundreds of thousands compounded over decades. They are huge proponents of Vanguard and to a lesser extend Fidelty for investing. So my question to you is what funds are your money in and what are the total fees that you pay for these funds? If there are equivalent fund types i.e. mid cap stocks for example that have a substantially lower overall fee structure you’re money will most likely grow more.
Well, my mom splits a share with a friend, and her part runs her under $20 a week, and she’s a big veggie-eater. I think that’s not bad at all, and certainly a lot cheaper than what comparable produce would cost at the farmer’s market. We joined one this year which is running a bit over $20 a week for the two of us, and we’ll see how that goes (it doesn’t start up until next month). We’ve tried a few different ones over the years, and the produce is miles better than what one can buy in supermarkets for less money. Depends how highly one values higher-quality produce.
The stuff I grow? Well, so far with less than $10 in seeds we’re growing more greens in about 1/3 of a raised bed in the community garden next door than we can eat. But mostly I do that for fun, not to save money - we get fresher greens that way.
I have a pay-as-you go phone that cost $9 to buy and costs me around $10 a month to refill minutes.
Re: gardening. It can be very cost-effective, plus the act of gardening has been shown to improve health. Fresh lettuce can be quite expensive, and a $1 packet of seeds plus some dirt can produce a lot of lettuce. If you have the space-and that’s a big if-you can grow most of your fruits and vegetables for a fraction of what you’d pay at the store.