Frugal Friday: Viewing Saved Money as Income

Operation Penny Pinching has begun!  My last day of work is two weeks from today (!!!!), and so I am really focused on making some last minute changes to our budget. 

This week's progress: 

• I called the cable company (which provides our phone, internet, and cable services) to get various quotes on lowering our bill.  The customer service rep was more concerned with keeping our business than giving me quotes, and before I knew it, she had given us a $20 monthly discount for the next six months.  :)  I will be calling back in the next few days for the quotes that I'm needing, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying the thought of saving $20 per month!
• I signed up for our electric/water service to be put onto an equal monthly payment plan.  This doesn't save us any money, but it's ideal for people (us!) who need to stick to a strict budget and don't want any surprises when getting their bill each month.  (We already have our gas bill set up this way.)
• Since we won't need to rely so heavily on having two vehicles after I quit working (and therefore don't necessarily need full coverage on both vehicles), we are making adjustments to our car insurance policy.  This will decrease our monthly car insurance premium by $64.61.

Amount cut from our monthly budget so far: $84.61.

I read something recently on a frugal website that really struck me...  "When you save money, it's tax free."

I realize that's pretty much a no-brainer, but it really struck me:  I can regain some of my lost income (tax free!) by cutting costs.  If we cut our budget by $84.61 per month, that is equal to me having a net income of $84.61 per month. 

Another example:  Let's say that due to my current busy lifestyle, we are spending a hideous amount of money on fast food, eating out, and convenience-type foods. (Yup, sadly this is a real life example!) If, for example, once I'm home full time with extra time to put into grocery shopping, bargain hunting/couponing, and cooking more from scratch, we're able to cut our normal weekly spending by $100 per week, my "net income" just increased by $100 per week!

Viewing the cutting of expenses this way has really helped me have some added peace of mind over the upcoming loss of my income.  :)