Every time I've ever heard the phrase "We're going to have to cut back" I immediately start crying and flailing. Cutting back SUCKS. When has "cutting back" ever been a good thing? It smacks of  poverty and diets and all sorts of other unappealing scenarios.

Unfortch, over the next several months I'll be getting a nice little lesson in "cutting back". Obviously I'm not happy about it. I'll be making about 60% of my normal salary while on maternity leave, and while I appreciate getting to spend up to a year at home coddling my offspring, I'm a bit sooky about the financial implications.

Earning less = spending less. And as it is, I'm not a big extravagant spender. It's not like I've been throwing down $300 on jeans and shoes all willy-nilly each week - I'm already pretty frugal. So knowing that I should be spending even less makes me all kinds of cranky.

I don't know where to start when it comes to cutting back, so I started by making a list of some of my upcoming expenses and trying to figure out ways to save:

Car Insurance: I got my invoice for car insurance for the year: $1,033. I shopped it around and the lowest price I could find anywhere was $1,004. Yes, a savings of $29. Yes, I switched insurance providers. For $29.

Christmas Gifts: Peter and I have already agreed we're going to buy less for one another after last year's embarrassment. We kept picking up "one more gift" for each other and in the end our living room was FULL of presents...presents for us. People came over and were like "oh, where'd you get that?" and we were like..."we bought it for ourselves". Over and over. It was horrible. Or they'd be like, "Wow, is all that for you two?" and I'd try to use the dog as an excuse. "A lot of these presents are actually Rory's."

Ouch...Nevertheless, Christmas is going to be expensive, no two ways around it. Luckily I'll be getting free Christmas cards from my new BFFs at Shutterfly :)

Bills: Not much you can do about bills. We've already installed thermostats to regulate the temperatures in the house and canceled our movie channel package in favour of Netflix which is much cheaper. I'm sure our water and power bills will be higher since we'll be doing 927380 more loads of laundry per week.

Groceries: Again, you gotta eat, but I'm sure we could be eating for less. I'd like to start making bigger batches of things - soups, chilis, etc - in the slow cooker, and freezing portions to heat up. Much cheaper in the long run than buying packaged food. We'll also probably start taking advantage of our Costco membership for some bulk stuff too.

Clothing: I'll soon (hopefully!) be back to my normal-ish size and shape and I'm going to be wanting new clothes. After spending months in yoga pants and H&M empire waist dresses I can't wait to wear real clothes again. I'm signing up for all the email coupons I can find and will continue to troll sale racks like it's my job and hunt for pieces with lots of longevity that will work for many different occasions.

Books: I've been using my library card instead of buying new books every month which has already saved me some dough! Yay!

Entertainment: The baby shall be our entertainment. I'm sure we'll just plop him or her onto their little tummy time mat and command them to make us laugh, and they'll obey.

Obviously, having a newborn will cut down on our dinners out, date nights, and general gallavanting around so we'll have to resort to things like visiting friends and having friends over, board game nights, watching movies at home, cooking fancy dinners and enjoying them by the glow of the baby monitor, and so on. Which, honestly? Doesn't sound so bad.

I also plan on doing lots of crafty stuff while baby naps, with the help of the trusty weekly 40% off coupons from Michael's.

One good thing about going out less is that we'll be burning less gas, too.

Health and beauty: Our gym membership is a must-have so that's an expense that's not going anywhere. I don't go for haircuts often, but I could probably choose a less pricey place to get my hair done - currently I pay about $60 for a cut after tax and tip. In terms of personal care I am probably the slackest person ever. I don't colour my hair and rarely get my nails done, so there's not much more I can do to save in this area.

Baby stuff: In large part thanks to our generous friends and family, we're all ready for baby's arrival. Once they're here, I don't know what kind of money we'll be spending month to month. If breastfeeding works out, that'll be free...if it doesn't, it doesn't. I've heard Costco is the best place to buy diapers and wipes. And everything else we'll just have to learn as we go.

So, new moms and general thrifty people: what do you suggest? If you've been through your own mat leave, how did you cut back? Did you find it hard? Any other tips for saving money that you'd like to share? My bank account and I thank you in advance!

Ginger set up a blog carnival of accomplishments. She had a great post recently about how she often feels underwhelmed by her accomplishments in life so far and got lots of response from her readers, prompting a blog carnival enabling people to celebrate the big and little achievements they are proud of.

One of my biggest accomplishments is finishing school with no student loans. This past weekend, my friends and I were talking about finances. Both of them have student loans they'll be paying off for several years...and we're not talking $100 a month; this is $500-$800+ per month...not an insignificant amount for anyone. It's hard enough getting started in life, trying to set up an apartment/house, pay bills, cover the mandatories and have a little left over for fun.

I'm really thankful I managed to graduate with zero debt. This is in huge part to my parents, who told my sister and I early on that we'd have to work part-time and save up what we could to pay for school and they'd pay the rest. We both had part-time jobs through high school and full-time summer jobs between years at college and learned to be really careful with our spending, and when it came time to pay tuition or rent, Dad covered the rest of the bill. It's not that my parents are wealthy and could afford to just pay for us; it took lots of saving on their part too.

We also didn't choose programs at the most expensive and recognized schools. We chose courses that were really targeted for what we wanted to do career-wise--journalism for me, marketing for her. There was no period of "finding ourselves" during a bachelor's degree and then beefing it up with something else and spending 6-8 years at school. We got in, worked hard, graduated and went right to work. Maybe we missed out on the full university experience--my sister lived at home vs. in residence, for example, to save on costs, and we didn't do a year off backpacking in Europe or building schools in South America--but now we're debt-free and both pretty pumped about it.

In addition to avoiding a ginormous financial burden, paying for part of our educations instilled some good common sense about spending and saving in both our heads. Laura and I aren't miserly but we aren't big splurgers either. We both look at the sale racks first when we go shopping and we email each other Gap and Old Navy 30% off coupons whenever they come around. We both drive cars that are paid off in full and that we paid cash for. For that reason we both drive pretty modest cars-she has a Cavalier and I have a Mazda 3. There are probably flashier vehicles we could afford monthly payments on, but we both prefer to have something we own outright. We both pay off our credit card balance in full every month and between us, our debt is a big fat 0.

As much as I complain about being "po'" , 27 years without owing a cent to anybody is a pretty noteworthy accomplishment so I'm giving myself a pat on the back.

As I've posted before, one of my big New Year's resolutions this year is to get my finances in order. Right now, I get paid every two weeks and it's deposited into my chequing account. That is the extent of my financial planning. I don't have a separate savings account, I don't have an emergency fund, I don't have a retirement plan. I do have enough money for the things I want and need--case in point, I paid cash for my Mazda3 in September--but I think it's probably not a great idea to have all my money in one place just sitting there!

I started last night by setting up a NetworthIQ profile which you can see here.

I'm pretty lucky to have zero credit card or student loan debt and no car payments. I was fortunate to grow up in a family where the value of a dollar was pushed from a really young age. I had my first job when I was 16, working at McDonald's after school and on weekends, and saved like crazy. When I graduated high school, my parents supplemented my savings to pay for college because they didn't want me to graduate with $60,000 in student loans hanging over my head. They were great all through school too. When I blew through an entire year's worth of spending money in my first two months on my own, they freaked out for a minute, then put me on a $50/week budget to take me through the rest of the school year. $50 a week does not go too far when you're paying for groceries, entertainment, clothes, eating out, etc. but it was the reality check I needed to get myself back on track.

Today's plan includes making an Excel spreadsheet (*TURBODORK TURBODORK TURBODORK TURBODORK*) outlining all my monthly expenses vs. my take-home pay. Meanwhile, I'm going to track EVERY random purchase this month, from my $2.25 grande dark roast at Starbucks to the Walmart 2-for-$10 DVD bin rampages to the 75 celebrity gossip and decorating magazines I seem to buy each month.

Ideally I'd like to start putting 10% of my income into savings, 10% into an emergency fund, and 10% into a wedding and house account. Yuck yuck yuck. The word "savings" makes me shudder.

Spending is so much more fun. I can see the mall from my bedroom window as I write this and I just want to go to Aldo.

I'll likely never be a rich bitch at this rate but I'll certainly do what I can!