Cutting costs

Tallying a list of my recurring monthly costs...January 2008 - March 2008

• Cell Phone Family Plan: $125/month
• High Speed Broadband Internet: $125/month
• Utilities: $100/month
• Public Transportation and commuting: $175/month
• Cable TV: $0/month - antennaweb.org - hulu.com
• Eating out and Entertainment: $400++/month
• Netflix: $22/month
  
• Rent: $2500/month
  

Living in San Francisco can be quite expensive. I see an opportunity to lower our rent by looking for a cheaper place, and to eat out less. We don't have a home phone, so our cell phones are our lifeline. The broadband internet package could be a slower package, but I really love my internet.

Taking the time to actually write down and list my expenses really is eye-opening. We're lazy and like to eat out a lot -- and not fast food either. Neither I nor my wife cook much. So how can we motivate ourselves to eat at home more often? Tallying up our meal costs will surely be eye-opening to her as well, but still $400 doesn't seem that expensive. I should probably restart Microsoft Money and put our credit cards into there so we can actually get some charts on our spending habits.