<prompt> Human: Not a triumphant Thursday post - just wanted to know what switches in lifestyle or changes to habits people made that might help others figure out ways to cut expenses. Not big things like refinancing but common sense things people can do or consider.Ill name a few:1. Wife and I were paying 165mo for Verizon wireless. We sold our phones paid the upfront cost of a Nexus 4 two years ago and switched to Tmobiles prepaid plan. 30 unlimited data and texts 100 minutes for me, 50 unlimited everything for the wife who uses a lot of minutes. Now saving 85 a month with the same reception. When we travel, we can switch out the sim cards. Nothing is locked, no contracts.2. Just changed my first car battery. I work in an office and Im not handy. Watched youtube videos and asked around on reddit. Took 10 mins, and maybe saved 50-3. Was living in NYC. Found out you pay 4.5 in taxes for living there, but dont pay it if you live outside the city. Moved to NJ and the wife and I now save 4.5 of our income - and with our salaries, that adds up big time. Since we bought a house, we can now also deduct the mortgage interest we were renting so the net benefit of the move was likely 5 figures - every year.Things Id love to look into next: 1. ditching cable while keeping the channels my wife and I like to watch 2. Making my own vodka 3. Eating cheaper meals that I could also mix in with some of my dogs meals they dont eat dry food, so Im mixing in cans of tuna or ground beef.... Would make sense to make a bit more at dinner time and be able to give them some of it, if its OK for them.  <response>: Wall of text inbound, sorry! I joined the Air Force at 18, got a job in Intel, the TSSCI that came with it, and as a result, a very long training period where there were few expenses, lots of free time, and a decent sized amount of money to burn.Needless to say, I was that guy who had a nice car that I dumped money into modifying, had all the latest gadgets and games, took all the credit I could get, and generally lived beyond my means. Every promotion meant more money, but from E-1 to E-4, I lived paycheck to paycheck.Suddenly, my career field was overmanned, and I had enough paperwork that I was on the list for a force shaping. That guaranteed paycheck was going away real soon. Lacking a plan for this scenario, I cut bait and moved back home with my parents.Problem being, I threw away whatever benefit my clearance gave me in the job search post-separation. No cleared jobs in northern Illinois, or at least none that a 21 year old SIGINT analyst would qualify for.I spent 8 months unemployed, and burned through around 3000 in savings just trying to keep the bills paid. Eventually I couldnt pay them, and everything went to collections. On top of that, Comcast hit me with a 400 dollar collection for unreturned equipment which Ive since disputed off my reports, after 2 years of fighting.Ive since rented a house, bought a car cash, lowered my monthly expenses, and generally untucked myself financially, mainly because I had no other choice. My credit scores have been rebounding as Ive paid off the debts, and Im back to around 620, up from a low of 480 fako scores fwiw. Started at 10hr, making 14 now, on the path towards 20 in 2-3 years. I guess the TL;DR of this, is that despite having a father who spent his entire life in finance, who was a bank VP when all this was happening, I still fucked it up. I hid it all from him out of embarrassment, until I had no choice but to admit defeat and ask for help.No amount of advice is going to help if youre too proud or afraid to act on it. I learned my lesson the hard way, after the IRS started taking my tax refunds, after creditors sold off my debt and refused to make payment plans. After losing job opportunities due to credit checks.Its taken me 3 years to get to where I was before everything fell apart. 6 years of my financial life wiped out. This time around, I have no debt vs around 10k, manage to contribute 8 to my IRAmaxing 4 employer match, paying off my government debt, and working out every PFD I can afford.Its still going to be a while before this passes, but the lessons Ive learned have ensures Ill never fuck myself over like that again - and have given me the chance to offer advice to others, if only to keep them from making the same mistakes.Not bad for a 25 year old. God that felt good to finally get off my chest! 