<prompt> Human: My wife and I recently decided to radically reduce our spending to save money, pay down some debt, and start getting out of the mess weve been in for several years. However, having taken a long, hard look at our monthly budget, were coming up short on ways to substantially reduce our monthly expenditure further.Currently, my job is our primary source of income. I work remotely for a software company based in Boston, and earn between 45-50k gross. Please note I work as a 1099 independent contractor, and am therefore on the hook for purchasing our own health insurance coverage and setting aside quarterly estimates for the IRS and state taxes.In terms of our predictable monthly expenses, this is what were looking at. All costsexpenses are monthly unless otherwise specified: Rent - 850 Car payment - 150 Car insurance - 150 Utilities - 100 Smartphones x 2 inc. line rentaldata planminutes etc. - 210 Internet - 110 Health insurance - 250 1 x loan repayment installment - 110 My wifes student loans - 595 split across three private lenders Taxes - approx. 1,500TOTAL: 4,025As youve no doubt noticed, the above breakdown does not include food. Right now, we spend around 400 pm on food for the two of us. We almost exclusively prepare our own meals, and we try to shop as thriftily as we can. The primary reason we havent budgeted for food is because it seems like one of the very few somewhat fluid costs we have.We do have a handful of other minor expenses, such as our Netflix subscription, hostingdomain registrations etc., which total around 50 a month or so, but well leave this out for the sake of simplicity, since weve pared this down as much as we can for the time being.Were taking steps to reduce this figure as much as we can. Our car is almost paid off itll be paid off in full by JanFeb 18. In one more payment of around 40, my smartphone will be paid off, which should bring our phone bill down from 210 to around the 160 mark which is still outrageous if you ask me. However, were coming up short on what else we can do to reduce our outgoings. Here are some of the issues were running into: We live in an economically depressed city in New England. Theres no work here in my field or otherwise, and the only way we could save a significant sum on rent would be to move to an even sketchier neighborhood -- the one were in isnt awful, but its not great, either. Im considering switching from a smartphone to a dumb phone that just allows texts and calls, since thats what I use it for primarily anyway. Having a smartphone is definitely helpful for work, but it seems like one of the few areas in which we could potentially save more than 50 per month. In terms of our lifestyle, we do very few activities that cost money, and our discretionary spending is virtually nil. In the past month, we went out to eat once and ordered take-out once. Next month, this will most likely be reduced to zero. We almost never go out, very rarely buy stuff, and live an otherwise quite austere lifestyle. We dont budget for clothes since we can never afford them. We dont go to the mall or spend money on shit we dont need. Despite this, there just doesnt seem to be anything left, and were keeping a very close eye on our spending.Whenever we browse similar threads on this sub or others like rFrugal etc., we often see advice that suggests minimizing discretionary spending and wasting money on frivolous things. Our problem is that we feel like weve already done this and it doesnt seem to be saving us anything; it feels like were living as frugally as we can with none of the benefits, and we dont feel like were saving anything by living this way. We considered moving from the city to a more rural area to try and save a significant sum on rent. For instance, we considered moving to Western Massachusetts, as the rent can be a lot lower than it is where we are currently 1-bed apartments go for around 550 pm as opposed to the 850 pm were in now. Although this would be helpful, it would put us many hours away from our family, and wouldnt do anything to help with our already precarious employmentincome situation, since work is even more scarce out there than it is where we are.Right now, just keeping our heads above water is hard enough. We dont have a terrible amount of debt, but there just doesnt seem to be anything left, even after trying to streamline and downsize our spending even further than we already are.What are we missing? Beyond the measures Ive already mentioned -- switching from a smartphone to a dumb phone, paying off the car etc. -- what else can we do to significantly reduce our overheads?Were taking this very seriously, but were at a total loss as to what we can do to get ahead of the cost of living.Apologies for the lengthy post, and thanks in advance for any help, suggestions, or advice you can offer.Assistant: The only 2 things that stick out to me in your budget is your internet and smart phone bill. Cell phone - have you shopped around for better deals? I have unlimited textcall and 5gb data from Verizon for 55month plan. I brought my already paid off smart phone from sprint. Verizon tried their hardest for me to trade in my cell phone to buy the latest and greatest and I would not budge. I had unlimited data when I was with sprint and was nervous about having a data limit. I changed my habits and I dont come anywhere close to hitting 5GB unless Im traveling. Internet - shop around and find deals for switching. You dont have to switch but you can use this as leverage to get your current internet provider or lower your bill. I just did this to get my internet not down from 55month to 45month for 60mbps. I might have I missed but I didnt see anything about your wife working. Is she working or trying to find work? Human: I might have I missed but I didnt see anything about your wife working. Is she working or trying to find work?She is. Her degreebackground is in teaching. The moneyconditions suck, and jobs are few and far between in our area. She does earn a little money from an under-the-table nanny job only 6 hours pw at 17 ph and a very meager income from an online business shes trying to get off the ground.  <response>: If she has a degree, she should be on the substitute list in every district in your area. 75day, experience, networking, retirement contributions. I did this in between jobs a few years ago. I was on the list in two districts and usually worked four dayswk, and I have no background or interest in education. 