Instead of looking for some of these obscure money-saving ideas that seem like a lot of effort for little return, we wanted to focus on some of the bigger ways to save money, ones that might be so obvious – but really – have you attempted all of these money-savers yet?
If the answer is no, you’re really missing out on some very simple ways to save money, almost like you’re cheating yourself out of discounts available for everyone, and all you have to do is ask for it. Don’t think about this too much, just get to work on these!
Car Insurance Shopping!
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say this – EVERY DAY I see or hear at least 3-4 ads telling me that I could save by switching my car insurance. Seems so easy to spend a few minutes (ok 20 or so) to speak with another insurance company and get a quote, but have you done it? I recently did this, and I did actually save on my car insurance – imagine that?
You might also be able to add cars or other insurance plans to get a bundled rate, ask your current and other insurance companies to find out more.
Get car insurance quotes at: Nationwide | eSurance | Allstate | Progressive | Geico | Liberty Mutual | Farmers | The General | State Farm
Rethink your Mobile Phone Service & Wireless Data Usage
If your household is like mine, everyone has a smart phone – and everyone had a different carrier, a different plan, and we were all paying more than we should have. So this past year I made a command decision to move past this nonsense and get us all on a single carrier, and one plan – in one single account.
All of the mobile carriers have their own “family plans” which allow for extra phones with a nominal charge, the big upside here is that you only need to pay one main monthly fee for having a contract, the extra lines are the bonus. Another of the larger expense is the data part of the plan, which you can share. There is a caveat here, if everyone is going wild with data… you’re going to lose. If you’re smart about how you use your phones, you can really save.
As for my results? We save over $100 a month for our cell phone/mobile data services when we compare the total we pay to what they were costing us before when we all had our own plans. Moving to a “family plan” really helped us consolidate these charges and lower our total monthly expenses.
You need to setup a home wifi connection that everyone automatically connects to. This will reduce mobile data usage when you’re home, and that’s where we are most of the time. Makes sense right? I also encouraged everyone in the family to find a WiFi connection that works while you’re at work, AND to get all of their friend’s wifi connections for when you’re visiting them. Having your own network of WiFi hotspots is a smart thing
Home internet providers like Comcast also have wireless hot-spots, and so if you’re setup on just one of them, anytime you’re in range you can surf for free! Make a serious pact to not watch videos or stream audio (music) when you’re not on WiFi. Let’s be candid here, video and music streaming is a BIG use of data, make a commitment to not do it and then you can realize some serious savings.
If you can successfully build up a nice network of places you go that have WiFi connections, it’s really possible to reduce your draw on your mobile carrier’s data plan. Try this out for a few months and if your ACTUAL usage goes down, considering lowering your data plan and save even more. If you can get away with a 2GB monthly data plan for 2 or more phones, you’re in the “savings zone.”
Food Shopping With Coupons
We’ve blogged about Couponing before and it really works! It does take a little bit of organization and yes, some preparation – but the end result is real savings! We save at least $30+ dollars on each shopping checkout we do, and we’re making a few stops for every food shop we do. The bottom line is that we get more food and groceries for less money, and that’s a fact you can’t ignore.
Read our post about Saving with Coupons, you can thank me later.
Cleaning Up Your Credit Score
Have you ever been curious as to why there are so many commercials to check your credit score? Why is that such a big deal? It IS a big deal because this represents an area of opportunity for you to pay less for the credit you get. What do I mean?
If you have a credit score that is lower, you’ll pay more for things like auto and home loans, and you’ll always have to put more money down for service deposits and things like that. These extra fees and interest charges you will see from having a low or poor credit score will cost you tens of thousands of dollars over your lifetime.
What to do? Get a copy of your credit report and meet with a qualified accountant or mortage counselor. Review your report, see if there are mistakes, errors, and other “fixable” items that can be corrected without much effort – much of this can be fixed with a letter to the related credit reporting agency.
As an example of this, I had a time period of 6+ years when I worked for the same company, but each year that company’s payroll servicer changed. As a result, my name and the spelling of the company was different almost every year. This made it look like I had 6 different jobs in that time span, instead of being employed by one company for six years. I have about 10 old known addresses on there, I don’t need that. There are old and expired credit claims that should have been taken off. These are all things I needed to do to “clean” my credit rating. They weren’t related to any bad debts, just incidental information that I can have updated. Filing a request to have these corrected earned me a higher credit score, and saved me money.
While you’re there… have a real honest conversation and see what (if any) outstanding debts you have, or old accounts that are still hanging on and see if settling makes sense. Take appropriate action and you’ll see the benefits quickly. Managing the process of the disputes and changes might take time, but its well worth the effort.
You should be monitoring your credit for your own security and identity purposes anyways, so looking at this annually is a MUST.
Bundling Common Services: Internet – TV – Home Phone?
We’ve talked a little bit about saving money on Cancelling Cable TV and Buying a Cable Modem to reduce your costs for internet.. but are you bundled yet? Do you Double-Play? Triple-Play?
Chances are if you have a home phone (really?) and you want to continue having one, you might be able to save by looking at a bundle. Providers like Comcast and Verizon can offer lower rates if you combine two or even three of these services together. You should really investigate this thoroughly and make an informed decision based on dollars and cents. Don’t make a decision on the phone while you’re collecting info, take good notes and then get off the phone and compare. Beware of short-term promotions that might cost you more long-term, but somewhere in the middle you can find some savings. If you really use a home phone, then getting a triple play really makes sense and will definitely save you money compared to a traditional phone line with the local telephone company. Home phone service from your cable TV company is really VOIP, which costs far less than a regular line from Bell. Look at the numbers and compare, think bundle! Lock in the rates for as long as you can.
Shop Online For Goods You Don’t Need Right Away
If you know you’re going to need ____(insert product name here)___ and you don’t need it TODAY, consider buying that item online. Shopping portals like Amazon.com and others give consumers a lot of choices without having the extra retail costs built in.
If you need “retail therapy” – go to the local mall and walk around, get an expensive coffee drink from Starbucks – but don’t buy anything else.
For everything else, see if you can get those same items online and save. Look for free shipping promotions, and use coupon codes. If you can be patient and wait a few days, you can realize significant savings on the same stuff you buy at the mall.
Auto-Pay Goes A Long Way
If you are smart enough (or really, organized enough) to be able to signup for automatic payments with your regular bills, some of these companies will offer you a discounted rate. They are willing to do this because It actually costs the company less money to automatically draft their bill monthly than it does to accept your payment over the phone or by sending in a check. If you know when you get paid regularly, then setup as many of these as you can (based on your budget and payroll schedule), the savings here typically mean a 10-15% savings, which is nothing to snicker about.
Examples of this include car insurance payments, auto-loans, mobile/wireless providers, electric bills, and even cable TV. Ask these companies if they have automatic payments available, and if they give a discount for doing so.
Visit The TSI Website | About TSI | Read Customer Reviews | Get a Moving & Shipping Quote | Furniture Shipping Small Moves Service | Shipping Grandfather Clocks | Moving a Piano! | Shipping Antiques & Fragiles
Let’s be friends! Follow us on: Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Google+ | Pinterest
Dig This Blog? Share With Your Friends On
Tweet