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This is the second post in a 2-part series from Allen Michael over at The Stick Vacuums. Make sure you check out the first post in this series. Today, Allen shares some great tips on how he saved on bills last year. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
I started on a quest last year to save as much money around my house as I could, without impacting my lifestyle too much. I knew saving money would come at a cost, but I didn’t want it to impact my lifestyle in too big of a way, if I could avoid it.
In the end, I found there are actually quite a few ways to save money that are really easy. Today, I’ll go through 4 easy ways I saved money on my monthly bills.
Cut Out Cable
I’m sure I’m not the first to mention this, but it really bears mentioning. I knew that there were viable options to cable, but I had never gotten the motivation to pursue it. I quickly realized how very little I needed cable, and how much money I was spending on it.
Services like Netflix, Hulu, and Slingbox make it easy to stop paying for cable and still get your fill. Plus, many networks are adding a premium subscription for their content, meaning that you can basically pay for what you want nowadays.
Cancel Old Memberships
Chances are, you have some old memberships that you signed up for that you don’t take full advantage of any longer. Whether you used them for awhile but have since subsided, or you had the best of intentions and never got going, these memberships no longer have the same value to you that they used to.
For me, I had several of these. I cut my gym membership and opted for a makeshift home gym in my garage instead. I got rid of my newspaper subscription and turned to some trusted news sources online. I stopped paying my monthly music subscription and tried my hand at some of the free streaming stations instead.
Raise Deductibles
If you’re like me, you haven’t reviewed your insurance details since you signed up for the accounts years ago. Its terrible (I know) but it just never seems to make it to the list of things to do. And, upon inspection, I realized I was paying a lot of money to have a low deductible in place for my home and auto insurance.
A quick search showed that I have made a total of one claim on my home and auto insurance combined in the last 5 years. I realized I was paying a lot of money every month to keep the deductible low, and I was only using that benefit once every five years. I raised my deductible, which subsequently lowered my payments by several hundred dollars per year on each bill.
Consolidate Loans
My wife and I both have student loans. They never really crossed my mind… the monthly payments are low and the interest rates are really good. However, each of the loans had different tenants to it, and consolidating them ended up saving us money without changing the nature of the loan or the paydown timeline.
Although we didn’t need to do it, the same process can be used for your credit cards. If you have monthly credit card debt, locking in a lower interest rate can save you a tremendous amount of money.
Conclusion
Your monthly bills are items that you have to pay on every single month, so any savings you can find will add money back to your wallet every single month. Most of us have bills that we pay every month that we don’t need, and a simple analysis of your monthly expenditures should show you plenty of opportunities to save a few bucks.
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