Trimming the “Fat” in Your Finances
The following Best Savings Tip comes from reader, Desiree:
My husband and I call this savings tip ‘Trimming the fat!” Basically, this means check out your finances and see where your money is going every single month. We sit down every month and look over our bills: cable, internet, water, electricity, etc and look for ways to save on each bill.
For example, we realized recently that if we just unplug things when we leave the house we save $10-$15 per month on our electricity. We also recently cut our cable to the minimum basic package and signed up with Netflix instead and now pay only $7.99 per month for ALL the shows we could ever want to watch.
Simple things that often go unnoticed in your monthly cash flow can really add up! Never hesitate to call companies and review your statement, ask for discounts or current promotions, or cancel services you no longer need. You will be surprised at how many companies will give you free services for a while just to ensure you do not cancel! Its YOUR money, stay diligent!
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We have gotten away from doing this regularly and really need to get back to it. I think there are huge opportunities for us so this is a timely and fantastic tip!
Do you do a regular review of your finances? Got any other tips?
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We just canceled our phone service, and saved $40 per month. We are just sticking with cell phones. While some people might not want to do this, because of the 911 factor, we decided it was a VERY expensive insurance, to pay $40 per month in case we ever need to call 911. If that emergency ever comes, I will send a kid over to call from the neighbor’s house! ;)
Great tip! I cover more tips like this in my post Making Due With What You’ve Got: Part III: Lower Your Bills. http://earningmytwocents.blogspot.com/2011/08/making-due-with-what-youve-got-part-iii.html. You can also ask the cable company to extend any new customer discounts that may expire, or ask them to give you the new customer discount as an incentive to stay with them. They usually will!