Better Budget Challenge #3
Kacie at Sense to Save has posted the 3rd installment of the better budget challenge today. I am really thrilled over this one, because, well…I already did this a couple weeks ago!
No work for me this week 
This week Kacie challenges us to lower our expenses; both our fixed(utilities) and our optional(credit cards) expenses by good old fashioned negotiation.
I negotiate my bills twice a year -usually around the 1st of the year and sometime in the summer. This has worked out to save our family hundreds, if not thousands, over the past few years.
Here’s what I have done this month:
1. I called our State Farm agent and asked just what we could do to lower our insurance costs. We have a TON of policies and State Farm has been good to us over the past 10 or so years we have been with them. I usually get quotes from other companies and if they are lower, I will call our State Farm agent and ask if they can match or beat the other offers. This year instead of getting quotes from other companies, I just called our agent and asked the question. She was so helpful and offered to lower our payments by 50$ annually if we switched our billing to yearly instead of our current bi-yearly plan. So, of course, I took the offer. Even though we will have to pay one huge payment, we will still be saving 50$ each year! Not too shabby for 10 minutes of talk time.
2. I called the cell phone company and removed unused features. Usually when you sign up for cell phone service you get all sorts of extras-text messaging, ring tones, etc. I figured out what services we actually use and asked that the other be removed. Removing the unused features will save us 5$ each month.
3. I called our landline company to ask about lower rates. Unfortunately this was a no-win situation for me. We are in a rural area and only one phone company can provide us with landline. They refused to lower our payments, because we apparently already have the lowest plan available. However, they did offer to extend our current “low rate” special on DSL service that was set to expire in March. They extended the offer through the end of this year, so while I did not save any more than what we are paying now, I was able to get our current costs to remain constant through the year instead of going up.
4. I checked all our bank account/savings account rates. At this point, all our accounts have the best rates currently available to us. We use a credit union that is superb!
That’s all I have done to lower our bills, it took roughly an hour of my time and saved my family approximately 110$ a year, plus an additional 180$ on DSL service that we would have had to pay had I not called the phone company.
So 290$ saved for the year in1 hour!
How about you? What have you done to lower your expenses?
If you would like to join in the budgeting challenge, please check it out at Sense to Save
Happy Budgeting!
Topics: Finance & Money |
January 21st, 2008
AWESOME JOB!!! Woo hoo! I’m clapping and cheering for ya!
And, the fact that you do this a few times a year is great.
Thanks for telling us the details!
January 21st, 2008
I need to call my cable company to try to lower my bill.
SavingDiva’s last blog post..I need a vacation!
January 21st, 2008
Great tips. This reminded me that I need to look into a cheaper long distance carrier. I think we signed up for a special promo a couple years ago that has expired because our bill went up last month. It is amazing what a little time and phone calls can do!
Kyle’s last blog post..Fat and Rich OR Thin and Poor?
January 21st, 2008
Saving Diva-it never hurts to try!
Kyle-I agree that it’s amazing! It is so easy to overlook these little things and so fabulous when you remember to call and save all that money!!
January 22nd, 2008
I called an insurance broker and saved around $1200 a year (!!) for my car and home insurance!!! It was crazy how much shopping around helped (and I thought I was already getting a good deal because of all my discounts, bundling, etc. with my previous company).
Kena’s last blog post..Brrr! It’s snowing today…let’s hope these deals will warm everyone up!
January 22nd, 2008
Kena-
I know exactly what you mean! I think most folks just pay whatever without asking questions! Just shopping around can save you so much money it is crazy!
Good for you for saving that much! That is AWESOME!
Take Care
LJ
January 22nd, 2008
Fabulous job
I’m a little envious, I had little to no luck with this week’s challenge, but it was my own fault for having several high credit card balances. Didn’t really leave my companies much choice, lol.
Melly’s last blog post..Better Budget - Week 3, Part 2