We saved $3000 a year in a morning.

[MineralMan]

Looking for ways to cut our expenses, my wife and I did a little experiment. The result will save us $3000 a year, and we will scarcely notice it.

We pulled all of our bills, including all of our credit card bills for the last month. First, we killed a second telephone line that my wife has for business. It almost never rings, so that saved $60 per month. We canceled HBO, which we rarely watch. $15 per month. Next, we went through our credit card bills, looking for recurring payments. All of the rest of the savings came from there. Stuff we signed up for once upon a time, but had simply forgotten about. $10 here and $10 there. Stuff we couldn't even remember that we've been paying every month since who knows when. when we got done, we had eliminated $250 per month of useless stuff. Amazing.

I wonder how many other people have little charges that they've forgotten were on their cards? It's worth a look.

Hint: There's a customer service toll-free number on the bills for every charge. We spent a couple of hours on the phone and killed them all. Sometimes we just forget things. Like the monthly fee to maintain a dial-up connection that hasn't been used for two years, and the "reservation rewards" thing one of us signed up for to save $100 on some trip, sometime. Amazing.

Stupid, too. But, we forget.

[Dappleganger]

1. Or...

you could be lazy like me and just get a completely new credit or debit card once a year, so all those mysterious charges just disappear. ;)

[Earth_First]

2. Shhh....

Don't let them know...

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. scrutinize your auto insurance too.

If your family has medical insurance, paying for PIP on top of liability coverage makes little sense. While you're at it, lose the full coverage on that 7 year old car. I suspect that most families can save a lot of money on insurance without any change in quality of life or meaningful increase in risk.

If your mortgage equity is greater than 80%, get rid of PMI.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

40. If your loan is greater than 80% of your home's value. Not equity.

So roughly it's 20% equity.

[handmade34]

4. good for you!

:applause:

companies have a very clever way of adding a few dollars here and a few there that sneak by a lot of people... I have taken to scrutinizing everything and calling as soon as I see something I don't recognize...

[enough]

5. We recently cut our insurance costs by $4000 per year by switching carriers.

We have a complicated situation with a business, several vehicles, etc. It took about three days of detailed attention, going over every policy with a fine-tooth comb and comparing coverage. But WELL worth it. Can't believe we didn't do it before.

[NNN0LHI]

6. You gave some excellent cell phone money saving advice a while back too

I saved it and when our current contract runs out in a couple of months we are switching.

Thanks for this info you provided:

Here's a tip to save money with the Tracfone.
 

When you add minutes on their website, choose the 30 day 30 minute option. It's $10. Then, in the next screen, you can add a year of time for just $50. That's a lot cheaper than their 1 year/400 minute option and gives you 13 months for about $60. That's less than $5/month, which seems about right for a phone I don't use.

Anyhow, I just checked my wife's office. She has a cell phone headset, so I'm going to call my parents for the normal Sunday call and use up about 30 of those minutes. Yay!

Don

[Statistical]

14. You only use 30 minutes a year?

[NNN0LHI]

18. I don't use any minutes per year

I never even hardly turn it on any more. Just carry it with us for emergencies.

Don

[MineralMan]

27. I'm in the same situation. I used to have a Verizon cell phone,

but I didn't use it either. I carry it with me in case of emergencies, especially when I'm fishing alone on my boat. Since I have to buy minutes to buy time, I now have almost 1800 minutes on my phone. Doesn't matter. I spend in a year what I was spending in a month with the Verizon phone. Seems like a good exchange, and I only have to charge the phone about every three months, besides.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[eleny]

10. Buying cars takes strategy

Whenever we had to buy a car we'd go on the last day of a quarter or better yet the last days of the year. We made one final deal in the dealership doorway because we were walking out.

One time we traded in a truck and got more for the trade in than we paid for it a few years back. Plus we weadled the new truck down in price to start.

I always figure that you walk into the dealership with a teeth made from stainless steel. Anyway, that's my act and it works.

[Frustratedlady]

11. Also watch to see if there is a salesman's/store goal/contest going on.

My daughter negotiated a $3,000 savings through negotiating to a point, but then asked them how close they were to making the goal on their contest. They needed to sell one more car. After a little bit more negotiating, they agree to her price.

She had been working 3 dealers against each other, which didn't hurt, but the contest was the clincher.

Just a thought.

[eleny]

20. Great tip!

:hi:

[datasuspect]

35. always buy used cars

don't ever buy a new car.

buy cars during the last week of the month.

that's when salesmen are working at a fever pitch to gin up their numbers.

the dealership pits salesmen against each other in a very public shame-based ritual of monthly sales volume.

those who don't produce eventually get cut.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

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[rurallib]

9. congratulations

rec this up to help others.

[leftstreet]

13. You and your wife need to sit down with the Dept of Defense n/t

[Cleita]

15. You seem to be pretty well off if you don't need

to scrutinize every charge on your credit card. I have HBO because it's the only entertainment I get and it saves a lot of money going to the movies. I'm happy that you have $3,000 you can save but many of us who are skimping by on Social Security and maybe a small pension or part time job don't have that kind of discretionary income. I could save half of my expenses though if I didn't have to buy insurance. It really takes a big chunk out of my income for no return except maybe for health care.

[MineralMan]

28. You know, not really, we're not. I'm on Social Security, which I

started at 62. I earn just enough to stay below the maximum I can earn without them decreasing my payment. This year, I turn 66, so that limit is gone. I'm ramping up my writing business. My wife is also a writer. Her income dropped a good deal over the past two years. So, no, we aren't well off at all. That's why we were looking for pennies to pinch. Not everything is as it seems, you see.

My wife's health insurance is $900/month, and she is uninsurable. That's my social security check. Have a really nice day.

[Gormy Cuss]

47. If you don't need to read your credit card bills carefully each month you are either fairly well off

or were in the past and just now are noticing that you aren't anymore.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

39. Cleita, you might save even more

and watch what you truly want to see when you want to see it using NetFlix. You can order up 1 movie at a time for around $10 a month.

[Curmudgeoness]

16. How could you not know what was on your credit card bills?

Don't get me wrong, I am really proud of you for all the effort you have put into this, but I am shocked at the wasted money over the years.

If you are not watching the credit card bills carefully, you may not be watching other bills or statements. Always look at your phone bills and bank statements for odd charges. There are a slew of companies out there throwing charges on these for small amounts and making a killing by knowing that people are not looking. I had an electronic debit on my bank statement for under $10 and I contacted my bank to tell them I had never approved this. When the banker saw the charge, she said that this was a common company that did this, and I should not be concerned because they rarely hit the same account more than once. Now why banks don't ban this company from electronic debits to accounts because of abuses, I will never understand.

[JI7]

24. that happened on a Verizon Bill, i don't understand how this crap can be allowed

people just deciding to charge people for osmething they have no idea of .

[Curmudgeoness]

29. And companies who already know they are scams allowing it

to continue. That is what really pisses me off. Scam artists will always be there. But when a bank or your phone company is working with them, knowing that this is a fraudulent charge, that is unacceptable.

[Uben]

17. I was scrutinizing my bills a coupla weeks ago......

....and saw a charge from my Sears MAsterCard for $25. It was an annual charge for a rewards program, so I called them to cancel the program. When I talked to a the gal at the number on the invoice (for billing inquiries), I told her I wanted to cancel the program. She said before I did, I might want to cash in my points first. I ask her how many points I had and she said over 42,000!

So, I asked her what I could get for 42,000 points (I'm thinkin oven mitt or mouse pad), and she said..........a $500 gift certificate to Sears or KMart!

I was shocked, not even knowing I had been participating in the program. So, I took my $500 gift card to Sears and came home with a brand new 50 inch plasma flat screen hdtv for $123!

Life is good!

Once I hooked the new tv up, I had to have Directv come out and fix a problem with a cable from the satellite dish. Then, on my next bill I see a charge for a $50 service call. So, I call and explain that I have a service contract with them and they needed to remove that charge. The guy agreed I was charged in error and said it would be removed. He said as a reward for being a ten year customer, I could choose between having a 3 month subscription to Showtime or Cinemax. WTF? I said hell yeah, and jokingly said I'd take both. He gave me both the Showtime and Cinemax packages for 3 months free! (previously I had no premium channels) That amounted to about 15 new premium channels for me to watch on my new HDTV!

The moral of this story......Always check your bills for errors or bogus charges. You could come out a winner like I did!

[whistler162]

21. Make sure after the three months the subscription isn't turned to

automatic renewal and they start charging you.

[Uben]

25. I'm ahead of em on that one.......

......but thanks for the heads up!

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bluenorthwest]

22. You didn't notice spending it, why would you notice not spending

it? The idea of having recurring payments for things I had forgotten about going on for months sounds irresponsible to me. $175.00 a month flying out the window on once upon a time, wow. No matter how much money you have, it is not really cool to waste in that way, when that money at a food bank could have gone so far. It is good that you have stopped literally wasting funds on nothing. I do encourage that. If you are using currency as kindling, that should also come to a stop.

[customerserviceguy]

23. Good points

I used to be a tax accountant, and it seemed like a LOT of my clients didn't do the simple money-saving things I always took for granted that most people did. Indeed, most folks have no idea how they leak money like a sieve, and an outside observer usually can point things out to them.

My advice to you all out there who want to do what MineralMan did, find a close friend or a family member who you consider to be quite frugal, someone who you really can't understand how they can live so happily on less money than you do. Have that person go over every aspect of your spending, and at least consider doing what they propose.

Sometimes, you're too close to your own life to see it clearly.

[MineralMan]

26. Sorry I haven't been back to the thread. I got called over to my

mother-in-laws house to fix something. I'm surprised that there are deleted posts in the thread. Yes, we should have caught this stuff earlier, but most of those things were joined or signed up for when our income was higher. Now, it's lower, but we forgot to check for this stuff. So, I shared my stupidity, just in case others could be in the same situation. I was stupid and wasted some money. Now, I've fixed that.

Apparently some people thought badly of my post. That's OK with me. Thanks to all of those who added other advice to the thread.

Please have a great weekend, everyone!

[tblue37]

30. Life is complicated these days. Most of us are racing around like

maniacs just trying to survive, and it is very easy to forget about little things. Little things do add up, but each one is easy to forget about.

[msanthrope]

31. Thank you for this thread---

it's full of good advice. As for the deleted posts, well, nothing unexpected....

[cutlassmama]

32. great thread. thanks for posting it!

[JCMach1]

33. She could use Skype for business and also do the call transfer thing

i.e. you could take a skype number that would transfer to your main line.

Use it for all long distance and it is like $9 per month even to landlines.

[B Calm]

34. Give yourself a big pat on the back for doing something you should have

been doing all along. . .

[TBF]

36. Never a bad thing to do, but you do realize you're making all those

cuts so you can prop up the lifestyles of billionaires?

[Codeine]

38. He's making all those cuts so as not to waste his own cash.

Nothing to do with millionaires.

[TBF]

41. Nope, you're wrong. The premise is "oh we can all live simpler" -

well of course we all have to live simpler when we have so much less money coming in. And have less money coming in because Mr. Obama is cutting social security, heating for the poor, and every other thing he can think of in order to better serve the billionaires, who will not be asked to sacrifice ANYTHING.

We are supposed to be happy with that, happy little paupers clipping our coupons, and living frugally - while THEY enjoy their mansions, their yachts, their tax breaks, their health care, and their happy little lives.

FUCK that.

[MineralMan]

44. That's not my premise. Actually, I don't have any premise

for this OP. I was just pointing out some things I discovered that I had ignored. Perhaps others can find similar things. I'm talking about the reality of MY life, not about anyone else's. Not everything has huge political import. Some things are just things.

Many people have more than I do. Many have less. I am in the situation I'm in, and I'm not making any comparisons with anybody else. I've been in much better economic shape, and I've been in much worse. Today, I'm in the shape I'm in, and trying to make that work. It's not a race. It's not a competition. It just is.

I thought I might bring something to mind for other DUers that would benefit them.

[TBF]

48. That's fine, my opinion remains the same. nt

[sofa king]

37. Heh. That's about 75% of what I made last year.

You want to talk about streamlining, try halving the poverty level and living below that. It turns out I have a shot at living a pretty decent life like this, but if I miss just two work days in a month, it's back under the bridge for me. That of course is with no car, no health insurance, no bank account, no vacations, no phone, no luxuries and few bad habits. If I ever hit it big with a full-time minimum wage job, I'll be rich!

All of American society is designed to recognize the impoverished and keep them there, through discrimination and by offering fewer incentives and services, and charging them more for everything when every additional fee cuts to the bone. So it's well worth your while to struggle hard to remain above that level.

But if it all goes down the tubes, eh, it's not so bad. There's still plenty of food and clean water to be had, because right now Americans place no value on those things. It's a cold, dark, wet and uncomfortable life, but you get used to those things, too. People are what's really important, and I meet a lot more good and interesting people at the bottom than I ever did at the top.

That's probably because honor and integrity is only truly valued when it counts for everything. When all you have left is your word, you struggle hard to keep it.

[cutlassmama]

49. +1

[rufus dog]

42. Nice work, if you need a second line

Suggest you look at OOMA, I killed off our phones a few years ago and invested $250 in OOMA, for a monthly fee of about $10 I get a second phone line that I use for business. Payback was just a few months, now I pay $120 for the year, have two phone numbers with unlimited calling through the US.

[RandomKoolzip]

43. I'm in grad school (y'know, job re-training) and working full time

as a librarian. Now here are some facts:

I pull in about 900 a month at my job. It's not much.

My rent is 500 a month. I live in a small apartment 40 miles away from my job. You will not be able to find anything cheaper in Chicago unless you want to live with a crazy roommate.

My bills average more than 250 a month. I have no non-essential bills, unless car insurance (which i need to commute) counts as non-essential. Electricity, internet, car insurance. I do not have TV or cable. Gas bills were too high, so I simply had it cut off. I eat cold food. Whatever. I have no credit cards. I eat free foods and snacks that other librarians bring in, and when really desperate, I eat ramen noodles.

I need at least 80 dollars a week simply to get to work and back.

I cannot work a second job because my schedule is already so full there are no days when it's possible. I'm typing this now in the cumulative hour or so I have for "free time" during the day.

When I leave school, I will be tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

I am 35 years old. This is not "The American Dream." Certainly, I am not homeless. I work very hard. I am not a freeloader - I am not on welfare, unemployment, food stamps, or any other gobv't assistance besides student loans. After all, I'm only following the right-wing and centrist advice to go back to school to retrain in the face of a job loss.

I have no health insurance. If someone hits me in my car, I will be homeless as soon as I can walk.

Another factor - because of the fervent anti-tax hysteria, now the very industry I have chosen to work in is in danger of disappearing completely - no one wants to pay any taxes anymore, so now public libraries everywhere are closing down. My job prospects are very scarce.

Again, this isn't Egypt. This is not a Third World Country. But I have worked hard all of my life - for several years, I worked two full-time jobs at once, and I make less now than I did then. The cost of everything is rising. But no, it isn't Egypt. However, this is not how things are supposed to be. Are we ALL supposed to be genius entrepreneurs? That doesn't make sense. Not everyone has that kind of aptitude. So should people like me just starve and die? Because there's nothing left for me to cut.

[sabrina 1]

45. You are very representative of far too many people today in this

country. The millions and millions of people, many with children, who have nothing left to cut. Those are the people who need help, rather than more cuts from this administration.

It's nice to still have luxuries to cut, (we already cut everything the OP mentions several years ago so there's nothing left to cut here either) and for those who are in that enviable position, the OP has merit. But it does nothing for those who do not have anything left to cut, such as you and so many others. I hope we can find a way to get some of that money we have handed over to Wall St. execs to trickle down to people such as yourself, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[old mark]

46. Keep checking your credit card bills closely every month. We find

unknown charges several times a year...seems that some people we once dealt with sold our information to others. You will be surprised what you paid for that you didn't order...some websites take your information and will bill you from time to time for no reason at all, and some of those odd little ads on TV will do the same.

We did what you did several years ago, plus we dropped our commercial bank account and changed our credit union plan so we don't get overdrawn and we save a lot on those charges, too.

mark

[sad sally]

50. Neat that you had $3,000 to blow before - not so in this household.

There's been a detail of where every and any amount of cash goes for the last eight years (the Book of Spending, we call it and it's done on paper and looked at every month) - we've never had the luxury of not knowing what we were spending our very small income on.