Saving Money Series Part One: Monthly Bills

When it came to saving money on monthly bills I was initially motivated by one thing: my electric bill.  The thing had it's own zip code it was so huge! It was so ridiculous that I actually thought it was a misprint at first because holy wallet drainer, Batman!  From the looks of that bill  we had apparently left our lights on and simultaneously ran every appliance in the house, 24/7 for the previous 4 weeks!  And since I knew that was not the case, I knew I had to look into it.

It wasn't just the electric company.  At a certain point I had to take a hard look at my bills and say, "there has GOT to be a way to save some money here!"  We'd been pretty lax in our diligence over the years but in this economy there is no room to be careless.

I started out by calling CL&P and they assured me that my bill was indeed correct and that the two holes in my neck were from them, sucking the life out of me.  I started looking around and it turns out that you can opt to switch suppliers for your electric!  I would still get my bill and services from CL&P, I just wouldn't have to pay their astronomical rate!

There are many suppliers to choose from and to give you an example, if say you use 1500kw per month, you could save as much as $18.63 per month!  We ended up saving about $15.00  by switching our supplier.  We actually ended up saving about $50 a month when we combined a change in suppliers, changing to energy efficient light bulbs and line drying clothes, but we'll talk about that more in the next blog.  It's super easy to do, it literally takes about five minutes and nothing changes except for the amount you are paying.

I  liken it to the way you could easily change your long distance providers back in the 90's.  Remember them days? When you could get MCI and AT&T to cat fight over you?  There were times I changed my providers monthly in order to get better rates.  It's essentially the same thing here, only with your electric company!  To get more information about comparing suppliers and finding out more about the process, you can check out www.ctenergysavings.com.

The gas company was next on my list.  I'd noticed a growing trend in my monthly costs and wanted to nip that in the bud.  There wasn't much I could do about the cost of the gas but found that  a few tweaks around the house made the difference.  We started with turning down our thermostat.  We should have done that years ago when our kids were born.  You know, as a safety precaution.  But I've found that if I boil them in a nice bath and throw in some chopped carrots it makes a nice salty broth that cuts down on my cooking time.  I'm a great multi-tasker, you see.

We also stopped washing our clothes in hot or warm water.  I do a ton of laundry each day and it paid to invest in energy efficient machines but it also paid to wash in cold water.  Between the thermostat and cold washed clothes, we saved to the tune of $10 a month on our gas bill.  Not a huge savings but every dollar counts, right?

Next I moved on to my insurance company.  I realized that it had been five years since I had revisited my home insurance policy.  What can I say, reading my home insurance policy line by line ranks down there with scrubbing my oven and scheduling my colonoscopy.  I just wanted to make sure that nothing had changed and that there wasn't a way to save some money.  Lucky for me we have an exceptionally helpful and friendly insurance company and when I called them and told them I wanted to see if I could save some money, they stayed on the phone with me for nearly an hour going through my policy line by line.  Imagine that!

I would like to take this moment to officially declare my undying love for them!  They crunched some numbers and found that if I increased our deductible from $0 to $500, I could save $30 a month.  And since we could probably come up with $500 if an emergency did happen, I opted to do that and keep that $30 in my pocket every month.  Ka-ching.  Now, we love our company and decided to stick with them but taking the time to compare insurance quotes from competitive companies is definitely worth the effort!

Next came the phone companies.  I spoke with both my home phone and cell phone providers and found that there were some places where I could save a few bucks, namely with my cell phone provider who allowed me to change plan and save about $15 a month.  Now, they weren't nearly as friendly as my insurance company.  In fact, they acted like I had just interrupted them when they were mere seconds away from finding a cure for cancer but they did help, even if I had to pull some teeth. 

If you can't imagine changing your plan but find that you tend to go over your minutes each month, consider looking into a website called www.overmyminutes.com.  They automatically alert you with a free text message or email to let you know that you are about to go over your minutes.  This might save you some serious dough in overage costs!

I also saved about $5 from my home phone company who was charging me for a voice mail feature that I never wanted.  To be honest, it had been on my bill from the beginning and I just never noticed it.  I cry when I think of all those $5 bills that went down the drain each month, paying for voice mail that I never used.  Sniff.

Next came the trash company.  We were paying about $27 a month for weekly trash and pickup of our recycled items.  But since we started composting and recyling a large amount of things, we found that there were weeks we didn't need pickup and this prompted us to consider whether we needed any service at all.  

My husband generally goes to the dump every couple of weeks anyway so we now take our garbage and other stuff to our recycling station and while the trash bags cost us about $5 a month, we still save $22.  If you don't want to do anything that drastic and you use a private garbage company, it pays to compare rates.

I then turned to my credit cards.  One of them was at a good rate but I noticed that I had a couple of late fees.  Now, I'll cop to these being my fault. Even though I was never 30 days past due date, my credit card has no grace period so I would get slammed with a fee from time to time if money was tight.   Unfortunately, my husband's pay schedule and their due date aren't in sync.  They agreed to change that for me when I explained the problem and when I asked if they could reverse all of the late fees (about 3 month's worth) they agreed to refund my money and I saved $105 right then and there.  I haven't been late since because of the change in due date.  Yay me! 

The second card's interest rate had creeped up over time for no particular reason at all, I had never been late.  I called and spoke with a customer service representative and then a supervisor and then a supervisor's supervisor and eventually I found someone who could help me.  I basically didn't take no for an answer and they agreed to  reduce my rate from 14.99% to 9.99% saving me $40 per month in interest.

Again, most of you are probably way more responsible with your credit cards than I am and these scenarios might not apply to you but even if you have the best credit rating with zero late fees, there is always someone willing to give you a better rate and if there isn't, there is no harm in calling your current credit card companies and begging, er...asking them to reduce their rates.  You'd be surprised at how many of them are eager to help! 

When it came to our cable company, we struggled.  You see, we love us some TV.  Problem is we don't actually have the time to watch it so it seemed like a waste to pay for something we didn't use.  We considered cutting cable altogether but ended up keeping basic cable without any of the bells and whistles.  I had a heart to heart with the customer service rep and they ended up cutting my costs by $19 a month.  There are a few options out there and if someone is willing to give you a great deal by combining services or switing providers, it's worth a shot.

Overall, I found that if I called and spoke with the companies and told them my plight and emphasized how smart and sexy they sounded over the phone, they were usually willing to help.  Most of them were eager to listen and they do have the means to give you special deals and specials, you just have to ask for them.  I'm glad I took the time to make those phone calls because even though it cost me some time, it saved me a lot of money.

I know that some of these things sound really common sense and maybe you've done all of the above and are already saving money.  I'm glad if you have because there is no reason to be spending extra money if you don't have to.  If you haven't looked into any of these things and it's been a while since you checked your phone bill line by line or called your insurance company to see if your rate can go down, maybe it's time to do that. 

Trust me, in a few hours you could be saving a lot of money.  Sure, $10 doesn't sound like much but saving that for a year buys me a month's worth of preschool for my youngest daughter and that makes it totally worth the effort.  For some more information about saving money on monthly bills you can check out www.billeater.com for some more tips!