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In this article I’ve put together a nice long list of easy ways to save money every month on recurring expenses, on money leaks and on just about everything else. So let’s get started.
One of the first places people should be looking to save money are on the big recurring expenses that we all have every month. Let’s look at a few places you can save.
Cell phone bill: JD Powers reports that the average annual wireless phone bill is $1,152, or about $96 a month. Why pay that much when you can get a great smartphone via a pre-paid wireless provider for hundreds less every year. My wife pays $8/month or $96 a year for 100 minutes of talk, unlimited text and 1GB of data every month. That’s a savings of $1,056 over the average! The key to saving is know what you need, and what you can do without, and then finding a cheap cell phone plan to fit your needs. For us that meant forgoing all the talk minutes since we hardly talk on the phone at all, and then making sure we had enough texts and data. My wife and I combined spend right around $20/month for two people with Tello. Others may find a better deal with another provider. Find out how to do it on our post showing how to save on your cell phone bill.
Home phone: Some people will cancel their home phone service altogether in favor of either cell phone service only, resulting in savings of hundreds per year. Of course if you still need a home phone you can go with internet telephone service instead, which often costs much less. We switched to a service called Ooma. Ooma was easy to setup, and it only costs about $5.00/month in taxes in our area. That’s a big savings over the $43/month we were paying before for a landline. If you need to have a landline for a home security system or something along those lines, consider canceling extra options on your phone like voicemail, call waiting and caller id to save on things you don’t need or use.
Internet service: Try switching your internet service to another provider in order to take advantage of new subscriber deals or promotions. Switch from one internet type to another – DSL to cable or fiber-optic internet. Switching can often get you great initial deals, and then you can hop providers to get another great deal when the promotion ends. Also consider bundling your services like phone, internet and TV to save.
TV and entertainment: There are a variety of ways to save on your TV and entertainment costs. First, you can switch cable providers from one to the other to get in on a promotional offer. If that doesn’t work you can always cut the cord altogether, and save a ton by setting up a home entertainment system using streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and other free or low cost content providers. Check out our guide to cutting the cord.
Utilities: Often there aren’t a ton of ways to save on your local utilities whether it is electric, garbage, gas or other services. Quite often you only have one utility option to work with. What you can do is cut back on how much you use the services to limit costs. Turn the temp up in the summer, and down in the winter to save on electric costs. Use a programmable thermostat. When you’re not using something, turn it off or unplug it. Turn the water heater down to 112 degrees and don’t run the dishwasher or laundry every time you’ve got a small load. Look for energy leaks in your home by getting a home energy audit, and find ways to maintain your home to cut costs – like cleaning your AC condensor coils or changing furnace filters regularly.
Insurance: Shop around to find the best rates on your insurance whether it’s auto, home, life or other types of insurance. The last time I switched auto insurance I was horrified to learn I was overpaying to the tune of around $1000/year, for the same coverage. That’s a lot of wasted money! Switching homeowners insurance also saved us a ton.
Gas: There are quite a few ways that you can save on gas. Do things like carpool, buy at the cheapest local gas station (use an app like GasBuddy or Upside to find it), fill up at a local warehouse club, take advantage of gas coupons via local grocery stores and use cash back credit or debtit cards that can help you save anywhere from 1-5% of gas. Of course, you can also just drive smart and limit your quick starts and stops, and keep to smooth acceleration.
Prescriptions: One of the quickest ways to save on your prescriptions is just to make sure that you buy the generic version of your regular prescriptions. Other things to do include shopping around at different pharmacies for lower costs, getting samples from your doctor or buying your prescriptions in larger quantities to save.
Property taxes: Sometimes you can appeal your property taxes if you believe the appraisal they’ve given your home is incorrect. We saved several hundred dollars by appealing our property taxes one year.
Refinance your mortgage: While lending restrictions have tightened, if you’re able you can get some amazing rates right now and save hundreds on your mortgage every month.
Remove mortgage insurance: A lot of folks are paying hundreds of dollars a year on mortgage insurance if they didn’t put down at least 20% when they bought their home. If you are one of those folks, and you’ve recently reached the magical 80/20 loan to value ratio, ask your mortgage provider if they will remove the insurance from your monthly payment.
Online bill pay: Try paying you bills online instead of mailing in a check. It can save you $50-60/year depending on how many monthly bills you have.
Gym memberships: You can save on a gym membership by taking advantage of health plan discounts, or by setting up your own home gym.
Save On Money Leaks
There are times when money just tends to leak away because we’ve always spent money somewhere without thinking about it, or because there are hidden costs that we didn’t even realize were there. Here are a few to be aware of, or to look for in your own house.
Buying coffee on your way to work: I’m extremely guilty of this one. I tend to just spend money on coffee on my way to work several times a week. I’ve recently started cutting back on this and instead buying great micro-roasted coffee to make at home instead, and it saves a ton of money.
Hobby spending: Do you collect comic books, leather-bound volumes of great literary works or play a ton of video games? Whatever your hobby, you can often spend a ton of money every month on buying the latest and best associated with your hobby. You don’t need to cut it out completely, but cutting back on how much you can spend can save, and you’ll have more money for other things.
Bank fees: Avoiding overdraft fees, other network ATM fees and other assorted bank fees shouldn’t be too hard, but it’s a problem for a lot of people. To save make sure you’re reconciling your accounts regularly, and make sure that you always know how much money you have by using a personal finance tool like Mint.com or Empower Personal Dashboard.
Buying things for others: If you’re naturally a giver like my wife, you may have a tendency to overspend on gifts for other people. It feels good to give gifts to people, but we can easily over-do it. Instead try your hand at giving more creative and frugal gifts, or giving the gift of time or an experience with your friend or family member.
Paying full price: There’s no excuse for paying full price for things when there are sites like RetailMeNot.com, Rakuten and Honey to give you coupons, discounts, rebates and more. Just last night my family and I got one of our pizzas for free when we used a coupon we found online. Make sure to do your research and do a quick search and find discounts on the things you buy.
Unused credit card rewards: A lot of people have credit card rewards saved up that never get used. Things like points for trips, cash back savings and points to get gift cards and more. Make sure that if you’re going to use one of these cards, that you actually use the rewards.
Unused gift cards: People will get gift cards for birthdays and holidays, but then they sit in a drawer, in a purse or in a wallet without being used. Don’t forget to use those gift cards, or at least sell it online through a site like Raise and get some money out of it! Otherwise you’re spending money you don’t need to!
Missed tax deductions: When it comes to tax time a lot of people miss out on savings because they didn’t take deductions that they were entitled to. For example, they don’t take deductions for charity donations. Instead, make sure to keep track of your deductions using a tool like It’s Deductible, and save on your taxes!
Eating out too much: At our house our dining out budget is one of our biggest problem areas. Just by cutting the number times we eat out in half can save us hundreds! When you do eat out, don’t forget to use coupons and discounts!
Getting drinks: When you eat out or go out with friends your bar tab can quickly get out of hand. Instead of drinking all night, stay in control, and only get one or two drinks. Or just get water!
Not taking advantage of available discounts: Sometimes people forget to take advantage of discounts that are available for products and services through their employer or other avenues. For example, many employer health plans have discounts available on gym memberships if you go to the gym a certain number of times every month. Take advantage!
Paying a bill despite being overcharged: Make sure to keep track of your monthly bills and know what you’re paying for. Often unknown charges can sneak into your statement if you’re not paying attention. I recently discovered an erroneous increase of $5/month on my satellite TV bill. After complaining to their support repeatedly, they reversed the charges. If you don’t feel confident negotiating on your own, use a bill negotiation service.
Having too much coverage and high premiums: Some people have too much coverage when it comes to insurance of one type or another when they could easily get by with a lesser plan with higher deductibles. Cut your premiums by getting less coverage, and accepting higher deductibles.
Buying brand names: Quite often people will buy brand names just because they have always done that. In reality the generic brand is often just as good or even better than the brand name item.
Buy less of things that spoil: When buying groceries think about what types of things tend to go bad at your house, or that end up spoiling before you eat them. Buy less of that item, or cut it out all together.
Candy from the vending machine: There are times during the workday that you get hungry and just HAVE to go and buy something from the vending machine. If you’re doing this every day, however, it can add up – and take a toll on your health. Instead buy some of your own tasty and healthy snacks to stock up on at work.
Impulse buys: If you’re one of those people who likes to buy things on impulse, rein yourself in and make a rule that you can only buy something after a waiting period of at least 24 hours, if not longer like 30 days.
Allowing too much money to sit idle in your checking: At times I’ve been guilty of allowing too much cash to build up in my checking, instead of investing it or putting it in a higher yielding savings account. Put your money to work!
Buying DVDs, video games or books: One thing I used to do quite a bit was to buy DVDs of movies that I never ended up watching, or buying a ton of books that I never read more than once. Instead of buying, rent or stream the movies you want to watch, rent video games and get books or ebooks from your local library!
Not figuring out why a bill has gone up: Sometimes a bill may increase, but you just accept it. Instead, figure out why your utility bill has gone up. Is there a problem with a your water heater? Filter needs replacing? Or did you leave a window open in the unused room upstairs? Ask why.
Cancel un-needed memberships or subscriptions: If you’re subscribed to a magazine but don’t read it very often, cancel it. If you’ve got a membership to a wholesale club but haven’t been in two years, cut up the card. Haven’t watched a netflix movie in weeks? Put your membership on hold. Kill the zombie subscriptions!
Creative Ways To Save
Another thing you can do to save money is to get creative and do things that others may not have thought of doing to save money. Here are a few things I came up with.
Re-use old clothes: Find ways to re-use old clothes instead of tossing them. Use old t-shirts to wash your car, use old jeans to make a new purse or bag.
Make your own gifts: Instead of buying mom that expensive gift, make something from the heart. Think things like a photo collage of shared good times, inexpensive gift basket.
Grow your own vegetables: Build a DIY backyard garden and grow your own vegetables, cutting down your grocery bill.
Buy used or re-purpose: Instead of buying things like furniture new, buy it cheap or get it free online through a site like Craigslist. Or re-purpose furniture you already have.
Ask for a discount: Even if you don’t have a coupon or listed savings, ask for a discount – even at places you wouldn’t expect. A while ago we saved 10% on our hospital bill just by asking and paying in cash.
Buy groceries direct from the farmer: Are you near some local farms, or have a farmer’s market near you? Try buying fresh veggies – direct from the source.
Negotiate your rent: Try negotiating your rent to save money by signing a longer lease, pre-paying rent or offering to cut the grass in return for lower rent.
Buy quality: Buy things for quality, instead of buying the cheapest. In the long run you can save money because you don’t have to buy a new item as often.
Borrow or share things you need: Instead of buying something you need, borrow it from a neighbor, or everyone pitch in and share the item.
Hang your clothes out to dry: Instead of using a dryer, save by hanging your clothes on a clothesline.
Cut your own hair: Cut your own hair and you can save a few hundred a year per family!
General Ways To Save
Here are some more ways to save that you may not have thought of.
Start a budget, stick to it: This may seem like an obvious tip on how to save, but it’s something that not a ton of people do. Just keeping track of where your money is going has a tendency to help you realize a lot of areas that you can save.
Wash your own car: Instead of going to the car wash and spending between $15-30 every time you go, wash your own car!
Do your own maintenance: If you’re handy with all things automotive, change your own oil to save on a trip to the service station. Maintain your own home appliances with help from the internet!
Stop a bad habit: Are you a smoker? Quit! It’s better for your health and will save a ton of money. Drink lots of soda? Stop! Drink more water instead.
Don’t pay for extras: Renting a car? Don’t pay for the extra insurance if your own insurance covers it. Going on a flight? Don’t pay for first class, but try to get an exit row with extra leg room instead.
Save by reducing your taxable income: Take advantage of deductions, make deductible contributions to retirement accounts or increase amount sent to flexible spending or health savings accounts.
This list is just the beginning. Saving money can really become a way of life if you want it to be. You just have to be creative, have a reason and a goal for why you’re trying to save, and think consciously about the decisions that you’re making.
The changes mentioned on this page may seem small when you look at them. The truth is, however, that the small changes listed here can be the basis of your financial security.
Have your own ways to save? Tell us what they are in the comments!
Last Edited: 19th November 2023 The content of biblemoneymatters.com is for general information purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Visitors to biblemoneymatters.com should not act upon the content or information without first seeking appropriate professional advice. In accordance with the latest FTC guidelines, we declare that we have a financial relationship with every company mentioned on this site.
About Peter Anderson
Peter Anderson is a Christian, husband to his beautiful wife Maria, and father to his 2 children. He loves reading and writing about personal finance, and also enjoys a good board game every now and again. You can find out more about him on the about page. Don't forget to say hi on Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook!
Thanks for sharing this great list of ways to save money! We just cut the cable and are using Netflix instead – went down from $80 a month to $7.99. And we cut the phone and switched to Magic Jack. Went from $40 a month to $19.99 a year.
Great way to save on TV costs – Netflix plus regular TV only! We’re paying for cable TV right now, but once our plan runs out later this year we’ll probably be cutting the cord like mentioend in the linked post.
How does the Magic Jack work? I’ve heard of it before but never used it?
You can also watch tv shows that haven’t been released yet on dvd on hulu.com. My tv and Laptop both have a HDMI hookup so I link the two with a cable and we are able to save big. We hardly get the chance to sit there and watch tv anyway, but then again, we have not paid for cable for most of our adult lives and are quite use to it now.
The problem with cutting the cord and switching to streaming is that if you buy all those services – Netflix, Hulu, Amazon prime, HBOgo, etc. you will still end up spending just as much as you did without them!
As for your insurance tip, you say “The last time I switched auto insurance I was horrified to learn I was overpaying to the tune of around $1000/year, for the same coverage. That’s a lot of wasted money!”
The issue with staying with one insurance company and being a “loyal customer” is that they almost always raise your rates when it comes time to renew. Kind of like how your landlord increases your rent every year. I like to shop around and get a cheaper rate whenever that happens. This year I’m paying $24/month (thru Insurance Panda), but my auto policy is about to expire so it’s time to start looking around for better rates. Any suggestions?
Magic Jack uses VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) technology to provide phone service via the Internet. I discovered that my previous provider, AT&T Uverse, did the same thing and charged me $40 a month, while Magic Jack is under $20 for the year.
WIth the original Magic Jack service you had to leave your computer on all the time, because the “magic” jack plugged your phone into your computer’s USB port so it could access the Internet to route your phone calls.
Personally, leaving my computer on all the time wasn’t appealing. So when they offered Magic Jack Plus which didn’t connect to the computer, we jumped on it. With Magic Jack Plus, your “magic” jack connect your phone to your Internet router and it plugs into an electric outlet. The Magic Jack Plus is still $20 a year for the phone service, but it requires a one-time $50 charge to get the special Magic Jack Plus outlet plug.
We’ve used it for over a month and it works just the same as our regular phone. We haven’t noticed any difference in call quality at all. One additional feature we like is that our voicemails can be emailed to us.
Magic Jack will port your old phone number for an extra $10 charge, but we decided to get a new one so we could get rid of the political campaign robocalls.
I need to look into a service like MagicJack. My cell phone bill is about $125 a month, and I’m beginning to feel like that’s just not okay. I have unlimited calling, 200 text messages, and a data plan, so I can see how it adds up. I wanna cut back. I’m just afraid I’ll go over my minutes if I change my plan.
I tried Magic Jack and I found that there were some phone numbers I couldn’t reach without paying between $1.99 and $3.99 in per call surcharges. I would have quickly outspend what I was paying for my land line. Fortunately, I did not cancel by regular phone service because I wanted to find out whether Magic Jack would work for me. Now I’m just left having wasted the money I paid for the Jack itself. If you want to try this out, don’t cancel your existing service until you know whether you’re going to get Jacked by the Magic.
I don’t know if it is any different with where *you* can or cannot call but I use the OOMA service for VOIP phone. The box is around $100 one-time and we only pay $5.50 or so per month (compared to $30 that use paid for landline bundle) with no issues. Another VOIP service I have heard about is Google Voice.
This list is really detailed and super helpful! What a great way to see how making a lot of small changes can have a huge impact on your budget and bottom line! I think as people we tend to think that the only way we can change our finances is to overturn our lives, but being diligent about our daily expenses can be even more effective sometimes.
You have a good list of tips how to save more. Though we are already doing some of them, such as drying our clothes outside, turning away from cigarette and soda, less eating outside. We also turn to group-buying sites if we need to go out and dine or buy something we need for the house.
These are definitely some useful tips. However I sometimes feel so frustrated due to restricting myself all the time, so I had to find new ways to save money. That’s why I became a member of a site called Barter Quest, a trading platform that let’s you barter for goods, services and real estate. I offer my service as a nanny and get new clothes in return. And the best thing is: I don’t have to worry about people wearing the same clothes.
Such wonderful tips and strategies. My husband and I kept our landline only for our home alarm system. When we found out alarm monitoring can be done wirelessly, we cut the landline and now save $50 a month. We also went to a very basic cable package, added Netflix, and saved $62 a month. My employer offers a discount for Verizon Wireless, so we lowered our cell phone plan and added the 22% discount from my employer and we’re saving $70 a month. We also cancelled supplemental health insurance ($110 a month) as we are now able to use the money we’re saving and place it into an account for health emergencies.To avoid eating out all the time we made a rule that we will only eat out if we receive a coupon where one entree is free. In the meantime, we are really taking advantage of our grill and a patio set we purchased from the thrift store. We eat, talk, have a glass of wine, and we enjoy each other much more than in a restaurant.
It depends what is in the supplemental health insurance whether that will prove a wise decision or a foolish one. You do not plan for becoming sick and yet people do get sick. Or get accidents. Medical bills tend to be very high, much higher than what you can save on the insurance and place on an account for health emergencies. You could be facing bills of 10,000 bucks or 30,000 bucks or more easily, where you saved 1,320. So what are you cutting out? Be very careful with such decisions.
We use Ooma for our home phone. You buy the box from Best Buy. The initial investment is $250…but…my monthly bill is never over $4 a month. Google them for more info. As for our cell phone…we pay $40 a month per phone for everything(Data, Text and Talk) using Simple Mobile(pre pay service) Google them for more info as well. We use Netflix and our local library for borrowing books as well as movies. We have a date night once a month and have always used a half off deal from places like Groupon, Living Social, etc. I will look into our insurance payments to see if we could save more money. We are desperately trying to save $ to purchase a home!! Every little bit helps!
This is a great list of ways to save money. I like how you look at the annual cost of cell phones. It’s easy to think, that ‘only’ $90 a month isn’t bad, but $1,000/year sounds ridiculous! :)
Wow, that’s a huge list. We do so many of them and they are all keeping the money in our budget, right where it should be. A budget is crucial IMO, but most importantly you can save by spending less than you earn. You can budget all you want but if you consistently spend more than you earn you aren’t saving a thing. Another idea is now that the warm weather is here use a rain barrel to collect water for your lawn and garden. Thanks for putting such a comprehensive list together. I’ll share this with my Facebook Fans, I’m sure they can add even more! Cheers Mr.CBB
With 50 suggestions I think everyone can find something here. My personal favorites are figuring out why a bill has gone up, checking over insurance premiums, and canceling un-needed memberships and subscriptions. It’s the lazy and unexamined areas that suck the life out of a budget. Thanks for the tips!
Now, a reminder: Many of money-saving tips that work best for working class and middle-class families require an investment of time and / or money in order to notice the savings later.
If you want a chart of how fast you’ll see results (in some cases such as refiguring property taxes, it will be more than a year), here’s my rundown:
I like your tip on how to stop impulse spending. I always allow myself some waiting time to think about how badly I need the things I’m about to purchase, especially if it’s a large purchase. This technique has really helped me curb unnecessary spending and avoid buying things I don’t really need.
Thanks for these lists Peter! After reading one of your posts, I researched our trash service and found we could save $50/year by switching. Our current provider already had a price matching mechanism in place so for very little effort, we were able to add $50 to our vacation fund.
Thanks for sharing these ideas! I have already started saving money on my cell phone by buying a Republic wireless phone and on my internet by purchasing Freedompop internet service. These changes will save me over $60.00 a month! I wish I had discovered these options earlier.
Another money saving idea is to shop at a small chain grocery store, such as ALDIS, Shoppe Shopper, Save A Lot, or Amelias. I usually shop at ALDIs, and I love it! ALDIs has almost everything I need -meats, fruits, veggies, starches, milk, seafood, etc. They have lots of organic and all-natural foods too, which is good because I like to eat healthy. And it’s all very cheap. I end up paying about $60 or $70 a week on groceries at ALDIS, whereas I would pay more than double this at Giant or even Wal-Mart.
Great list! I got rid of cable TV manys years ago and have never looked back. Now I’m trying to get the wife on board with canceling home telephone service. we all have cell phones and hardly ever use the home phone. Wish me luck, lol
You share some great ideas. Since you asked your readers to share their own ways, here is one of mine for the holidays. Mind you, camping does not befit our situation. Every now and then we take a short vacation to a holiday resort (of a chain of resorts), that is usually really expensive, but not during low season. On top of that we just wait to see what they have left over that is not too far away and book last minute. In the cottage we cook our own meals. Of course it is nice to go out dining once, but on the resort the dining out options are very expensive. So we either have looked in advance where there is a more affordable restaurant in the neighborhood, or find another solution. This year instead we bring our gourmet set, so each one of us gets his/her own little pan and we cook at the table in our cottage. This is way cheaper, but also feels special. Since we are on a holiday we do buy some extra nice things to eat and drink. The grocery shop on the resort is above budget, so we either bring everything we need with us from our local cheapest shops. Or we look where the nearest cheap supermarket is and get it there (so it stays fresh). This also saves us lots of money, even though we are spending a bit more than usual to enjoy the special times.
This was a great list. Especially with the extra detail you included to help paint a better picture of the true effect each suggestion would have on my savings. A lot of these go unnoticed, but I will definitely take a more cautious approach to the smaller things I spend on.
Wow. This is a great list. I will have to bookmark this and check it out again to make sure I give a lot of them a try. You can never save too much money!
He Peter, thanks a lot. Even by just giving a little attention to the subject of one’s financial situation and spending pattern, already helps a lot to become more aware and encourages to act. Even when it is for small things in the beginning. Best of success, Dinah
A financial diary helps me save money. I write down my expenses every day, and once a month I analyze what I spent more money on, and whether or not I really needed it. I recently found coupon sites promocode2017.com and couponcabin.com, they offer huge discounts and coupons, and only through them I buy everything I need.
Thought I’d chime in on the cell savings part. We found Google Fi when it was new enough to need an invitation and haven’t looked back. You only pay for the data you use, so if you use 1/2 g, you only pay for 1/2 g. We’re always near Wifi, so we use none. Our bill including taxes and fees is less than 25/ mo for unlimited talk/text and excellent coverage area. We were paying twice that for an old grandfathered in plan with Verizon.
We went with the Pixel phones, but they recently opened it so you can bring your own phone.
fi.google.com
(As a side note, we lived in one of the states affected by the hurricanes in 2017, and they gave their customers a credit for 2 g of data to help, which pd for our bill that month).
Google Fi is great from what I hear. We’re currently with a no contract MVNO – that uses Sprint called Tello. I’m paying $11/month or so after taxes for 2GB data, 100 minutes of calling and unlimited text. It boggles my mind that some people still pay upwards of $80-100/month for their calling plans!
I am easily saving $60/year ($5/mo) on stamps at .45/each. I suppose the answer for you depends on how many bills you pay online each month/year but I am easily paying more than 10 bills per month between household expenses and multiple credit cards that would cost .45 plus the time to write them. I would think my figure would be closer to $100/yr. Everyone’s mileage WILL vary.
Great list! Having used many of these tips, I can attest that it is our daily habits that cost us more than our living expenses. We can change our lives when we change our thinking and behaviors. My wife and I do not miss *ANY* of our former splurges and they totaled over $1250/mo. That is the amount we have clipped from our budget by applying many of the suggestions on Mr. Anderson’s list: I nixed $300/mo of spending ($10/day) when I quit drinking and another $200/mo when I switched from name brand cigarettes to rolling my own (I have the nicotine patch and waiting for my quit date to add that $75/mo. back to my budget). We zapped over $100/mo when we quit cable tv in favor of wi-fi streaming only ($34.95/mo w/ tax and equipment). Gone are the haircuts for me and dye jobs for the wife, we now do each other’s. We had no need for two cars, retirement meant no more office team lunches every day and while we cannot refinance our mortgage right now we will be paying off a $309/mo loan payment in July that we will add to our snowball debt repayment plan. Using the advice in this article, with the motivation to USE it, even those thinking about living on one income just may be able to see how it IS possible, especially when considering day care costs and that there are legitimate work at home income streams and opportunities. I am a million dollars short of being a millionaire but we can all have more when we pay less. Tip: Value your values
Great list of ways to save money. I agree with putting money to work instead of leaving it in the checking account. If we think about it, money sitting idle in the checking account actually loses value due to inflation.
Thanks for sharing this great list of ways to save money! We just cut the cable and are using Netflix instead – went down from $80 a month to $7.99. And we cut the phone and switched to Magic Jack. Went from $40 a month to $19.99 a year.
Great way to save on TV costs – Netflix plus regular TV only! We’re paying for cable TV right now, but once our plan runs out later this year we’ll probably be cutting the cord like mentioend in the linked post.
How does the Magic Jack work? I’ve heard of it before but never used it?
You can also watch tv shows that haven’t been released yet on dvd on hulu.com. My tv and Laptop both have a HDMI hookup so I link the two with a cable and we are able to save big. We hardly get the chance to sit there and watch tv anyway, but then again, we have not paid for cable for most of our adult lives and are quite use to it now.
The problem with cutting the cord and switching to streaming is that if you buy all those services – Netflix, Hulu, Amazon prime, HBOgo, etc. you will still end up spending just as much as you did without them!
As for your insurance tip, you say “The last time I switched auto insurance I was horrified to learn I was overpaying to the tune of around $1000/year, for the same coverage. That’s a lot of wasted money!”
The issue with staying with one insurance company and being a “loyal customer” is that they almost always raise your rates when it comes time to renew. Kind of like how your landlord increases your rent every year. I like to shop around and get a cheaper rate whenever that happens. This year I’m paying $24/month (thru Insurance Panda), but my auto policy is about to expire so it’s time to start looking around for better rates. Any suggestions?
Magic Jack uses VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) technology to provide phone service via the Internet. I discovered that my previous provider, AT&T Uverse, did the same thing and charged me $40 a month, while Magic Jack is under $20 for the year.
WIth the original Magic Jack service you had to leave your computer on all the time, because the “magic” jack plugged your phone into your computer’s USB port so it could access the Internet to route your phone calls.
Personally, leaving my computer on all the time wasn’t appealing. So when they offered Magic Jack Plus which didn’t connect to the computer, we jumped on it. With Magic Jack Plus, your “magic” jack connect your phone to your Internet router and it plugs into an electric outlet. The Magic Jack Plus is still $20 a year for the phone service, but it requires a one-time $50 charge to get the special Magic Jack Plus outlet plug.
We’ve used it for over a month and it works just the same as our regular phone. We haven’t noticed any difference in call quality at all. One additional feature we like is that our voicemails can be emailed to us.
Magic Jack will port your old phone number for an extra $10 charge, but we decided to get a new one so we could get rid of the political campaign robocalls.
I need to look into a service like MagicJack. My cell phone bill is about $125 a month, and I’m beginning to feel like that’s just not okay. I have unlimited calling, 200 text messages, and a data plan, so I can see how it adds up. I wanna cut back. I’m just afraid I’ll go over my minutes if I change my plan.
Try republic wireless. Unlimited minutes and texts, with data is $20. No plan, just month to month.
Republic is great, as is Tello, Twigby and a host of other providers. Here’s a post talking about a few low cost mobile providers.
I tried Magic Jack and I found that there were some phone numbers I couldn’t reach without paying between $1.99 and $3.99 in per call surcharges. I would have quickly outspend what I was paying for my land line. Fortunately, I did not cancel by regular phone service because I wanted to find out whether Magic Jack would work for me. Now I’m just left having wasted the money I paid for the Jack itself. If you want to try this out, don’t cancel your existing service until you know whether you’re going to get Jacked by the Magic.
I don’t know if it is any different with where *you* can or cannot call but I use the OOMA service for VOIP phone. The box is around $100 one-time and we only pay $5.50 or so per month (compared to $30 that use paid for landline bundle) with no issues. Another VOIP service I have heard about is Google Voice.
This list is really detailed and super helpful! What a great way to see how making a lot of small changes can have a huge impact on your budget and bottom line! I think as people we tend to think that the only way we can change our finances is to overturn our lives, but being diligent about our daily expenses can be even more effective sometimes.
What a great list… if you only did one or two of them, you’d likely save on your monthly expenses. Nice post!
You have a good list of tips how to save more. Though we are already doing some of them, such as drying our clothes outside, turning away from cigarette and soda, less eating outside. We also turn to group-buying sites if we need to go out and dine or buy something we need for the house.
These are definitely some useful tips. However I sometimes feel so frustrated due to restricting myself all the time, so I had to find new ways to save money. That’s why I became a member of a site called Barter Quest, a trading platform that let’s you barter for goods, services and real estate. I offer my service as a nanny and get new clothes in return. And the best thing is: I don’t have to worry about people wearing the same clothes.
Wow! Thanks for such a comprehensive list of how to save money! We’ve shared it with our readers and I hope it is able to help them!
Such wonderful tips and strategies. My husband and I kept our landline only for our home alarm system. When we found out alarm monitoring can be done wirelessly, we cut the landline and now save $50 a month. We also went to a very basic cable package, added Netflix, and saved $62 a month. My employer offers a discount for Verizon Wireless, so we lowered our cell phone plan and added the 22% discount from my employer and we’re saving $70 a month. We also cancelled supplemental health insurance ($110 a month) as we are now able to use the money we’re saving and place it into an account for health emergencies.To avoid eating out all the time we made a rule that we will only eat out if we receive a coupon where one entree is free. In the meantime, we are really taking advantage of our grill and a patio set we purchased from the thrift store. We eat, talk, have a glass of wine, and we enjoy each other much more than in a restaurant.
It depends what is in the supplemental health insurance whether that will prove a wise decision or a foolish one. You do not plan for becoming sick and yet people do get sick. Or get accidents. Medical bills tend to be very high, much higher than what you can save on the insurance and place on an account for health emergencies.
You could be facing bills of 10,000 bucks or 30,000 bucks or more easily, where you saved 1,320. So what are you cutting out?
Be very careful with such decisions.
We use Ooma for our home phone. You buy the box from Best Buy. The initial investment is $250…but…my monthly bill is never over $4 a month. Google them for more info.
As for our cell phone…we pay $40 a month per phone for everything(Data, Text and Talk) using Simple Mobile(pre pay service) Google them for more info as well.
We use Netflix and our local library for borrowing books as well as movies.
We have a date night once a month and have always used a half off deal from places like Groupon, Living Social, etc.
I will look into our insurance payments to see if we could save more money.
We are desperately trying to save $ to purchase a home!! Every little bit helps!
This is a great list of ways to save money. I like how you look at the annual cost of cell phones. It’s easy to think, that ‘only’ $90 a month isn’t bad, but $1,000/year sounds ridiculous! :)
Wow, that’s a huge list. We do so many of them and they are all keeping the money in our budget, right where it should be. A budget is crucial IMO, but most importantly you can save by spending less than you earn. You can budget all you want but if you consistently spend more than you earn you aren’t saving a thing.
Another idea is now that the warm weather is here use a rain barrel to collect water for your lawn and garden.
Thanks for putting such a comprehensive list together. I’ll share this with my Facebook Fans, I’m sure they can add even more!
Cheers Mr.CBB
With 50 suggestions I think everyone can find something here. My personal favorites are figuring out why a bill has gone up, checking over insurance premiums, and canceling un-needed memberships and subscriptions. It’s the lazy and unexamined areas that suck the life out of a budget. Thanks for the tips!
Now, a reminder: Many of money-saving tips that work best for working class and middle-class families require an investment of time and / or money in order to notice the savings later.
If you want a chart of how fast you’ll see results (in some cases such as refiguring property taxes, it will be more than a year), here’s my rundown:
I like your tip on how to stop impulse spending. I always allow myself some waiting time to think about how badly I need the things I’m about to purchase, especially if it’s a large purchase. This technique has really helped me curb unnecessary spending and avoid buying things I don’t really need.
Thanks for these lists Peter! After reading one of your posts, I researched our trash service and found we could save $50/year by switching. Our current provider already had a price matching mechanism in place so for very little effort, we were able to add $50 to our vacation fund.
Thanks for sharing these ideas! I have already started saving money on my cell phone by buying a Republic wireless phone and on my internet by purchasing Freedompop internet service. These changes will save me over $60.00 a month! I wish I had discovered these options earlier.
Another money saving idea is to shop at a small chain grocery store, such as ALDIS, Shoppe Shopper, Save A Lot, or Amelias. I usually shop at ALDIs, and I love it! ALDIs has almost everything I need -meats, fruits, veggies, starches, milk, seafood, etc. They have lots of organic and all-natural foods too, which is good because I like to eat healthy. And it’s all very cheap. I end up paying about $60 or $70 a week on groceries at ALDIS, whereas I would pay more than double this at Giant or even Wal-Mart.
Thanks for another wonderful resource. Bookmarking this page in hopes to put some of these tricks into practice!
Great list! I got rid of cable TV manys years ago and have never looked back. Now I’m trying to get the wife on board with canceling home telephone service. we all have cell phones and hardly ever use the home phone. Wish me luck, lol
You share some great ideas. Since you asked your readers to share their own ways, here is one of mine for the holidays. Mind you, camping does not befit our situation.
Every now and then we take a short vacation to a holiday resort (of a chain of resorts), that is usually really expensive, but not during low season. On top of that we just wait to see what they have left over that is not too far away and book last minute.
In the cottage we cook our own meals. Of course it is nice to go out dining once, but on the resort the dining out options are very expensive. So we either have looked in advance where there is a more affordable restaurant in the neighborhood, or find another solution. This year instead we bring our gourmet set, so each one of us gets his/her own little pan and we cook at the table in our cottage. This is way cheaper, but also feels special.
Since we are on a holiday we do buy some extra nice things to eat and drink. The grocery shop on the resort is above budget, so we either bring everything we need with us from our local cheapest shops. Or we look where the nearest cheap supermarket is and get it there (so it stays fresh). This also saves us lots of money, even though we are spending a bit more than usual to enjoy the special times.
This was a great list. Especially with the extra detail you included to help paint a better picture of the true effect each suggestion would have on my savings. A lot of these go unnoticed, but I will definitely take a more cautious approach to the smaller things I spend on.
Wow. This is a great list. I will have to bookmark this and check it out again to make sure I give a lot of them a try. You can never save too much money!
He Peter, thanks a lot. Even by just giving a little attention to the subject of one’s financial situation and spending pattern, already helps a lot to become more aware and encourages to act. Even when it is for small things in the beginning. Best of success, Dinah
A financial diary helps me save money. I write down my expenses every day, and once a month I analyze what I spent more money on, and whether or not I really needed it. I recently found coupon sites promocode2017.com and couponcabin.com, they offer huge discounts and coupons, and only through them I buy everything I need.
FatWallet.com is out of business. You can remove that link. Thanks for the post.
I’ve removed them in other posts, but missed them on this one. Removed now. thanks!
Thought I’d chime in on the cell savings part. We found Google Fi when it was new enough to need an invitation and haven’t looked back. You only pay for the data you use, so if you use 1/2 g, you only pay for 1/2 g. We’re always near Wifi, so we use none. Our bill including taxes and fees is less than 25/ mo for unlimited talk/text and excellent coverage area.
We were paying twice that for an old grandfathered in plan with Verizon.
We went with the Pixel phones, but they recently opened it so you can bring your own phone.
fi.google.com
(As a side note, we lived in one of the states affected by the hurricanes in 2017, and they gave their customers a credit for 2 g of data to help, which pd for our bill that month).
Google Fi is great from what I hear. We’re currently with a no contract MVNO – that uses Sprint called Tello. I’m paying $11/month or so after taxes for 2GB data, 100 minutes of calling and unlimited text. It boggles my mind that some people still pay upwards of $80-100/month for their calling plans!
Discussion of using a low cost mobile provider here (including Google Fi).
I have been paying my bills online for years. How in the world can you say it saves $50-$60?
I am easily saving $60/year ($5/mo) on stamps at .45/each. I suppose the answer for you depends on how many bills you pay online each month/year but I am easily paying more than 10 bills per month between household expenses and multiple credit cards that would cost .45 plus the time to write them. I would think my figure would be closer to $100/yr. Everyone’s mileage WILL vary.
Thanks ? Peter. I have learned a lot from you that will change my financial life spending completely. God bless you and increase you.
Great list! Having used many of these tips, I can attest that it is our daily habits that cost us more than our living expenses. We can change our lives when we change our thinking and behaviors. My wife and I do not miss *ANY* of our former splurges and they totaled over $1250/mo. That is the amount we have clipped from our budget by applying many of the suggestions on Mr. Anderson’s list: I nixed $300/mo of spending ($10/day) when I quit drinking and another $200/mo when I switched from name brand cigarettes to rolling my own (I have the nicotine patch and waiting for my quit date to add that $75/mo. back to my budget). We zapped over $100/mo when we quit cable tv in favor of wi-fi streaming only ($34.95/mo w/ tax and equipment). Gone are the haircuts for me and dye jobs for the wife, we now do each other’s. We had no need for two cars, retirement meant no more office team lunches every day and while we cannot refinance our mortgage right now we will be paying off a $309/mo loan payment in July that we will add to our snowball debt repayment plan. Using the advice in this article, with the motivation to USE it, even those thinking about living on one income just may be able to see how it IS possible, especially when considering day care costs and that there are legitimate work at home income streams and opportunities. I am a million dollars short of being a millionaire but we can all have more when we pay less. Tip: Value your values
Nice post! Imagine doing all of these things… We’d save so much every year.
Great list of actionable ways to save money.
Great list of ways to save money. I agree with putting money to work instead of leaving it in the checking account. If we think about it, money sitting idle in the checking account actually loses value due to inflation.