More cheap tricks: lower bills without sacrificing
Dan Thanh's earlier post shared ideas for saving money using Consumer Reports' six easy steps for reducing bills by such actions as shopping for new insurance policies, avoiding bank fees and paying off your credit cards.
Nora Dunn over at Wise Bread expands on these thoughts with some great tips to save money the easy way.
Some of her thoughts:
1. Change your withholding on your taxes: It's better to have all that money on your paycheck now -- and save it in an interest-bearing account, or use it to pay down debt --- than give the government an interest-free loan.
2. Lower insurance premiums: Shop around for cheaper policies, or at least increase the deductibles on your car and home insurance, which should lower your premiums.
3. Lower credit card payments by transferring credit card debt to cards with lower rates.
4. As Eileen Ambrose suggested, consolidate your student loans.
5. Lower health and child care costs. Set up health and dependent care spending accounts, so you can take pre-tax dollars and set them aside for medical or babysitting bills you are expecting.
And let's not forget Bob's excellent suggestions ...
... such as eliminating unused subscriptions and memberships to things such as magazines, cable, gyms and more.
This is something I've personally been toying with, especially with recent reminders that we shouldn't take employment for granted. I share a Netflix subscription, but before I got it I probably didn't rent movies more than once a month, and even now I probably only watch two or three a month. Definitely not getting a lot of value out of this equation!
Same goes for my fairly inexpensive gym membership. I first joined because I wouldn't maintain any sort of pace without the threat of falling off a treadmill. I've since discovered it is in fact possible to jog outside, sans technical assistance, so I only get over to the gym about once a week at most. Although I like supporting a fitness and community center in this neighborhood, it may be an expense I can cut.
