5 Ways To Save: Old School
May 12th, 2006 | by Molly's Brother |I am always trying to think of ways that I can continue to cut my own budget. Below are five ways to save–the old school way;
1. Ah. The Great Television Debate Analyze your television viewing habits and figure out if you really need all nine hundred and eighty-four channels on your cable/satellite system. Chances are, you opted to receive many of them–at a cost. Especially now, since entire seasons are released on DVD, it seems like a good time to say goodbye to the Sopranos and Deadwood. If you can live with catching up on the series by renting the DVDs next year, then trim your cable offerings–and your budget.
2. Eating At Home So simple, but yet oh so hard…I was talking to a co-worker today about this (as I was scarfing down my “Six Dollar Burger” from Carl’s Junior). Easily the number one area in my life where I consistently trim my budget. (Today was an exception.) Buying groceries, cooking dinner, and eating meals at home is the easiest way to cut costs and free up extra money to pay down debt or to sock away.
3. Cancel Those Subscriptions I get the newspaper everyday. I read the newspaper everyday. Therefore, I will probably continue to get–and read–the newspaper everyday. My subscription to People Magazine? Yeah. It comes weekly and I can’t remember the last time I popped that thing open. I went through my magazines last weekend and canceled every single subscription, but one. If you don’t read it, get rid of it.
4. Your Landline We spend so much time thinking about our cell phone plan, that many of us have neglected to think about our landline phone bill with the same level of scrutiny. Do you make most or all of your long distance calls from your cell phone? Then get rid of your long distance carrier. A couple of times a year, look at your phone bill and decipher whether those additional charges continue to be necessary.
5. Those Lingering Services Look over each of your credit card statements with a fine tooth comb and cancel those lingering services. Many times, you’ve signed on for something and were told that a $5.00 monthly fee would be billed to your credit cards. However, once you stopped using the service, you forgot to call the company to cancel the fee. Month after month, you are charged for a service you have long since stopped using. This happens, too, with online services such as dating sites or apartment/housing rental sites. You pay them an annual fee, but they will renew it automatically without alerting you. So make sure you cancel services you no longer use.
Individually, you might only save $5 or $10/month with each area. By taking action and trimming your consumption, you’ll see savings rise to hundreds of dollars a year (or more).
