Check in often with your utilities and other bills

Okay, this is a long one, but an important one that I think is worth reading!

For years I never thought to do this, but have found the past few years that I have been able to save money on monthly bills by just asking to, and paying attention to what things we really use. The following are some ideas on how that can be done; and a few personal effects of doing them!

1) Most gas and electric companies can set you up on a budget plan so your monthly payments are the same every month. They take your average usage and spread it out throughout a 12 month period and make a fixed monthly payment based on that. When the year is up, if you used more then the previous year you might have 1 higher bill or your budget amount might increase the next year to compensate; but on the other hand if you used less than in the previous year then you will get a credit or your budget amount will go down.
This is also good because you will always know what the monthly payment will be when you sit down to figure out bills. I have us set up on a budget plan for both the gas and electric. Our electric term just got over and now our monthly payment will be $10 more per month because we used a lot more electricity this past year compared to the year before, but when I look online at the gas, we have been using less so we will have a credit coming to us when that term is up. That is nice to see!

2) If I had it my way, we would not even have a TV, or maybe just one to watch the news and Jay Leno! However, not all members of my family agree with my opinion on that! I did pay attention to what we watched, however, and found that there were really only 7 main channels. I called Dish network and found that those channels were included on their 100 channel package as well as the 200 channel package that we currently had. I downgraded to the 100 channel package, saved $26.00 a month, and my family still has no idea that they have 100 less channels to choose from!

3) Cell phones are a tricky thing, and being cost effective when it comes to them can be hard; especially if you are like us and it is the only form of communication you have. We don't have a house phone and rely solely on our cell phones. Depending on the day, we may use it more, or less - so it was always hard to gage how many minutes we need to have on our plan. Now what I do is every 3 months I call T-Mobile and ask them to tell me how many minutes we used for the three prior months and change our plan based on that. Recently we had a 2500 minute a month plan and I found that we generally used 1300-1500 a month. I changed us to an 1800 minute plan, and saved $25.00 a month.
For cell phone companies, it is always a good idea to ask about any unpublished plans that they have as well. Most of the time they do and these are plans that offer a bit of a savings, but people won't know about them unless they ask. Another thing that I did was ask to speak to the customer loyalty department. I didn't threaten to leave, but asked what they could do to help lower my bill since we had been loyal customers for 4 years. By doing that, I got unlimited texting for half price, the t-mobile my faves families plan added to a regular family plan for free, and a few other discounts as well.

4) Recycle. Most cities offer a discount on your monthly trash bill if you participate in their recycling program. Additionally, if you pay for more than one trash can, you may find that recycling cuts down on your trash output enough to go to one can, saving you money as well. Besides that, it is good for the earth, and is a good example to set for the kids!

5) Check in with credit card companies and ask if your interest rate or minimum payments can be lowered. I don't have any credit cards myself so have not tried this, but I have heard that this can work. They would rather give you lower payments than risk having you default.

6) If you rent, try to negotiate your monthly payment. Do you like where you live and plan on staying there for awhile? Offer to sign a multiple year lease for a reduction in the monthly rent. Most people/companies will go for this because it ensures that their property will be rented out for that much longer and they won't have to worry about it sitting vacant or the work involved in getting it ready to be rented again. Reducing your monthly payment by say, $50 or $100 is nothing for them compared to it sitting empty for even 1 month and losing out on that money.

7) This next one I don't think is really practical for every day families, but I mention it because it has saved us a big chunk of money every month and it might work for a few people...
A few years back when we assessed our monthly bills and where our money was going, we found that we spent well over $1000 a month just on car payments and the insurance for the cars. So we sat back and thought if we really needed to have a new mini-van and a cute little car, or did we just need reliable transportation to get us where we needed to go? The answer was the latter. So we sold our cars, paid off the loans at the bank and bought cheap reliable cars with what we had left over. (Craigslist - do your research, and you will be amazed at what you can find that is reliable, safe and inexpensive!) This got us out from under 2 car payments and also lowered our insurance premium by quite a lot every month. It also gives us more freedom with our vehicles. Hubby decided he wanted 4 wheel drive for the winter so sold his car and got an SUV. I had a car and decided that I wanted a minivan, so hubby sold the car and bought me a minivan. I decided we didn't really need a minivan after all so hubby sold the van and got another car. I decided I liked being higher off the ground and wanted an SUV, so hubby sold the car and got me an SUV. Then I decided the SUV used too much gas and really didn't haul like I wanted it to but I didn't want another car for family outings, but I wanted to save money on gas..., so hubby sold the SUV and got another mini-van for hauling and family trips AND a car for everyday around town errands. You get the idea! You have more freedom to be able to have things come and go to fit your lifestyle at the moment - and as an aside, we have not lost any money on any of these transactions and in fact have a made a few bucks off a couple of them! You just need to do your research ahead of time. This also works well with a very patient and good humored hubby!

Bottom line: YOU NEVER KNOW UNLESS YOU ASK! Times are tough...don't be embarrassed or afraid to tell people that you need help in lowering your bills - if they are a decent company, they will at least look into it with you and see if there is anything they can do. They might not be able to, but it is better for them to try that than to potentially lose a customer! Every month I call our internet provider to see if they have any more reasonably priced plans and they never do...but you never know, someday they might! And if you don't NEED to lower your bills, per se, still try - because really, would you complain if you didn't have to pay as much and ended up with more left over at the end of the month????