How have you lowered your monthly bills?

[Thursday Bram]

When I switched to working at home, I sold my clunker of a car. At the same time, my boyfriend bought a Prius, which we share. We halved the insurance, are down to about a third of the cost in gas and have basically no maintenance costs for the new car. We do have a car payment now, but over all, we are paying out less money.

[Xin Lu]

I stopped using a landline telephone and just use skype for long distance calls. It's very cheap. Since marrying the hubby we also eat at home more often and that has saved us money. We used to also buy boba milktea or frappucinos a lot and that has been cut down to maybe once a month. I think our lifestyle is frugal, but still pretty comfortable.

[triathing]

A couple of things stick out for us:

We've gone from three cars (at one point) to one car. It can be a bit nerve-racking when the car goes to the mechanic, but it's still saving a huge amount of money.

Heating the house with firewood. Filling a 250-gallon propane tank runs about $750 in New England right now. Wood runs about $200 per cord. Both last about three weeks. It's pretty simple math.

[Greg]

4 easy things I did last year that helped my savings.

Cancel Netflix. I don't even miss it. I was only watching a couple movies a month, and even at the lower subscription rate, it just wasn't worth it. It has the added benefit for 4-8 more hours a month of productivity because I don't force myself to watch a DVD because I'm feeling guilty the Netflix envelope is still sitting on the kitchen table unopened.

Cancel O'Reilly's Safari Bookshelf. It's a subscription to read tech books online. I was using it maybe once a month. The cancellation took 2 minutes, and saved me $20 a month. Smartest thing I've done in 2008. (I would have canceled my magazine subscriptions too if I didn't already do that in '06.)

Bought a coffee maker. My previous job had a espresso machine. When I quit to work from home, a daily $4 latte became a bad habit. That's at least $80 per month I saved, plus it's been awesome grinding my own beans (via magic bullet) and getting a fresh cup of java while still in my pajamas.

Bread + chicken in a can + mayonnaise. Making my own sandwich for lunch and snacks instead of driving thru for fast food or going to the corner deli saves big bucks.

[lucille]

This isn't really a bill but it is a big cost. Medications. We both have a bunch of ongoing medications we have to take. We started looking at all the $4 drug lists and found that many of our meds we were paying $20 a month for not only had a generic that we could get for $10 just by going generic but many of them were on the $4 drug list at Target. So we moved about half of our meds to Target at $4 a shot instead of $20. I also found out that Target will price match other pharmacies so if someone else has a drug on their $4 list that they don't they should price match it.

[jdp]

I've hesitated to answer this question because I came to look at things differently and I'm not sure how to explain it.

There was a year long period of upheaval in my life. Not by choice. Coming out of it I was in "start from scratch" mode vs. "cut things out" mode.

Commuting to work was costing me big bucks - 50 miles one way in an old Honda Accord that was becoming more and more unreliable. So I moved. Moved away from family and friends and closer to work. I did not choose to live in the town in which I work though because it just isn't nice. I moved 1 town over. I made sure transportation to work would never be an issue - I moved into town (previously had been of a distinctly rural nature), close to a bus stop. Even finding a town with a bus was an amazing piece of luck as they aren't prevalent in WPA unless you are on disability or assistance or live in the BIG city. A bus was necessary with my car that would barely pass inspection each year lol. The biggest plus in all of that was it kicked off a whole new lifestyle whereby we walk EVERYwhere we go - kids preschool, group sports, library, grocery, etc. since its all right here.
~~ cut gas costs to the point what I *was* paying in gas commuting per month paid rent here
*haven't been able to stomach totally cutting car expense because each week we drive back to visit family on Sunday (1 day making that commute beats 5 or 6).

When choosing a place to live I went with small. DS and I didn't need a lot of room. Most of our belongings were in storage at that point and we'd been learning the joy of simple living. I lucked out in finding a place where utilities were included. At that point in my life I really needed the structure for budgeting so it was a very big plus. It also made me not want to add a lot of other monthly bills. When I could look at it as 1 or 2 weeks pay paying EVERYthing it made it that much harder to go ahead and order cable or satellite t.v., internet for the house (we were walking the 2 blocks to the library all the time anyway). Saving so much and being careful about what bills I chose to ADD to my load led me to frugal living. I saved enough to buy a used but late model vehicle with a warranty (was all about not having surprise bills) with very little to finance. I probably could have gotten a cheaper car and had nothing to finance but I wanted something more reliable that would last many years (I was spoiled by owning that old Honda for nearly 12 years after only having payments for a year).

During this time my biggest expense was my son. He was past diaper and baby food stage which in the past was draining me but now he was in to sports and things. So we discovered the local bike trail and got a bike for each of us from the Salvation Army thrift shop ($20 for both). Helmets cost more than the bikes. We live in a neighborhood with the greatest yardsales ever. He got kid sized tennis rackets for a couple bucks (spent his money). All of his play things started to come from thrift stores and yardsales. Then we discovered the Y. I wanted him to have preschool. It was going to add another monthly expense but it was worth it. Through that he became a junior member ($10/mo) and suddenly there was something to join and play every couple of months which cost $20 - $40. So we started yardsaling our own things from storage that we never even unpacked. He (his things) and I made enough on our yardsale to pay for all of his Y activities for probably the next 2 years (this and next).

Guess what - we still don't have t.v. I'm not talking we choose network over cable. Where we live there is no network t.v. available, not with the best antennae. We are too busy having fun to care! Our splurge is going to the local video store and renting a movie or t.v. series for a week for $1.99.

I'm happy I now spend less in gas than I do on food (used to be double). At first I was like "Whooohoooo." and got a little crazy in the grocery budget until I started to realize that dang, houses around here are pretty cheap, I could probably save quite a decent down payment if I'd ratchet back our discretionary spending. So eating at home became a routine and I had to learn to pack 'on the go' meals to beat our urge to grab drive thru and go.

We are back to simple living, frugal living and saving much for a house someday hopefully soon.

Other small blessings that have developed:

~ unnecessary really to have a cell without so much commuting, my family knows when is the best time to reach us and a tracphone does in a pinch (< $5/mo) and its great not being tethered to work (if its not important enough for them to give me a cell then woot!)
~ when I signed up for phone service I stuck to my guns and avoided all the sales pitches and just got basic landline service ($25/mo) w/o even long distance (spend about $2/mo on a phone card).
~ Rx meds - all of my meds were $20 each on my insurance plan. Then they all became part of the $4 programs at the local stores and pharmacies except 1 (its mail order to < cost). Now when my doc talks about prescribing I say "is there a $4" and she KNOWS lol. I went from spending $60/mo on meds to $28.
~the town has a farmers market in season - huge savings as I prefer to eat organic or local whenever possible and its cheaper this way and I don't even have to drive for pick up at a csa or pay for a csa subscription for things I won't absolutely want to use.
~ there are a lot of thrift and second hand stores here for things we aren't looking to buy quality for long term use
~ the sense of community here makes buying a lot of things for ds unnecessary as there is always someone wanting to pass things along - soccer shin guards, hockey sticks, clothes.
~ when I do have to buy ds his "good" clothes there are affordable local stores.
~ there are so many interesting free or low cost community activities we are always broadening our horizons without breaking the bank - summer concerts in the park, plays and concerts at the local theatre, art shows, craft shows, "green" shows, garden marts, festivals... the list keeps expanding the more we get out and about and explore.


As you can see, now, whether deciding on if its worth my money (which I've worked hard to earn, as does ds lol) or worth my time (which is precious to us to spend together just having fun) I look at what value is added to our life before committing either of our precious resources. And we've gotten quite snobbish that way lol.

I could win the lottery tomorrow and the only thing I could see changing would be owning a house outright, one that was "green" and with very low monthly overhead so I could work less and play more.

I think people have gotten used to having so much convenience, so many luxuries have become necessities, that they've forgotten what the heck all the work and toil and spending is for.

[rolltimer]

Since my work requires me to travel locally in the county where I live, I save my shopping trips for non-perishables for the days I'm using the car for work. My mileage is reimbursed and I'm continually passing grocery stores, Wal-Marts, Target, and miscellaneous "Dollar" stores anyway so I just pop in while I'm on a break or my lunch hour and do my shopping. Perishable items like eggs, milk, fruit and vegetables can be picked up on my way home from church on Sundays. I rarely take the car out just to go shopping.

[hermione]

We recently started grocery shopping once a month and that has cut our grocery costs by about $100-150, compared to when I shopped twice a month. One reason we shop so infrequently is because our grocery store is 15 miles from our house and we like to consolidate outings to save time and gas (because we work at home and do most of our shopping online, we only need to buy gas about 2-3 times a year).

When I shop now, I try to always buy store brand and bulk items, and our staples look something like this:

- 2 10lb. bags of potatoes
- 2-3 3lb. bags of onions
- 16 bunches of garlic
- 6-8 large heads of the cabbage
- 5lb. bag of carrots
- a large bag of yams which are usually well-priced
- 20lb. bag of rice
- 5 dozen palette of eggs
- 8 pork shoulder butt roasts when on sale for $.99/lb. (some for our dogs and some for us)
etc., etc.

About $225-250 buys enough to last us (2 people and 2 Border Collie dogs) a month.

One thing I've learned though, is that the biggest bag isn't always the cheapest. I have found at my grocery store that the 20lb. bag of flour often costs more per ounce than the 5lb. bag, so you should always read the price/ounce part of the price tag.

Only problem is for the last few months, every time I've gone shopping, the grocery prices have been higher than the last time, so I don't know how much longer our grocery bill will be less than it used to be. It's the only grocery store for about 40 miles around, so it can just keep raising prices and people still shop there, especially with gas prices so high. Prices just keep going up in increments of $.50 - $1.50 between my monthly shopping trips. I'm dread going shopping next month.

[rbarber1]

We recently started a money makeover program. We now use cash instead of credit cards and it has really helped me to not overspend. I know myself, so I only give myself 1/5 of the month's expenses every 3 days. I am making a dinner menu for the week and avoiding the grocery store. I price match every other stores' ads at Wal-mart instead of running around to a bunch of stores. I also hopped on the CVS bandwagon, which you must check out if you haven't already.

Our other bills aren't as easily lowered. We don't have cable, we don't have a home phone, our cell phones are the best plans and prices out there, and my husband has a great job but has to commute about an hour each way. I am really working on him to carpool, but with his hours and the distance, we haven't found anyone interested yet. We live in Phoenix so I recently entered us into a time-of-use plan for our electricity. The goal here is to do your dishes, laundry, vacuuming, cooking, etc. on the off-peak usage times. I am hoping to cut our electricity that way. Hope it helps.

[CheapCanuck]

We got rid of the cable, and sold the TV so we wouldn't be tempted to order it again. We're saving 40 bucks a month, and as an added bonus we are getting a lot more done on individual projects in the evenings.