- Sign up for your bank's debit card that earns points to redeem online for gift cards for pretty much anything you can think of - gas, Target, Starbucks, etc. My bank charges a $25 annual fee for this card, but we quickly make that money back by using the debit card for nearly every purchase we make. In addition to the things where you pay with a credit/debit card like groceries, gas, doctor visits, etc., I set up automatic payments for cable, car insurance, cell phone, utility bill, gym membership and pest control. Estimated savings this year: $400
- I went to add a line for Husband to the cell phone account and the rep asked me where I work. Thinking that he was just making conversation, I told him. Apparently, I get an 11% discount for that. Estimated savings this year: $112
- I calculated how much we've been spending on groceries and, I feel pretty confident that I can easily cut the budget by 10% simply by paying attention and making a meal plan. In fact, I want to try to save 20% (I'll have to let you know how that goes) by adding in coupons, some stockpiling, etc. as outline in articles like these: http://moneysavingmom.com/31-days-to-a-better-budget-series. Estimated savings this year if cut by 10%: $850
1 year ago
2 comments:
in going along with the debit card point thing, there's a site Points.com that lets you do that sort of thing with airline miles. In fact you can combine all sorts of different kind of "points" from different places. We had some left over that wasn't enough for a ticket anywhere, so we turned them into points and bought some giftcards for Xmas presents, etc. Very cool.
After a yearlong experiment with the "basic" local phone service only, we dumped our land line this week. I expect no impact on our lives. In fact it might even have a positive impact by reducing dinnertime telemarketing calls. Savings: $240 per year.
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