Reducing Expenses

Financial Literacy Month – Tip #26

Storage Space

Here’s the tip from December 1 – Money Drains month:

Storage space to me is a waste of money unless it’s for a temporary situation. More stuff than you have the room for is usually stuff you don’t really need and therefore paying good money to store it is usually money wasted. Get rid of the stuff in storage and save the cost of storage.

To purchase a copy of either of my books Thrive In Five: Take Charge of Your Finances in 5 Minutes a Day or 111 Ways To Save

#JillRussoFoster #30WaysToSave

Financial Literacy Month – Tip #19

Job Benefits

Here’s the tip from October 5 – More Income / Planning Ahead month:

Have you checked out your company benefits lately? No, I am not talking about your medical benefits. I am talking about the perks that some companies offer their employees. Do they have tickets to sporting events? Do they sponsor a community event? Do they reimburse you for classes? All these things add up.

I know that through the company my husband worked for we have gone to car events at no cost (my husband is a big car enthusiast). We saved $20 admission fee each, because sponsors get tickets. When I was growing up, my father was always given sporting event tickets for the family through his work. Ask and see what your company may offer.

To purchase a copy of either of my books Thrive In Five: Take Charge of Your Finances in 5 Minutes a Day or 111 Ways To Save

#JillRussoFoster #30WaysToSave

Financial Literacy Month – Tip #4

Lower Your Car Insurance

Here’s the tip from February 4 – Reduce or Eliminate Bills month:

Did you know that you can lower your car insurance by taking a safe driving class? I took a safe driving class and was able to lower my car insurance premium. For me, I took eight hours of classroom time (that’s the Connecticut requirement for the class) at a cost of $16 and was able to save $100 per year for the next three years. I even learned a thing or two. Check with your insurance company to see how much you can save, then schedule a class near you.

To purchase a copy of either of my books Thrive In Five: Take Charge of Your Finances in 5 Minutes a Day or 111 Ways To Save

#JillRussoFoster #30WaysToSave

How To Spend Valentine’s Day On A Budget

Did you miss the Experian Credit Chat yesterday? You don’t have to miss out.

Experian does a Credit Chat every Wednesday at 3pm EST. Yesterday’s timely topic was Valentine’s Day on a Budget – pretty appropriate for tomorrow.

I was one of several panelist who participated in the Twitter chat. There were some great suggestions by the panelist that may be something you are interested in for you to save money. Here’s the link if you were unable to join.

Ways To Lower Your Heating Bill In The Winter

It’s winter here in the northeast, but you wouldn’t know it by mother nature. The greater New York City area ended up with the tenth warmest January on record. Personally, we had one snow storm and few days close to 60. But there is still February, March and maybe April to get some winter cold, snowy weather.

Here are some tips to save on your heating bill:

Can you lower your thermostat? You can do this all the time or certain times of the day. For certain times, think about your schedule – Can you lower it when you are out and no one is home? At night when you are in bed?
Do you have a fireplace(s)? If the answer is yes, is your damper closed when your fireplace isn’t in use? This can let cold air into your home (and warm air escape). Remember to open the damper before you start a fire.
You know how nice it can feel with the sun shinning in on a bright sunny day. It’s a favorite for our dog to lay down inside in the sun. Well that’s really great in the day, but what about the night? Close your blind / drapes to keep the cold air out. You can lose as much as 10% of your room’s heat during the night.
Check for drafts. Yes, it’s winter but there are so many drafty spots on the inside of your home that you can fix from the inside. Think windows and doors (sealing unused windows with plastic film), electrical / cable outlets (outlet sealers), and check around your pipes (spray foam insulation).

These are some of the things that we do around our home to keep pour heating bill as low as possible. There is more to do outside, before the weather gets cold. Check out this past newsletter with those tips.

Are You Paying Too Much?

Do you ever wonder if you are paying too much for your bills?

We thought about this and have been making changes over the years. We took steps to reduce our monthly bills. We reduced our cable bills – haven’t totally cut the cord yet – but have reduced our bill significantly. We are a family that leaves electronics unplugged unless in use. We cook in the evening and on weekends and make enough for leftovers that can be taken for lunch. We walk to do errands on weekend versus taking the car – a great way to get some extra exercise in your day.

We have eliminated some services and do them ourselves. We do our own lawn mowing and yard work. We take our own trash and recycle to the transfer station (eliminating the trash bill). We do some of our repairs and improvements ourselves.

How do you save money on your monthly bills?

Single Use vs. Reusable

I grew up with a mother that recycled and composted, so reducing and reusing is in my blood.

Our town was one of the first town’s in the state to ban the single use plastic bags at stores. They encourage you to bring your own bags. If you don’t bring your own, they will give you a paper bag. I personally keep my reusable bags in the back seat of my car, so that they are always available and with me. Also, when buying one single item, we skip the bag and take the item without a bag.

In addition, we have been reducing our single consumption items in favor of reusable ones. We are eliminating the plastic in our lives. We have switched from plastic bags to reusable silicone bags and from plastic containers to glass jars (mason jars are a great inexpensive alternative). We try not to purchase items in plastic instead looking for alternatives.

We now make our own cleaners in reusable glass jars – no more single use bottles from the store. You can believe how inexpensive it is to make your own (besides not having a single use container to toss). Baking soda, vinegar and essential oils can clean just about everything for a fraction of the cost of store bought cleaners.

We have eliminated the private trash collection service from our home and now take our own trash to the transfer station – we our down to one bag of trash per week. This eliminated a $100 a month bill! I love saving money.

Share with me what reusable things you do.

Cutting The Cord – Step 2

For those of you who have been following this newsletter – Cutting the Cord – here is our last step. If you missed – Cutting the Cord – Step 1, please read this first.

The home phone number is ported! The actual process was supposed to take 3 to 4 weeks. So I started the process thinking I had time to set up the new actual device. Well surprise – I didn’t. I started the porting process on a Friday afternoon and the number ported by Monday afternoon (2 business days)!. So that was great because it was fast. It was bad because it wasn’t easy to set up the new device. I’ll be honest with you, currently it’s set up wired. I haven’t been able to connect the wireless setting to this date. But the phones and voicemail work!

So our next step was the TV’s. Over the years, we had reduce our TV package / channels down to basic so there wasn’t anymore we could do to reduce our bill. In honesty, we already had some alternative TV options in the house so my husband can watch live sports. This past weekend, I did some exploring with our TV options. I added and set up the major networks apps for streaming live TV and on demand. We installed an app recommended by our alternative TV sources for all local over the air channels and set that up (that is a minimal cost as they suggest a $5/ month donation).

Called the TV provider to discuss the cost of internet only (vs. the triple play). I wasn’t happy with that call. I was told that we wouldn’t be keeping the current price for that portion of the bill, because we were dropping the triple play. It would go up by $15/month. I knew there would be alternatives to this service and I was on a mission to find them.

First, we disconnect the bedroom TV from the cable TV and re-set up the TV and all worked fine. The next day, on to the living room TV. Got that TV disconnected and re-set up. That was a little more challenging as this one had more components involved, but we did it. All is working without cable box!

Next, we called the TV provider to disconnect the phone and TV service. Again, I was told the internet only was going to go up by $15.00. Not what I wanted to hear. After a lengthy conversation, I was transferred to another department and there I got to a great helpful person. I explained our situation – how long we had been a customer, the original TV package we started with and all the down grades over the years.

Bottom line, is that we did get the internet service (same speed) for the price that we were paying for the triple play. And, they gave us the basic cable with the box and remote for no additional change. Yes, we did go through a lot of set up to configure the TV’s without cable and then back to be with cable, but now with a savings of over 45% per month. When the price goes up, we will be ready to fully cut the cord.

Cutting The Cord – Step 1

I don’t know about you, but our TV, internet and phone bill keeps going up, regardless if you have negotiated with them or not. I don’t want to keep playing the game of switching companies for a new triple play package each and every year. I’m done with this!

So we have taken step one in the process of cutting the cord. We just purchased a device to have our same home phone for a fraction of the cost. We are in the process of having our number ported over over the next couple of weeks. It will be a minimum monthly cost for taxes and fees – about $5.00 per month versus $35.00 – that’s a big savings to us.

Once that is up and running, it will be time to cut the TV service. No need to keep paying for channels that we don’t watch. Over the years, we have reduced the number of channels and are currently just subscribing to basic, but it all adds up. So there wasn’t anymore to cut out.

Keep reading for the rest of journey on cutting the cord.

FREE Stuff To Do

This Saturday is a big day! You have so many choices of what to do and it’s all FREE. Yes, I you heard me FREE!!!!!!

There are two options with many choices for things to do this Saturday, September 22 only.

Option 1 – it’s National Parks Free Day – so you can visit a national park and save on the entrance fee. Click this link to find out more. You can check out a local park or make plans to visit one farther. Don’t worry if you can’t make it this Saturday, there is one more free day coming up later this year.

Option 2 – it’s Smithsonian Museum Day – now is your chance to visit a museum for free, both in your area and across the country. Check out this link to see which museums are participating and to get your ticket. You’ll need a ticket to visit for free and you can get that at the website.

Two options for you and your family for this Saturday that won’t break your wallet. Enjoy!