Series I - Household bills

You’ve decided you need to be more frugal and you have no idea where to start.  Just thinking about it makes you feel stressed and feel overwhelmed.  You don’t want to face debt, you don’t want to face cutting back, you don’t want to give up some of the things you should but really don’t want to.  But you will never accomplish the goal of being more frugal without putting a little effort towards it.  Here are a few ideas to get you started on being more frugal by taking small steps with your household bills.

Give yourself a few hours of alone time and get your phone bill, cable bill and smallest credit card bills out.

Start out small with your phone bill. Go through every penny on your phone bill.  If you see extra charges or charges you are not sure about, call your phone company.  Are you spending money on long distance calls when you could be making those from your cell phone for free?  Is there another company offering a better package.  Try and compare pricing.  Do you really need your land line?  More and more people are getting rid of their home phone.  This could save you $50-$100 a month.

Start out small with your cable bill. Companies are willing to cut prices when they know you are considering switching your service with someone else.  Take the time to sit down and compare pricing.  Our phone company is currently offering phone service, cable service and internet.  Try a combined package or consider cancelling your cable all together.  So many shows are available on line now.  The news, weekly series, soap operas.  Maybe that 1 year of no cable can help pay off other bills.  Monthly savings from $50-$150.

Start out small with your smallest credit card bill. Do not charge anymore!  Stop charging.  You don’t need it.  Keep telling yourself that.  Start paying this card down first.  Studies show that once you pay off your small debt first - it motivates you to get your other debt paid off even quicker.  Look at your bill and be sure you’re not being charged for something you cancelled months ago.  If you decided to cancel your phone or cable, start putting that money towards your smallest credit card bill until it is paid off.

Take the time to sit and really go through your bills.  You will be surprised at how much you can save each month.  One way to being frugal and really saving monthly is to just don’t spend.  Tell yourself you really don’t need it.

We will be running this series over the next few weeks every Saturday.

Posted: 10|4|08 at 6:00 am. Filed under: Money Saving Tips.
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