Greetings all! Lately the hubs and I have been spending some time re-evaluating our fixed expenses. You know, the expenses that occur every month no matter what and seem “fixed” in nature. Only here’s the thing: Your fixed expenses are only truly “fixed” when you forget about them and just keep paying them every month without stopping to question them at all.
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Here’s a great example of this. When the hubs and I moved into our current home in fall 2012, we selected the most competitive trash provider at the time and wound up with a monthly trash bill of $33. Fast forward one year later and I found myself calling up my trash provider because of an issue that I had with them, and I sort of accidentally found out throughout the course of that phone call that our provider had dropped their rates considerably in order to keep up with the competition- but they never bothered to notify us. Sounds about right, huh?
As a result of that phone call, we ended up getting a 50% bigger trash can for $5 less per month. That was the first of two subsequent price drops that we’ve had on our trash plan. Apparently there is a trash war in my town, because I keep calling every month or so and I keep getting better rates! We are now down to $18 per month as of last week when I called after we realized that we could get an additional discount on our trash plan because Mr. CMF’s employer has a deal with them. Getting a better deal on trash every time I call is getting addictive! At this point I have every intention of continuing to call every month or so until one day my trash service is free. 🙂
How else can you save money on your fixed expenses? Check out these tips.
10 Easy Ways to Save on Your Fixed Expenses
- Check in with your billers routinely to make sure you are still getting the best rate! I’d recommend doing this on at least a bi-annual basis. If you need help in this area, check out Trim to help you analyze your bills and reduce your rates.
- Ask! It’s amazing what you might hear if you ask the question how can I get this cheaper? Customer service reps from your service providers are likely happy to help you out on this, especially if it means being able to keep you as a customer.
- Re-evaluate the need for certain services. Cable is a classic example. For years the hubs and I always had cable. Then a few months ago our cable provider sent us a letter to notify us that our bill was going to go up by $57 because our “promotional rate was expiring.” I had zero intention of paying $57 more per month for something that did not seem to add that much value to our lives. They refused to budge on the price, so we ditched cable. We are now happy Hulu and Prime customers, and we have a Mohu Leaf
to pull in the local network stations. We really don’t miss cable all that much, and we are saving $50 per month on that bill (well, I guess more if you include the fact that they wanted to increase the bill by $57- it’s $107 if we count that!)
- Check out the competitors of your service providers. Who knows, maybe there’s a trash war in your town too!
- Improve your household’s energy efficiency. Easy ways to do this are by using curtains smartly (for example, in the winter open curtains to let sun in to naturally warm your home during the day. Then close at night when the sun is down), applying weather stripping to windows and doors, and closing vents in rooms that are infrequently used.
- Reduce your household’s water usage by installing a water efficient shower head
if you don’t already have one. If you are looking for more inspiration on creative ways to save money in the shower, check out this post.
- Auto-program your thermostat to help you keep your home’s energy usage down. In the winter you can easily program it to keep your home comfortable during the day but drop the temperature at night- you’ll sleep better in a cooler room AND save money!
- Re-evaluate your insurance costs. Are you still getting the best possible deal? If not, maybe it’s time to switch providers or policies. It’s also definitely worth looking into the possibility of “bundling” your policies by taking care of all of your insurance needs at one company- there may be some great deals to be had by doing things this way!
- Lower your interest rates if you can. This is much more possible with some types of debt (like credit cards) than others (like student loans, unless you consolidate)- but this one can be a biggie because if you get a better deal on your interest rate you can literally save thousands over the course of the loan/debt period. It’s DEFINITELY worth calling up your credit card companies to check on this one, especially if you have credit card debt that you are paying interest on.
- Re-evaluate the automatic draws from your account every month. I think it’s easy to get into the trap of just continually paying for something just because it’s a habit and- especially if it’s an automated draw from your bank account- it’s easy and you don’t even really think about it. For example, a few years ago the hubs and I had memberships at a gym that was located about four miles from our home. We almost never made it there because it was inconvenient to go. Luckily one day we woke up and realized this. Cancelling those memberships saved us more than $100 per month!
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, just a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing! I know some of you have likely come up with other ways to save money on your fixed expenses- and I want to hear all about them! Please let me know in the comment section the best ways that YOU’VE scored deals/discounts/decreases, or other ways to save on your fixed expenses!
Suggested Reading: While doing research for this post, I came across a great book with TONS of ideas for insulating and weatherproofing your home. If you are interested in become more energy efficient-savvy, I recommend checking out Insulate and Weatherize: For Energy Efficiency at Home (Taunton’s Build Like a Pro)
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I wonder how the cable companies have any customers anymore? We did the same thing when they raised our cable bill after the “promotional period”. With all of the other entertainment available on the internet (and who doesn’t need the internet, anyway), cable is obsolete. Love your ideas! I wish we could get our trash bill down, but it’s pat of our (ridiculously) high city taxes. I am planning on saving this article and sharing it with the other half later on. First call? The insurance company! Thanks! 🙂
No kidding about the cable companies! It’s just not worth it when it’s so dirt cheap to get fairly decent other options like Hulu and Prime. Plus we can still get the network stations with our Mohu leaf, so we feel like we’re barely missing anything!
We do this about once or twice a year; double check to make sure we are getting the cheapest rates on phone service, insurance, utilities, etc. Last year we made some phone calls, switched some services and saved $200 a month! It was a huge savings for us.
Awesome! Wow, that $200 a month savings is pretty sweet!
It was mostly on a cell phone bill. We switched from Sprint to Ting and saved $100 a month just on that bill alone!
Sweet! I need to look into our cell phone provider next. It’s going to take some research though, because coverage in our area can be iffy unless you have Verizon I think. That’s who we have, but I’m getting tired of paying their prices. I plan to do some digging and try to determine exactly what my coverage might look like if we had a different provider.
My favourite is #3. When we can totally eliminate an unnecessary expense, I’m super happy! We’ve taken to trying to drop our “fixed” expenses too because we’re already pretty low on our variable costs and I like a challenge.
Exactly. We’ve cut out most subscription-based services for that reason. Cable was the most recent one to go, and we’ve hardly missed it so far!
Great points, thanks! Controlling fixed expenses–and really, really thinking carefully before adding a new fixed expense–are big parts I think of living below one’s means. I’m not as diligent as I need to be (and your article has inspired me to do better!) but I do shop our various insurances each time the policy renews. That has saved us many thousands of dollars over the years.
We do the same- we try really hard not to add expenses that are going to cost us money on a regular basis and therefore increase our cost of living. It’s much more fun to get rid those expenses than it is to add them!
So true Dee! This is why I always review the main budget/fixed categories every few months and see if I can get them any lower!
That’s excellent! I think it’s kind of a fun challenge to see which expenses I can ratchet down lower and lower!! Working on hubby’s life insurance right now!
It’s been a while since I’ve shopped around for my “fixed” expenses. Thanks for the reminder!
I know, I have to admit it had been a while for us too, which is why we are taking some time this fall to sort of re-evaluate everything!!
It’s amazing what can happen if you just ask for a discount. I’ve saved a ton jut by seeing if there was a discount that could be applied. Many times there was and I saved money. The trick is making you realize how important $5 or $10 is. For me, I just take the amount I save and how long it took me to save it and turn it into an hourly rate. So if I just saved $10 with a 5 minute phone call, I multiply $10 by 12 (12 times 5 is 60 minutes) to see that I just made the equivalent of $120.
Nice! It’s even more fun to save money on those expenses when you think of it that way!
We are really becoming pros at this. We just dropped our car and homeowners insurance by about $1,000 a year. When you work on your fixed expenses, there is much cash to be saved.
Fantastic work!! It’s so true that you can save a boatload when you work on the fixed expenses- since they are recurring, you’ll save that money over and over many times!
I also need to get around shopping for the best deals. I think my internet’s “promotion” is ending this month so that is where I need to start, then auto policies when February renewal comes around. Thanks for the reminder!
The so-called “promotional rates” drive me nuts. To me, saying that “the promotional period has ended” is the exact same thing as “we’re raising our rates.” They just think it sounds better to say you had a promotional rate. I’m not missing that about cable AT ALL.
Good article. I’ve done most of them, but #10 got me thinking — I need to go double-check the PayPal automatic withdrawals coming from my account. I think there’s a couple I could drop.
Excellent! Hope it saves you some money!!
I’d also suggest checking out the interest rate you’re getting on Savings Accounts etc.
There’s a huge opportunity to get a higher rate by moving banks or calling your bank to see what the best rate is out there.
That’s a great tip too!
I like it! Yep, all of those fixed expenses add up if they grow over time. I like to reevaluate those things throughout the year so I don’t get used to paying more without realizing it.
That’s the scary thing- we sort of get used to what our fixed expenses are and we sometimes forget to re-evaluate! That’s awesome that you do it throughout the year- I think doing it on a regular basis is the best way to create the habit of continuing to ask the question, “do I really need to be paying x amount of dollars for y?”
Multiple trash providers? Soooo jealous. Everywhere I’ve lived as an adult has the city doing the trash. So you either get the city or you take stuff to the dump yourself. Happily, we don’t have to parcel out by can. We’re one of the few houses in our neighborhood that just has a common can out back. So we don’t have to worry about overages.
We just refinanced to get rid of our PMI and took our payment down by $30. Doesn’t sound like much, but it means that $80 a month now goes directly to principal instead of dumb insurance. And $30 does add up over the course of a month.
We’re also looking into switching from Vonage to Republic Wireless. They have a $5/month plan for unlimited talk anywhere there’s WiFi. We’re already dependent on an Internet connection for the phone. Might as well save $30.
Excellent! Every little bit you save helps! I think that the $30 sounds great- better going toward principal than PMI!!
I saved $800.00 This years and will also save that next year. I went on Zillow. com to see what my property was worth. What homes that were similar to mine in my area were selling for. I discovered that they had gone down in price. So, I also realized that the property tax assessment was way too high!! I contacted the person that does this in my area. He contacted me back in about 3 weeks( I was Nice to him- not yelling ) I was told over the phone my new LOWER bill and then received the proof of it in the mail. I was able to prepay my property taxes(because they were lower) ahead of time and then I got a little MORE money back from my income taxes!!!! Sweet!!!
I LOVE this, Ramona! I bet this is something that could apply right now to many homeowners, since in many areas the real estate costs have still not yet fully bounced back. Thanks so much for sharing!
Great article. I’ve done almost all of them, but #10 acquired me thinking — I want to go double-check the PayPal programmed withdrawals coming from my account. I think there’s a couple I actually could drop.
It’s easy to forget those! Hope you are able to save some $$$ that way!!