Every once in a while I’ll check out some articles on Yahoo! Finance. It’s been an on again, off again love affair between me and their site for a little over a decade. Sometimes they have some really great stuff, but for some reason I just don’t have the desire to check their site every day (I am drawn more to the ones listed in my blog roll…). Anyhow, this one is great – not necessarily for their list, but for the idea behind the list.
We’ve talked about cutting spending a number of ways and even mentioned that they don’t necessarily have to “hurt.” We’ve also talked about how simply “paying attention” to your money can save you money and reduce waste in a number of ways. But let’s focus today on concept that you can cut spending and not even notice the cuts. I’ve given a few examples of these (Take my switch from PSEG to partially renewable energy. Once I made the switch nothing changed but my electric bill).
Here are the seven that Yahoo! lists, with a little comment by yours truly:
- Know where your money goes. Their advice is basically to track your spending on a monthly basis. Then cut your budget by 5% one month. Then 5% more the next. Do this until you start feeling it and put the saved $$ into savings or use it to pay down debts. I like the concept. The point is that each percentage cut may not be noticed because it’s a relatively small percentage. I’m not sure the advice is very practical though. There are things you can’t just waive a magic wand at and pay 5% less on (like your mortgage and real estate taxes (although you might be able to refinance and you could appeal your assessment, I guess)). So there may be more than a 5% strain on your discretionary spending by this. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but you’ll probably “notice.”
- Make a grocery list and don’t stray. I can’t tell you how much my wife and I saved doing this! I love this one. We only recently started doing this and the first time we saved at least $50 for one week’s worth of groceries. We also combined it with couponing and got $130 worth of groceries (that were all useful because we made a list based on a menu) for $80. And that $50 savings doesn’t include the “waste” of impulse spending on grocery items we don’t need or really even want – but looked good. I would say we saved at least $100 total including accounting for waste. It took my wife a little less than two hours from start to finish. So $100 saved (after taxes) over two hours is certainly worthwhile for us. Take that all of you “but it takes time so it’s not worth it” folks!
- Mothball a car. Again, I like it but you’ll probably “notice.” I don’t think it would be as painful as you think though. For a couple without kids, you may be surprised that a little coordination can save a ton of money. Or, if you really think you “need” two cars, consider downsizing one of them to a perhaps-not-so-gently used one. You could save a little bit there (lower insurance, lower price, lower depreciation, but possibly slightly higher repairs, which shouldn’t offset all the savings) and barely notice the difference.
- Try free phone service. I don’t use a land line, but I have friends who do and switched to Ooma or MagicJack and they love it. Sure some of it may be post-purchase justification (we all do that, right?). But I’ve talked with them on their lines and it sounds fine to me. Bonus: I’ve heard, not confirmed, that if you have a MagicJack, you can bring it with you on vacation to many places and can make free calls home with just an Internet connection.
- Trim television services. Again, depending on the cut, you may notice. There may be more basic packages that you would be fine with than you have now. Check it out. Great example: my wife and I moved from NYC to Jersey in May of 2009. We went from one cable provider to another. The Jersey cable doesn’t carry Lifetime Movie Network. My wife loves the Lifetime movies for some reason I’ll never understand…
But, in almost a year and a half, there has been exactly one time she “missed it.” A lot of programming is available for free online, too. So you may still be able to watch “your shows” on a more basic cable package. - Recheck insurance rates. This is one you may actually not notice. It’s a good idea to check all of your insurance rates from time to time. I try to check them twice a year. The industry is so competitive and volatile that rates seem to change all the time. Plus, your coverage needs can change in both directions (i.e. your car is now old so you need less coverage v. you have two more kids so you need more life insurance). I’ve heard a lot of folks talk about receiving lower life insurance premiums five years after they purchased a policy. So they’re five years older and their rate is lower. So grab your policies and get some quotes.
- Forget about green; go brown! Eh. I get it – save water and don’t water your lawn. Would you “notice” that? Probably. I’m not an expert on how much it would cost to “repair” a lawn if you need or want to bring it back to life, so I can’t talk intelligently on the actual numbers. I guess if you’re not planning on selling your house any time soon, you could probably cut your sprinkler time in half and not do too much damage to your bottom line. But if you want to sell your house, I would think having a green lawn would certainly help the value and “sellability” of your home.
So, as usual, the idea is great. And, as usual, I don’t agree with a lot of the detail
You can certainly find things to cut that you may not notice (like our electricity savings). I’m not sure I agree (at least with the “not noticeing” part) of all of them. But some of them I do, for sure. Controlling insurance costs is an easy one that you can save money and not notice.
From a simply “saving money” perspective, I especially like 2, 3, 6. The others won’t really help me because we already budget pretty aggressively, don’t have a home phone, have basic cable plus only the baseball package online (although next year I’m cutting the baseball package… sorry Red Sox, you’ll have to make due without my $99 per year), and have no lawn.
What do you think? What expenses have you cut that you don’t notice?
Until next time, put your credit card down and slowly step away from the mall!
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