Managing Home Maintenance Costs

Many consumers are very frustrated with the monthly bills they pay. They want to know how can I lower my bills? I too had this same questions and discovered how I can lower my bills without too much work. There are lots of web sites out there that are focused on renegotiating mortgages and loans etc, but basically they want a piece of the action and they will end up costing you more money. There are lots of ways that you can knock a few dollars of a variety of things and end up saving hundreds of dollars a month. Some involve negotiating with the vender for a lower price, while others involve changing your habits so that  your monthly bill is less.

How Can I Lower My Bills

Ask for a Discount

We believe in the motto: “Always ask for a discount, the worst that will happen is that they say NO”!

Here is a Short list of Quick methods to Lower Bills

• Use less fuel
• Negotiate a new low interest rate mortgage
• Get a new Telecom plan
• Get a new Cable TV / Satellite TV plan
• Eat out less
• Buy Discount
• Take the bus
• Take your lunch to work
• Coupons
• Do It Yourself – DIY

Review all of Your Utility costs to Lower Your Bills

Water, Heating and electrical usage can not be negotiated since they are provided by city or large government agencies in many locations. But you can control these bills to some extent by managing your usage – turning the heat down at night during winter time and the AC up in the summer will make a significant difference on these bills. Dry your clothes in low cost time frames on the weekend and turn off lights in rooms that are not in use. Water usage can be reduced by migrating to low flow toilets shower  heads and faucets.

Cable TV, Telephone, Mobile and Internet services can all be negotiated. First you need to do a little work to investigate what the competition will offer you if you were to switch accounts to another provider. Then approach your provider and ask them what they are willing to do. Inmost cases if you have your facts together, they will offer discounts over your current billing. I recently did this and saved almost a $100 a month! That is a lot and really contributes to lowering my bills.

Use less Fuel

Take the bus to work, walk more, keep your vehicle properly tuned and ensure that your tires are properly inflated. Plan your trips to reduce mileage, drive at the speed limit instead of 10 miles an hour over and avoid jack rabbit starts and stops.

Negotiate a new low Interest Rate Mortgage

If your currently paying a high interest rate, you may save some money and reduce your monthly bill as well by renegotiating your mortgage. There will be fee’s associated with a new mortgage, so compare this cost with what you are saving to ensure that overall your monthly bill is going to be less.

Eat out Less

Many people eat out 4 or 5 times a week or even more. Even cutting one of those times can save a lot in monthly costs. In some cases well over $100 per month. Eating in with the family can be fun to if plan properly

Buy Discount

Never pay full price for anything you buy unless it is an emergency situation. All items either go on sale at some point or they can be negotiated to a lower price. Be patient and save money by looking for the discounts.

Take your Lunch to Work

More and more people are eating out for lunch, yet you can save money by making your own. I know people who spend more than $10 every day for lunch, yet they could save at least half of that by making their own lunch. That would add up to around $100 a month in savings.

Coupons

Coupons are a big deal in some locations and not so much in others. Whenever you get the chance to save some money by using a coupon do it. We have all watched the reality shows , extreme couponing etc. You may not go that extent, but even if you save money each time you shop, it can add up.

Do It Yourself – DIY

This is potentially a big one and that is DIY or do it yourself. If you are not handy and not willing to learn it may not work for you. Many consumers save themselves thousands of dollars every year by doing repairs and renovations themselves. Teach yourself, talk to the experts, ask friends to help. Whatever it takes do it yourself, just make sure you know how to do the work safely and correctly.

These are lots of good ideas about how can I lower my bills. They may not all apply to everyone, but even if you can use one and save $100 a month your ahead of the game. Give us your comments about this post and how to lower your bills. If you leave a well written comment, we will even approve a link back to your own site if you have one.

Save

How many of us have their utility and bill payment on auto payment with our bank? Do you check your bills for accuracy? More and more people are doing this and there is a good argument for having all of our bills paid automatically so that we do not miss a payment and risk a hit on our credit rating. After all if you miss a payment then there is also an automatic report to the credit rating agencies and your credit rating is lowered!

There is nothing wrong with taking this approach and it means you no longer have to worry about missing a payment and also having a penalty fee assigned to your account as well. But we believe that consumers should still review their monthly invoices to ensure they are accurate and they are not paying more than they should for everything.

Check Your Bills for Accuracy

This is a potentially huge issue however, especially if your invoice is incorrect, since there are many invoices that could have small changes or additions that cause more expense to be added. If you do not look at your invoice and your bill is automatically paid, you may be paying too much.

Some will say that this is not a problem, we have generally 30 days to review the accuracy of the invoices and get back to the company who issued the invoice. This is usually correct, however if you miss that 30 day window, then you have lost your chance to dispute the additional charges.

The message is in this post is check all of your bills that you pay every month. This includes credit cards bills, utility bills, phone bills and bank account statements. All of these are potential areas for consumers to lose sometimes hundreds of dollars without even being aware of it.

Look for anything that might be considered abnormal on your invoice. An extra charge, an extra service fee, fee’s that were negotiated to be removed and credits that you might be expecting.

Some Examples of Extra Billing & Service Charges

I recently opened a bank account with Wells Farg. I was promised that as long as I made regular deposits to my savings account I would not be charged a monthly service fee. They also told me that I had two months to begin making regular deposits. Low and behold, I get my first statement and there is a $10 bank service fee. $10 is a large amount for a bank service fee! Turns out that the grace period for the service charge had been changed from two months to one month. After some discussion I was able to get this fee reversed. But it took my time and a long distance phone call to have this reversed.

Another example was for our local telephone company, Bell Canada. I had noticed that my long distance plan had gradually increased over time from $5.00 per month to $11.95. This plan gives me a package of free long distance each month. When I queried this charge and why it had increased, I was told that I was given an extra 1000 minutes for the additional monthly charge! I don’t even make 500 long distance minutes of calling a month let alone 1500! We changed this back to 500 long distance minutes and $5.00 a month , a savings of $6.95 a month.

Do you check your credit card bill every month to make sure that your charges and credits are accurate. Sometimes there is a duplicate charge or an additional fee. This has happened to us several time over the years. It has saves us quite a bit of money after having these fees reversed!

Checking Your Invoices Each Month Takes Little Time

It only takes one or two minutes per invoice or even less to verify the accuracy of your invoices. If they are accurate, there is no problem. You have not lost much time and you have peace of mind that you are not paying more than you should.

On the other hand you might say why would I waste my time for $10 or $15 dollars. I can make more than that in the time it takes to call and straighten it all out. For some this may be true. However consider that if you pay an extra $15 every month. You have to earn approximately $25 before taxes to pay for this. That’s $300 a year, or a days pay for many people. It is worth following up on some of these expenses!

Send us comments on corrections or extra charges you have found on your bills and how you saved money. This is what this web site is all about , saving money for the average person!

Save