Do you find that you’re spending a lot of money on digital services? I think that if most people sit down and review where they are spending money, they will notice that expenses such as the telephone, cable, internet, fax, and cell phone are taking up an increasingly large portion of their monthly income. The New York Times ran an article the other talking about how people might go about cutting the costs of their digital services. A quick clip from that article:
Off in the corner of my desk sat a forlorn fax machine. Once humming with activity, it had been quiet for most of the last three years, except for the occasional times it spit out an ad for a fake vacation or bogus health care plan. I gave it little thought. That was the problem.
I canceled the fax’s rarely used, but just as rarely noticed, phone line and cut my monthly expenses by $30.
Go ahead and read the article linked above and you’ll see how this particular writer cut more money out of his monthly digital expenses. Most of the suggestions in the article equate to Cutting Your Expenses 101 which means that if you’ve ever sat down and given your monthly income and expenses a real review, you probably already cut these unnecessary costs. That said, I’m sure that there are some people out there who will read this article and – for the first time – realize that they could be saving hundreds of dollars each month (thousands each year) if they just cut out some unnecessary expenses.
A personal example: A few years ago when I sat down and had a serious look at my finances, I noticed that I was paying for a very expensive cell phone plan. Sure, at one point I needed hundreds upon hundreds of minutes each month, but when I reviewed my usage it was clear that I didn’t need such a robust plan any more (and that I hadn’t needed that plan in many months). So I cut the plan back and my cell phone bill went from north of $100 per month to a little bit more than $50 per month. That’s a pretty good bit of savings if you ask me!
The same thing happened with my car insurance. When I looked at the invoice last year I noticed a bunch of fees that were worded such that no one could understand what they meant. I asked the car insurance company what they meant and while most of them were legit, there were two nominal fees that were obviously unnecessary – I had them cut out. Okay, so that only saves me $15 – $20 per year, but it adds up.
Take a read of that article and then, if you haven’t already, find some time to sit down and seriously review your finances. In today’s economy, there’s no need for you to be making some company rich paying for services that you don’t even use!
Nice job lowering your cell bill. I would add, however, that just because you get a better rate doesn’t necessarily mean you’re suddenly getting the best rate possible. The carriers are in this to make money, not to save you cash in a tough economy. Not to blatantly plug, but I would suggest that besides only cutting back on your usage, check out the online cell bill reduction company that I work for, Validas, which saves people an average of 22 percent off their cells bills through the website http://www.fixmycellbill.com. Our modifications to your plan are uniquely structured around your individual usage patterns; Validas works for you rather than the cell companies. Additionally, Validas tells you exactly how much money our changes to your plan would save you before you are committed to paying a cent. Compare your projected savings to the cost of the Validas service, and then only pay if Validas can save you more than our fees cost. Our cell bill audits start at five bucks, and the average consumer saves $450 annually with our bill modifications. Check out Validas on Good Morning America at http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6887412&page=1.
I bet you’ll see that strategies like reducing your usage may improve your rates but will not maximize your savings.
Dylan