Cutting Expenses Part 2

An area where cuts can help a lot with your bottom line is utilities, primarily heating and cooling. Of course, the cost of utilities vary greatly depending on where you live, both because of the climate and the cost of power. The latter varies greatly with the source of power. Several years ago the cost of natural gas became extremely high and people who used it were wishing they could heat with electricity. Now, natural gas prices are down, and the reverse is true. But apart from the type of energy you use for heating and cooling, the only real way to control its usage, assuming your house is insulated properly, is to lower the thermostat in the winter and raise it in the summer. (And by lowering and raising, we do not mean moving it close to the floor in the winter and near the ceiling in the summer.) We know this can be difficult, especially for older people. We used to keep our house at about 70 deg in the winter, but as we aged, this became unacceptable. So, now we keep it at 73 deg. Right now we can afford that, but should prices rise, we may have to resort to using space heaters just in the part of the house we are currently in or bundling up more. We have always kept the house at 78 deg in the summer, but Randy has to supplement with fans to be comfortable as he is more warm natured than Kathy. Anyway, in your case, you just have to find a balance between comfort and your checking account.

Other big power users are stoves, ovens, and clothes dryers. So, if you can limit the usage of stoves and ovens for cooking, you can save money. But if you make the alternative to eat out, then you’ve just shifted a few dollars in savings on utilities to a lot of dollars of non-savings on food. One thing we do is to use a toaster oven for smaller items rather than heating up the big oven. If push comes to shove, the clothes dryer can be eliminated altogether by using the old fashioned method of drying: hanging on a clothes line in the back yard. This may not be feasible when the weather is bad, but we can remember as a child having clothes hanging on racks around the house when it was raining. And we can also remember having ice on our clothes when they were hung outside and the weather turned cold unexpectedly. The point is: use your best judgment about when to use certain types of energy. If your budget is tight, these are the types of decisions that must be made on a daily basis.

Little things you can do include: turning off lights and devices when not being used, letting sunlight into the house in the winter and blocking it in the summer, putting insulation on your hot water heater, using fluorescent bulbs rather than incandescent, taking fewer hot showers in the winter, and hand-washing dishes rather than using a dish washer. In general, just become more aware of how you are using energy around the house and cut where possible.

Another area for a large potential in savings is communications. Are you paying for a landline phone service? Cell phone service? TV service? Internet service? Pager service? There are so many communication services available, it can eat up a lot of money. When it’s all said and done, you could eliminate all these services and still live well. It wasn’t that long ago that many of these services didn’t even exist. We know that in our modern society these things all seem essential, but in reality they are simply just desirable. Even if you decide you don’t want to rid yourself of any of these conveniences, there are ways to lower your cost.

Consolidate. If you have landline phone service with one company, cell phone service with another, and Internet service with yet another, then you can most likely save quite a bit of money by consolidating these services with one company. We just recently rolled our landline phone, TV, and Internet service into a bundle with one company. We will save about $80 per month for the first year and about $40 per month from then on. If you really don’t want to change service, we have heard about other people talking to the companies they currently have service with and asking for a good customer discount. Many times they will give you the same price they offer to first time customers for a year. If asking doesn’t work, you can tell them you are planning to switch your service to another company unless they can give you a better price. Although we still like having a landline phone, we have a lot of friends and family that have dropped this and converted totally to cell service. This can save you money for sure, especially if you bundle the cell service with TV and Internet service.

Another great money drainer is transportation costs. The current high cost of gasoline is driving much of that. However, if you have a proclivity for new expensive cars, most of your problem may be high car payments. If you are on a tight budget, you have no business buying expensive cars. Go for the lower cost vehicles that get high gas mileage. If you can find a decent used one, then you can save even more.

Buying used is what Dave Ramsey recommends, but we personally like buying new vehicles and driving them until they break down and are too expensive to repair and maintain. However, we do invest in having our vehicles serviced regularly, believing that this will prolong the life of the vehicles and thus save us money over the long run. But that’s us. We have a relatively decent income and have been able to afford new cars when needed. However, our son owns a used car and it has served him well now for several years. If our income were lower and we were in need of a vehicle, we wouldn’t hesitate buying used. Also, if you have the skill and the time, you might want to do some of the servicing yourself to save money.

If you live a long distance from your job, you seriously need to think about carpooling to save money. We know this can be inconvenient, but if saving money is your goal, it will be well worth it. If you use public transportation, you might consider riding a bicycle or even walking, if possible and the weather permits.

Be creative. Record how you are spending your money and put together a plan on how to reduce that amount. You must begin to be totally honest with yourself about what is really needed and what is merely wanted. Thinking that something is needed rather than simply wanted leads many people to becoming impulse buyers. They’ll go to the store to pick up a few needed items and leave the store with three times as many wanted items as needed items. This is not good. But some people have a bad habit, or even a compulsion, to rationalize to themselves that a wanted thing is really a needed thing. Like, “I really need an iPad. It’s so much easier to play solitaire while riding down the road than using cards. And I can check my Email without having to get on my computer.” Come on now. That’s not a valid reason. Unless you need an iPad to do your job, then it remains a luxury item for those that want it and can afford it. If you don’t have the money, let the iPad remain at the store. Then have a long discussion with yourself. Conduct an intervention if you will. On YOURSELF. Tell yourself, “I don’t really need all this stuff, I just want it. So, get over it, self! Quit borrowing money to support my spending habits. I’ll be glad I did.” Once you have these ideas firmly planted inside your head, you will find that you really can leave those wanted items on the store shelf. If you find that you cannot, then you may need to seek professional help.

So, let’s stop here. We hope you take these suggestions to heart and that it helps you to live within the budget your income allows.