You don’t always have to sacrifice to save. Just look for solutions.

So a little over five years ago I cut the cord. I decided ESPN, the History channel (which no longer showed history), and dozens of unwatched channels could go. Our cord was actually a dish provider running us $60 per month. However, it was the middle of the NFL season and the Walking Dead had just premiered on A&E and I likey me some zombies and Green Bay Packers. So it was going to pinch a little.

 

I had heard of this new crazy fad called Netflix where you could watch shows and movies online. Weird, watch shows on my computer. Maybe it’s more than a fad. Did some exploring and realized there were already a lot of free shows from the networks and cable channels online. I was looking for ways to cut monthly costs since internet was $70 per month, two phones were running $160+, car payment $200+, and house payment $1,200. This seemed my only option.

 

The simple math was exciting. I would be saving $720/year. Giving myself a little raise that year. Maybe I could pay off my car a little faster (or keep up with the repairs). In the 60 months since making that decision, we’ve saved at least $3,600.

 

This got me looking for other ways I could cut costs without really sacrificing. About a year later we downgraded our smartphones to a couple of crap phones, but it dropped our phone bill by $60/ month. SWEET! cha ching! Then Clark Howard caught my interest with the discount smartphone companies. Some companies were under $20/month per smartphone. I was very skeptical and researched each company for a couple months. Then I thought, let’s get one, try it out, and if it works we’ll switch completely. So that’s what we did. That was about 2.5 years ago. We’ve had  three different companies and two different phones, but never a monthly bill over $40 (usually less than $35) total for two smartphones. Some companies had very limited options for phones, but now we have two Motorola G 3rd gen and they are wicked fast. To limit the bill we maximize our use of wifi and minimize data usage. Our wifi calls actually sound better than than phone minute calls. SO quick math: 30 months x $120/month saving compared to old smartphone plan = $3,600 at least!

 

 

So two simple changes which required really no sacrifice on our part saved over $7,200 in 5 years. This opened our eyes. Where else could we cut and not really even notice? No amount was too small. This summer I switched our car insurance to almost identical coverage and cut the premiums in half ($600/year). Aldi is our store of choice. Dollar Shave Club allows me to use a new razor every two weeks without guilt. Shopping is NOT a form of entertainment!!

Then we looked at our debts and decided they were next and we have begun to be much more purposeful with our retirement savings, but that’s for different posts.