This post is only for people who have decided to reduce their expenses and increase their savings as a new year resolution. When I was speaking to my friend, she was asking me about geico quote as it reduced some of her monthly premium, then I got a thought that is there any way that I can reduce my expenses and be better at savings. So I started going through my bank statement and started looking at unnecessary expenses and started analyzing it and thought of reducing them. I will be mentioning about the savings that we can make -
First thing was I was having a credit score tracking equifax account for which I was paying $17.95 per month. I called them and told them I wanted to cancel my subscription. So they told that they will reduce the price to $8.98 per month for next 12 months with same services. So I saved around $9 per month.
Next when I looked at my statement and found that one payment was automatically paid to renew my account for $145. so I called them and told that I do not want to renew my account. so they cancelled renewal and refunded the amount.
I have a amazon prime account for 1 year which is about to auto renew in next month. So I kept a remainder to cancel my auto renewal 3 days before auto renewal.
I had saavn account for 4$ per month. So i thought to cancel the premium subscription and start downloading online and load it into my iphone.
Next big thing is my auto insurance. I am currently paying around 212$ per month. So i decided to call my insurance company and ask if there is any way to reduce that premium. She told following things. I was having automatic payment from my debit card so I changed to handle based on routing number and that reduced premium by $4. Then moved to Personal Injury Protection deductible for which she asked me to increase the deductible to more instead of 250$. It reduced the premium by 10 more dollars. There is a option for PIP coverage option called Primary, Health Primary, Medical Primary and Medical Health primary. I asked her I already have a health insurance so do I need this coverage still. She told if your health insurance covers auto accident, you can change the coverage option to health primary or medical health primary. So have to check with my health insurance and confirm which will reduce my premium by $20 more per month. I had an accident claim in 2012 and my premium increased because of that as surcharge will be added and will be which will be wiaved after 2 years as it is 2 years since my accident, i got to know that from my next reneweal, that surcharge worth of 240$ will be waived and my premium will be reduced by 40$ more per month.
My friend, she brought another thing into my attention regarding the coupons at grocery stores. Generally we bachelors will not think much about coupons but these coupons makes a decent savings. So planning to print in store coupons online and use them while shopping. Hoping it will work and reduce a little too. As of now I got the links for Target and Shop rite.
When some one goes to walgreens, apply for their card and they have good amount of savings too. I founf this when I recently bought a 12 pack of water bottles and I found that I have points which I can use and it just like that saved 3$ on a 5$ purchase.
These mentioned are my expenses. But each one will have their own expenses and own priorities. Hope this helps in determining their own expenses and start increasing their savings. All the best in 2015 :)