Sunday, July 6, 2014

A Practical Approach on Saving Up to $9595.61 Per Year


Description
Annual Savings
Switch your car insurance. I was able to go from 127.55/month to 82.14 by switching to All State Insurance.
Annual savings came out to $454.10 because I only pay for 10 months out of the year. 
Buy GE 13-Watt Energy SmartTM light bulbs for your entire home. An 8 pack goes for $10.49 on Amazon.com. My Electric bill went from approximately $55/Month to $37/Month.
Annual savings is approximately $216.00
Switch to an affordable phone plan such as Boost Mobile. My ATT bill was $73.44/month and I currently pay $47.25/month with Boost Mobile for unlimited everything.
Annual savings is $314.28, but because you have to buy a phone let’s deduct $100.00 from that total. Your still saving $214.28 for the year!
Print out $10 worth of coupons for your weekly grocery trip. You can always find at least $10 worth of items you buy weekly at coupons.com.
Annual savings is $520.00
Buy a Zerowater ZD-018 water filtration dispenser for $35.99 and ditch the 24 packs of water. I am going to assume that you will need to buy 2 ZR-017 replacement filters for the year. A 2 pack goes for $24.95 on Amazon.com. You total cost will be $60.94 for the dispenser and replacement filters for the year. If you’re catching a sale, you can usually buy a 24 pack of water for $3.99. I am going to assume that the 24 pack will last for the week, and if that were true the total would be $207.48 for the year.
Annual savings is $146.54
Cut your cable and get Netflix streaming to your television. I feel like a hypocrite here because I currently pay $78.14/month with Dish Network but I love football, soccer, HGTV, Comedy Central, AXS TV, etc. I am not ready to cut the cord yet, however I know many people are doing this and saving a ton of money a year. So let’s assume I paid $8.99 for Netflix and cancelled Dish Network. Dish Network will cost me $937.68 for the year and Netflix would only cost $107.88 for the year.
Annual Savings is $829.80
Switch your bank savings account to GE Capital bank and earn .90% APY. I was earning .10% APY at my local bank so if I kept my $10,000 in that bank I would earn approximately $12 for the year. Let’s assume that I never make any more deposits for the year and keep $10,000 at the bank earning .90% APY. I am now getting approximately $108 for the year in interest.  
Annual savings is $96.00
Quit smoking. An average pack of cigarettes in Massachusetts costs $8.77. If you smoke one pack a day that will mean you spent $3201.05 for the year.
Annual savings is $3201.05
Quit buying that Dunkin Donuts coffee. Let’s assume you buy a coffee at Dunkin Donuts for $2.10 and for 5 days a week. That would cost you $546.00/year.
Annual savings is $546.00
Clean your car’s air filter. A clean air filter can improve your gas mileage by up to 7%, which can save you more than $100 for the year. This is assuming you add about 10,000 miles for the year, which I think, is about average.
Annual savings $100.00
Go for fuel efficiency when buying a car. Again I am being a hypocrite here because I chose comfort when I bought my Cadillac last year. Let’s say you drive a vehicle for 80,000 miles. You choose a 35 miles per gallon car over 25 miles per gallon car, you save 2,133 gallons of gas. Assuming the price of gas is $3.75/gallon, that’s $7,998.75 in savings right there.
Annual Savings is $999.84
Stop paying so much in rent and find something for less. Back in 2006 I was paying $650/month for a one-bedroom studio and I am now paying $500/month for a two-bedroom apartment.
Annual Savings is $1,800.
Pay off the credit card bill and stop paying the costly interest. I had a $1,000 balance on my Discover card with a 22% APR. This means I paid approximately $22.00/month just on the interest. If I kept the same balance for the entire year this would cost $264.00. Yikes!
Annual Savings is $264.00
I saved the best for last! If you are going out for a night in town, pre-game at home first. A beer at the bar will cost $5 but you can get a 12 pack at the store for about $1/beer. Since I go out every Friday night I am saving $4 by having my first beer at home. This way when I go out for the night I will order one beer. That is my limit!
Annual Savings is $208.00

3 comments:

  1. Great list! I've done several of these already. Went from cable to Hulu and Amazon Prime and haven't missed cable much. Also, I cut car insurance a bit by adjusting some of the deductibles. My next plan to cut costs is to drop Verizon and try Republic Wireless.

    Regards,
    Dear Dividend

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  2. DD, thanks for stopping by. I have a few expenses I would also like to cut out in the future. My monthly expenses are currently in the $1200-$1400 range but I would like to cut it down to $1000. I heard Verizon can be a little costly. It's crazy how they charge customers all kinds of hidden fees. Best of luck to you!

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  3. Nice List Mongrel...I see a few we've done and a few more we still need to do. Thanks for sharing. Best Wishes. AFFJ

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