Money Saving Expert
As part of our on-going cost-cutting exercise chez Howlett the latest cut (not literally) is our phone line.
Getting rid of the BT line will save us about £90 a quarter. At the same time I've moved all our mobile contracts from Vodafone to Tesco Mobile. Tesco are doing a SIM-only package with 500mins, 5000texts and 500MB for a tenner a month at the moment!
Tesco's mobile network runs on O2's network and, so far, we noticed an improvement in general service and reception strength.
All in we're going to save about 80 or 90 pounds a month. Over a year that's, like, nearly a grand in savings!
| Monthly Outgoings | |||
| Before | After | Saving | |
| Mobiles | 90 | 35 | 55 |
| Landline | 30 | 0 | 30 |
| 120 | 35 | 85 |
We could do this by virtue of the fact we all own our own phones. From now on we'll just have to use them to make and receive calls. This is bound to upset our parents who don't like calling mobiles, but, hey, I'm not spending money to save other people money.
One massive bonus we get out of cutting our landline is no longer getting nuisance calls. Karen didn't go ex-directory when we got the line and the number of sales calls we got was becoming a joke.
I know what you're thinking - how will I get broadband? Well, the house had two separate lines. One in to the house and a business line to my office. The ADSL is on the business line, which I'll be keeping.
It feels good knowing I'm saving money. Why not see how much you can save?
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Another way to save: service recently improved in our area from 1.5 mbit to 4 mbit. It's about a $4 upgrade now for us to go from slowest to fastest, while a few months back it was $20. Partly owing to a recent Supreme Court ruling that carriers can't charge competitors more than cost to share a network, I suspect. So, yeah, spending a tiny bit more but getting more than a 4x speed increase (we were on 756kbit).
As an aside... we found you can save on sandwiches by buying by the foot from the deli (party platter) and freezing unused portions over going to the local sandwich shop. One family meal for $20 or about 4 or 5 family meals for $25. :-)
Saving money is fun... almost habit forming.
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Definitely habit forming. I'm like a man possessed. It's a good job Karen's from Yorkshire (you might not get that joke) and is as enthusiastic as I am.
It's Minnie's b'day party on Sunday so we going to our local Morrison's supermarket just before it closes on Friday night - when they reduce all the bakery goods for that day to next-to-nothing prices. A dozen finger rolls for 2p and the like. Bonus.
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The biggest saving we made was getting rid of one of our two cars. All costs included, it saves us at least 6000 EUR per year.
The other big thing was in grocery shopping. By going to a cheaper store, we save about 120 EUR per month.
Luckily, I am blessed in not liking shopping or spending money at all. I'm not cheap, I just feel that I have what I need. I only spend when I really use or desire something, not spend for the sake of spending. I also care little about constantly having the newest branded clothes, which is a huge saving as well.
Another aspect is to be secure in who you are. My neighbor has this brand new shiny huge car. We have a little old one. Some people would get jealous or feel a social pressure to upgrade their car, as a status symbol. I am the opposite of that. I laugh at these inflated cars on maxed out loans. And I smile at our own car, knowing that it takes me from A to B. And if it stops doing that, I'll buy a new one...in cash.
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Ditto. We have two cars, on a 10 yr old min van and the other a 13 yr old sedan. Maintenance keeping these two running is less than a monthly car note. Even with the van needing a transmission last fall.
Dave Ramsey, somewhat popular family economist in the States says: nobody cares what you drive but you. True! Same can be said for housing. It's amazing how comfortably you can live in a small space... but that's a whooole 'nother subject.
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Jake, be aware that not having a fixed landline can impact your credit rating in the UK. I think this is because it's an indication of more transient lifestyles....
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Common misconception. Used to be this way until about 3 years ago when there was a legal challenge about it. Now I think it's based on length of time at your location.
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Jake, would a sk$pe in number not be a good option for the parents? Might pass as a 'fixed line' too, and not being a true landline replacement may well have advantages.
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If I may also make a suggestion: plan your meals in advance and buy off the internet.
Our grocery bills decreased by 30%, because now we rarely throw food away, and not having to go to the supermarket makes me avoid those spontaneous, expensive buys.
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Extreme food savings tip: Also, discard an aversion to eating the food your children waste. I halve my portion these days, they eat what they will, and instead of me bellowing "eat your meat!", the food gremlin (moi) eats anything the lil'ns leave on their plate when they leave the table. "waste not, want not, kiddos!"
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In Australia we can get "Naked ADSL" - essentially this means your phone line is carrying ADSL only and you don't have to pay line rental to the monopoly copper provider (instead your ISP pays some portion of the line rental as part of your access fee).
So I'm essentially paying the same for my ADSL access due to the way the plans work out, not paying $30/mo for a phone service I don't use, and then $5/mo for VOIP (which includes $5 credit) from my ISP just to have a landline number for anyone that needs it.
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I switched my mobile operator from Vodafone to another new operator. And i am able to save 2/3 of my expenses incurred in mobile bill.
Dont know why i made the switch earlier. Could have saved good amount of money.
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