When tough times hit the Hopkins family, they made drastic changes to their spending.
First Person: How We Cut Our Monthly Spending by $500
Just like at millions of other households in America, the Great Recession hit my home like a runaway train. A few years ago, I sold a small business and took a job as the national credit manager for a franchised business. My better half was working for a marketing firm, and I still was a landlord for a few investment properties. We were living a good life, and then almost overnight we were both unemployed. I was selling off properties and barely making enough to cover the mortgages. Unable to land new jobs and drawing two unemployment checks, we decided that we had to cut costs before they dried up our savings. Our cost-cutting session started with a walk around the house. We found areas where we could cut costs. We trimmed about $500 per month by focusing on just five things.
Cable TV -- saved $125
I had never been happy with our local service provider and the lack of customer service. I was even less thrilled by the $165 monthly bill that would inexplicably change by $3 to $5 each billing cycle. I called around and discovered that I could get satellite TV for $40 per month. This was a savings of $125.
Landline -- saved $90
As we continued walking through our home looking for things that could be reduced or eliminated, we kept passing by that relic on the wall known as a landline. I didn't even think of it because everyone we knew called us on our cellphones. We were paying $90 a month for something that we almost never used. It had to go.
Cellphones -- saved $165
While in awe of how we were throwing money away on our useless landline, our attention turned to our faithful cellphones. It never dawned on us that we were paying an outrageous $265 per month for our two phones. We called our service providers, and they offered us a consolidated plan for around $190. I called a prepaid cellphone provider and found that it covered all the major cities that we traveled to, and it would provide unlimited everything for a combined $100. This was a savings of $165.
Auto insurance -- saved $40
While watching our overpriced cable TV, I saw a commercial. Maybe you've seen it. There's a little lizard claiming that he could save you a ton of money on car insurance. Not believing this, I called. The company said it could provide me with the exact same coverage for half the $80 per month that I was paying. I signed up and promptly told my previous insurance provider that I no longer needed his services. He offered to drop my rate to $55. I canceled anyway and pocketed $40 in savings.
Homeowner insurance -- saved $83
After the phone call about my auto insurance, I checked my homeowner insurance. I reviewed my policy and called a competitor and then another followed by another. I became extremely irritated. I was paying around $1,800 a year for my policy. Every single company I called not only would save me at least $800, they would also include coverage options that I didn't have. In the end, I got a much better policy and saved about $1,000.
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