Cutting back on bills

(I am not receiving any compensation or sponsorship of any kind, monetary or otherwise, from any of the companies I mention in my post.)

Lately I've been really combing through our bills and spending to see what I could reasonably cut back on. Living on one income means if there is room to improve I'm going to take it. I'll share with you the things I have done or will be doing to cut back on spending.

My first change was our cell phone bill. Looking at our previous providers bill each month made me want to throw a fit. I had to reduce our 160+ dollar bill without losing the great coverage. When I met my husband he had a service that wouldn't even work in our apartment and I wasn't willing to go back to that. Well I'm happy to say that I found a fix! We switched to Straight Talk month to month service. I was skeptical at first but I had a friend who was very happy with their plan and I grilled them with all my questions. When we switched it was an up front investment because we had to buy new phones, but we were both in need of an upgrade anyway. So we bought two phones for $150 each, yikes. But now instead of paying $160+ each month we now pay $90. When you do the math it only took a little over four months for us to pay off the phones with the money we saved and start profiting from the switch.

Next I called USAA, our fabulous insurance company that I can't rave about enough, and asked if they had any discounts available to us. I was able to save $90 every six months just by making a few minor changes to our car insurance! They also told me about a discount for taking a drivers safety course that I will be following up on in the near future. Bundling is another thing that saves us money. Since
we have auto insurance, renters insurance and a couple bank accounts through them each new account gives us a discount.

Most recently I started monthly freezer cooking which I will make a separate post about later on in more detail. I was able to get more than a months worth of meals made for less than $300. Now I know that's not the best deal but the leftovers from each night usually leave enough for another dinner or a couple lunches. Also it was my first time trying it so I know that with practice I can save more money. Just this month I have not only saved about $100 dollars but also a lot of time.

I am thrilled that just with these changes I have been able to save us about $190 a month!!

Have you made any changes to your budget recently that have saved you money?