Tips for Financial Success - Part III

In the article Where Is My Money Going?, we looked at fixed and variable costs associated with living. We also discussed the possibility of manipulating some of these costs to lower your expenditures and put some money into savings. The easiest expenses to modify belong to the variable category. Let's begin with them.

Under the miscellaneous home expenses we listed items and services that make our life easier. While some might still be of high importance, none are necessary for basic living. Following, we will discuss ways to reduce some of these costs and possibly eliminate others altogether.

Land line: with unlimited calling plans attached to cell phones, consider discontinuing your land line service. You can still have a regular phone in the house with access to 911 only, provided the wires are left intact.
If, like me, you have family living abroad and therefore need a land line, consider companies such as Vonage or JaJah for your international calls. I use them both with great success and savings.

Vonage allows calls to several countries across the globe for free or very limited cost for a very low monthly fee. You can save even more if you pay by the year. The only catch is that you need fast Internet access; the dial-up line will not work.
JaJah allows you to call for pennies by dialing a specific series of numbers or a local number they create exclusively for the phone number you are calling. You can use JaJah with your cell phone or any other phone you have registered with them. This means that you don't have to have Internet access, even though their calls are routed that way.

Cell phone: there are several companies offering a variety of services based on your personal needs. Shop around to find the one company that will give you the most for the least amount of money. If you have just signed up with a company or are only about half way through the contract, check around. It may be cheaper, in the long run, to pay the penalty and sign up with a lower monthly fee than to pay the higher amount all the way to the end of the contract.

When you look at plans, don't stop to the ones that give you the free phone. Keep looking to make sure you are getting exactly what you need. It may be cheaper to purchase the phone and get the special plan offer than to get a plan with a free phone which, in the end, may cost you more.

Television: do some comparison shopping. Don't fix yourself on the number of channels available. Chances are you don't have time to watch all of them anyway. Find out what packages are available and closer to your usage. With many of the shows now available via Internet and with companies such as Netflix, it might very well be possible for you to lower your entertainment bill. Consider even canceling television all together and getting movies via computer or from the local public library.

Internet: many companies offer different speeds and therefore different costs. Take a survey of your Internet usage and see what will work the best for you. A medium speed will work just fine for majority of games, photo downloads, video streaming, and will work with VoIP companies such as Vonage.

Exterminator: although it is nice for someone else to come and rid your home of little pests, you can easily purchase at a local superstore a supply of pest control products to do the same job. If you search the Internet, you will be able to also find home made products that will work just the same and may even be safer.

Home alarms: most of the times, a little bit of preparation and a little bit of ingenuity will work just the same as a regular monitored alarm system. Use tips on how to keep your home safe and save the monitoring fee.

Yard maintenance: if you can do the job yourself, it would be your best financial option. However, if you are not physically able to do yard work, you can call on middle and high school students to rake, mow the lawn, and clean your gutters for you at a much cheaper price than a regular lawn services. You can even check with local churches. Some of them may have youth programs that encourage service and would be glad to organize a yard cleaning activity for their groups.

We just finished looking at the non-necessities of life and how we can reduce or eliminate these costs. The next time, we will look at the necessities of life that make up the remainder of the variable expenses and how we can reduce these expenditures with the article Where and How Can I Save Money on Essential Items?