7 Things You Can Do To Lower Your Bills

Many people pay too much for their bills each month. It doesn’t have to be that way. Over the years I’ve lowered my bills by doing several easy things. Today, I want to share with you seven things you can do to you lower your bills.

Review Your Phone Plan

The first thing that you should do is review your cell phone plan. There’s a good chance that you may be paying too much money. There are a couple of things that you can do to lower your phone bill. The first thing to do is to check the current plans that your provider has. They may have some of the prices. Companies do that from time to time, and they don’t always tell their current customers.

The next thing that you can do is check the prepay option. A few years ago, I was in a contract with my Verizon Wireless, and I was paying damn near $120. After my contract was over, I checked different options. One of them was the prepaid option. I was shocked to see that the prepaid option was basically the same plan that I currently had. It was $60 cheaper though. That day I changed to a prepaid plan. I’m at year number five for doing prepay with my phone. My current phone bill is $46.50. I have unlimited talk and text. I also have 15 GB of data per month. My plan originally came with 7 GB, but a few months ago Verizon decided to add another 8 GB to the plan. I use a lot of WiFi, so I’ve never used all 15 gigs of data before. This plan is perfect for me.

The third thing that you can do is check to see if your job provides a cell phone discount. A lot of them do. The bank that I used to work at had a 15% discount.

Refinance Your Loans

Refinancing your loans can save you a lot of money. You can refinance your student loans, your mortgage, and others. If your credit is good, you may receive a lower interest rate and payment. I recently refinanced my student loans and got my payment lowered by twenty bucks. My interest rate went down as well. I used the company Earnest to refinance them. If you’re looking to save money, check them out. They have competitive rates, and if you’re approved, you get a $200 bonus. For more info, visit my exclusive link here.

Ditch Cable or Get a Cheaper Plan

The next thing that you can do to lower your bills is to ditch your cable. There are a lot of popular options out there such as Netflix, streaming, or getting a firestick. I like my sports, and I don’t want to have to worry about a stream not working due to the internet going in and out. For that reason, I still have cable/satellite. I have a plan that costs me $70 each month. That great compared to paying $150 – $200. I get all my sports channels and a couple of movie channels, so I’m good. I also don’t have a DVR. I’ve never had one and I probably never will. In my opinion, it’s a waste of money. If you have a DVR, you should see if you’d save money if you eliminate it. You can stream pretty much anything online these days. You can also wait for the rerun, like people used to do back in the day.

Public Transportation

Vehicles cost a lot of money. You have to deal with a car note, insurance, gas, and maintenance issues. That could be anywhere from $200 – $500 or more per month. A lot of people including myself is spending this money each month. If you don’t want to do that, you can use public transportation. I envy people that live in Chicago or New York. You have it made. The bus and the train system allows commuters to go all over the metro areas instead of just a damn perimeter (Atlanta). If we had a legit public transportation system in Atlanta, I’d ride it faithfully.

Clothing Options

This technically isn’t a bill, but clothing can be a big-spending item. There are three things you can do starting today to save money on your clothes.

Buy clothes on sale. Every retailer has sales throughout the year. You just have to look out for them. One thing that you can do is sign up for your favorite retailer’s email newsletter. They will send you e-mails when they have sales.

The next thing you can do is shop at discount retail stores. I’m a huge fan of stores like Ross, Burlington Coat Factory, TJ Maxx, etc. Those stores have a great selection of items to choose from. Their prices are also better than many of the larger stores.

Finally, you can shop at thrift stores. I go thrifting every week. You’ll be shocked at some of the things that people donate. I see clothing that hasn’t been worn all the time. There are also items that have been gently used as well. You can save a lot of money by shopping at thrift stores.

Use Rakuten

If you buy a lot of things online such as groceries, you should consider using ebates. Rakuten gives you cashback on many of your online purchases. You just have to purchase through their website. They also have an extension that you can download for Chrome. There are many stores that you can shop from through their site. They are giving all new users $10 when they create a new account. Sign up for yours here today.

Balance Transfer

If you have a high-interest rate on your credit card, you can attempt to do a balance transfer. Many credit card companies sent out balance transfer opportunities several times of the year. A few years ago, I did a balance transfer that had a 0% APR for 15 months. They charged a 4% fee, but I saved hundreds of bucks. Doing that allowed me to pay off my credit card debt the first time a few years ago.

Bills can be expensive as hell, but they don’t have to be. These seven tips can help you lower your bills if you use them correctly.

What have you done to lower your bills?