Sense to Save

Thanks to all of you who participated in the third Better Budget Challenge. We were able to reduce some expenses. Pretty neat, huh?

Tenille feels like they can’t go much lower in their expenses without compromising the comfort of her family. Right now, they’re trying to cut expenses on their heat bill by using energy-efficient appliances and living with their thermostat set lower.

LJ makes it a habit to call companies and ask for better rates. Recently, she called her insurance agent and that call saved her $50 for the year. She removed some unneeded features on her cell phone plan, saving her $5 per month. She tried lowering her landline, but that wouldn’t budge. But–she was able to extend a special offer on her DSL service. She saved $290 by making phone calls. Not bad, LJ!

SB has tried reducing several bills recently. They switched phone services, saving $10 per month. They negotiated their student loans and got a better interest rate. They also negotiated with Comcast. Well done!

20somethinglady has set out to lower her bills, but I don’t know if she got the results she was aiming for. 20something, can ya give us an update?

A fought the good fight on this challenge, calling just about everyone possible. He was able to get slightly better rates on his credit cards. He’s already got great low rates on just about all of his bills.

Jennifer got a new plan for her cable, internet, and phone. They’re dropping their cell phones and going to prepaid cells.

Rebecca jumped in and saved quite a bit on her cable package, thanks to the frustration of a customer service rep. He couldn’t figure out how to reduce her package–he just ended up reducing her price from $130 a month to $69 per month for the exact same package. Woo hoo!

Melly tried lowering her credit card interest rates, but they wouldn’t budge. She was told to try again soon, which she will.

I got lower interest rates on a credit card, and I’m working on lowering a few other things as well.

Join us on Monday for the fourth challenge. This will be the last one that focuses specifically on budgeting for awhile. In February, we’re going to focus on our grocery bills.

If you have ideas for future challenges, why not e-mail me? I’d love to hear from ya.