How to Save $2,000 in the Next Year

Smart Money lists four ways you can save $2,000 in a year as follows:

• Switch cellphone plans. Save: $400 a year


• Shop insurance policies. Save: $200 a year


• Change (or ditch) cable. Save: $800 a year


• Get a better credit card. Save: $600 a year

Here's my take on these:

• My cell phone is paid for by my work. My wife has a Tracfone with loadable minutes, but we're thinking of getting her a new phone/plan and letting the Tracfone be a "rover" phone for the kids. Still lots of research to do here before we make a "buy" decision.


• I haven't shopped our insurance policies in quite some time. This is on my list to do.


• Ahhh, cable TV. I'll be writing more on this topic later, but for now suffice to say I have six months to make a decision on what to do.


• As you know, I am totally on board with the "make money by using a credit card" concept. I've been testing a few the past couple months and will be reporting my findings soon. But to give you a sneak peak, I recommend the Chase Freedom card and the Blue Cash Preferred card.

I'm not sure about their savings figures -- some seem high and some low -- but I think these steps could save/make an easy $1,000 even if you've done a fairly decent job to date in these areas. What's your take?

Comments

[Matt]

Switching cell phones may actually cost us money in the long run. Alot of my wifes friends are verizon and mobile to mobile minutes are included in the plan and not charged against the any time minutes. If we switched we may need to up our anytime minutes just to cover all her calls.

The others in the list are no comment.

[Bill]

Ditch the cable. I got rid of it when I last moved a year and a half ago. There has literally been one single time that I regretted not having it, the series finale of Lost. $7.99 for streaming Netflix is all I need, there is more interesting stuff there than I could ever watch.

I desperately want to switch my cellphone carrier, it is the one expense I have left where I pay far more than I think the service is worth. Unfortunately my wife wants and Iphone which limits my options.

[chynalemay]

Add: turn down t stat 3'F in winter and up 3' in summer, use regular gas, make your own lunches, only buy w/ cash, shop for groceries 2x a month vice weekly, etc.,etc.,

[Henry]

@Matt - If you're on a data plan, Sprint's data plans are a lot cheaper than Verizon's plans and most include free mobile to mobile, so minutes are free as long as you're using a cell phone calling a cell phone. If you're simply on one of Verizon's minutes only plans staying with them may be cheaper. It's rumored Sprint will be getting the iPhone by years end.

Disclosure: I do not work for sprint but I use their $70 Simply Everything and get it discounted through work.

I don't think I can knock off $33/month stated here given the amount I use my cell phone and rely on data. Already ditched cable, but should look at insurance again.

[Matt]

@Henry. I just have a phone and text. No data.

I refuse to be that connected and have to draw the line somewhere.

[KaseyD]

Switch cellphone plans... Can't do, we have an old Sprint family plan that costs less than $60/mo including tax for two phones. Plenty of minutes, 100 text messages and unlimited data..for two phones. I just hope our aging smartphones don't break, because we will probably be forced ditch our old plan.

Shop insurance policies... I need to do this; but last time I looked around, I couldn't find a better price because we've been with our current company so long.

Change (or ditch) cable... Done, haven't had cable for years

Get a better credit card... love my cash back cards, and juggle them best I can to maximize the benefits

[Ginger]

I've done all of this over time, I wish I could find some new ideas online. These work for those starting being frugal but not those who have been for a few years.

[@Moneyperk]

Personally, I think ditching cable plan is a great idea and something I have become accustom to. Actually, I have all the shows that I need and want from Hulu. But, I still like to watch sports, MLB and NFL. So I order MLB.tv and nfl live streaming packages. of course, these are hundreds of dollars, but still save me money annually from cable networks.

[Crystal]

I agree that all of these things can save you money, but I won't be getting rid of my smart phone or cable (my smart phone makes my advertising manager job sooooo much easier and we love our cable and DVR). I already shop my insurance around once a year and love the Discover More card (5% cash back on rotating categories) and the Penfed Visa (5% cash back on gas).

[Linda]

Switching phone plans sounds great - but if you are in a contract, it can cost you $$ to get out of it. Not sure $20 a month would be worth it.

[Sarah]

We just "downgraded" our phone - we have the simply everything sprint family plan, but my husband had an extra cell phone on it for his business. We were able to transfer that number over to google voice, and port it into his existing personal cell, so that is $20/month saved right there. Right now, with the discount from Sprint (that I have on the account from some job I had ages ago) i think after tax we pay around $130/month for unlimited minutes / unlimited data on two phones. And my work gives me $50/month towards a cell phone. Its nice to not have to worry about minutes or data, and having the smart phones has made our life easier.

We are cutting the cord on cable (but still going to pay on internet).

[Darin H]

We're on the cheapest plan I can find for Phones (3 phones, 2 with data/text) for $100/month.

We're going to cancel our DirecTV service when our contract runs out next month - savings of about $1400/year (I was getting Sunday Ticket, don't know what I'm going to do about football though, probably find a stream online)

I've been shopping around for new insurance because I had a feeling we were going to get a big jump up in rates, we had really good rates for our first year, then okay rates for the 2nd year. I just got the renewal notice, with a 50% bump in home insurance! Switching that and our auto policies will save about $1300/year.

Just signed up for a new cash back card to complement our Costco Amex.

So hopefully we'll pay off an extra $3,000 to our mortgage next year :)

[brooklyn money]

I'm thinking about becoming a cable cord cutter. I got Roku and signed up for Hulu Plus. I LOVE Roku. So easy. Beautiful. But I wish you could stream shows from the Internet, because then I could watch the free episodes of network TV that are online on my TV (i don't have a fancy modern TV so now HDMI cable for me).

[Jenna]

The savings seem reasonable, although if you've already cut costs in these areas, it might be significantly less.

We are already down to basic network TV service, and I get my insurance (both home & auto) re-quoted every year or two (especially if it's going up). You have to be careful with the insurance to make sure that if someone quotes a lower cost that you aren't compromising coverage.

I already have the Chase Visa and love it, but I'm considering adding on that AmEx preferred card for our groceries. I'm not interested in switching cell carriers at this point, and our service is pretty basic. Right now we pay $100 for two lines with minimal text and data plans. We don't have home phone service, so I don't feel bad paying that for our cell service.

[AshleyR]

Look into a Straight Talk phone (at Walmart or straighttalk.com only) for your wife. $30/month for 1000 minutes and 1000 texts-no contract. Prepaid is the only way to go, as far as I'm concerned!

[Georgia]

I am doing fairly well: cell phone on my daughter's for $144 annually (free to other AT&T clients and she has about 4k unused minutes to use up), cable ditched last year at savings of $420 annually, car insurance $280. annually (no comp & coll on an 11 year old car), cc's 0% interest and a gain of about $600 a year for cash back, and insurance for home $360 paid each year.

I am lucky to have the fire and wind coverage on my home. I live in a 48 y/o double wide trailer and the insurance agent was surprised I could still get the insurance. 16 years ago he said I would only get about $6k if my place burned to the ground. Luckily he told me to up the contents as far as I could. That should get me a little leeway.

As to health and life insurance, I get that through my retirement. If I ever cancel, I can never get it back. I pay $34.80 for life insurance for $10k & the state gives me $5k for free and with no age limit. My health insurance runs me $190 a month right now. Actually, I've had 2 miracles. The last two years, my health insurance has went DOWN!!!! $10 per month one year and $20 per month the next.

Looks to me like I'm in a very good spot right now. As things are going, I may lose a lot of advantages in the coming years. As I've said to others, I am getting dizzy from saying Thank You so much to the Lord. He certainly has blessed me.