Save Money by Teaming with Your Neighbors

US News lists 10 unusual ways to save money. Tip #1 is as follows:

Share With Your Neighbors. When it comes to buying food or paying for things such as the Internet or Netflix, rally the troops (aka your neighbors) to save some money. Split the cost of Internet and Netflix with a few neighbors, buy food items in bulk then divide the food and bill, or rotate dinner-making responsibilities between different houses to save money on food expenses.

We recently benefitted (again) from this tip.

Several years ago the homeowners in our development banded together and bid out our garbage pick-up services. Waste Management was the winner, so we went with them and each homeowner saved somewhere around $75 a year versus the list price. But it was a never-ending fight to keep the prices down as WM tried and tried again to raise them (we had to call several times to remind them that we were part of the group "deal" and that our prices should not be going up.) Finally the homeowners got tired of this back-and-forth, and we recently re-bid out the services. A new, local player has emerged since we last priced out the competition and they came in $100 lower than Waste Management. So we all made the switch in June.

There are a TON of products and services that you can save on if you team up with your neighbors. A few ideas:

• Snow removal (for those of us living in the tundra)
• Landscaping
• Pest control
• Home repairs
• Yard equipment (borrow from each other)
• Bulk buys (good deals at Costco can be split among neighbors)

You get the idea. Anytime buying in bulk/as a group can save some money (which is often), teaming with your neighbors can ring up some big discounts.

I'm sure you can name many more. If you have something to add, please leave them in the comments below.

Comments

[STRONGside]

My neighbors and I have definitely negotiated some savings on home repairs. Specifically fencing (not technically a repair, but close enough). My neighbor was going to install a fence on his backyard property. When he got his quote, he brought it to me and the neighbor on the other side of his house. We were both interested in fencing our backyards. Since a big cost for fencing is hauling the equipment to the job site, we were able to negotiate a much lower per foot rate with the fencing contractor, and he did all three of our fences in one week.

This saved us some money, plus they all looked great b/c they were done in a consistent pattern and style. We were all very satisfied, and so was the contractor.

[Paul]

Interesting idea. I suppose a wireless router could be shared with your next door neighbor if they live close enough, but then they might be knocking on your door everytime the internet goes down.

[MattJ]

It's almost certainly a violation of your contract to share internet service with your neighbor.

In addition, whichever neighbor has physical posession of the modem will have a fairly easy way to monitor network traffic, which may result in some privacy concerns.

[Matt]

I do split garbage service with my neighbor. Every summer some kid knocks on my door offering me a 1 year promotional rate and I get the largest bin available and we split it it.

I've split internet in the past via wireless router and it worked ok, but was kind of a pain. If there were problems connecting, it wasn't so easy to just reset the router or the modem. I signed on to Comcast at $15/mo and it's worth it to me.

I also split satellite service with my friend across town. We've been doing it for 6-8 years and, yes, it's a violation of the terms, but they'd have little opportunity to know and the terms said that if you're caught, they just drop your service. We split a 4 room setup so we each get 2 receivers. Every two years, we switch who orders and we get new customer pricing and new equipment. At the end of our 2-year agreement, we cancel and the other one orders. It works great because they update the dishes as needed. The downside would be if there was damage to the dish that is not at the address on the bill. It hasn't been an issue for us, but it could happen. If one of the receivers breaks down, the one on the bill has to do the troubleshooting or request the new one. For us, it has worked great and we have only needed 2 receivers in each house. I'm not sure if you can order more than that(It's definitely not one of the options when ordering online).

[texashaze]

A hail storm blew through my neighborhood a few years ago and totaled all our roofs. We all banded together and bid it out amoung roofers. One guy got the job and did most of the roofs on the street. We got a great deal and he got a lot of business.

BTW, hate to be a party pooper but when one violates their contract by sharing internet, satellite, etc. that is stealing. You may save but we all have to pay more to make up for it.

[Elle]

In my old neighborhood, my mother would barter with neighbors for errands and skills. She's a teacher and would tutor kids/adults or cook in exchange for help around the house. As a single mom it helped tremendously and we got to know our neighbors better.

[GranTorino]

Ourselves and 2 neighbors this past spring banded together with our small yards to make one larger, bulk discount sod order. Same delivery fee regardless, and the sod company even allowed varying types of grass. Required a bit of timing coordination to ensure everyone had their yard ready by a particular day, but well worth the discount.

[Rich A.]

Our city offers free single stream curbside recycling, which we take full advantage of, every other week. This has greatly reduced our trash output, so we decided to share trash service with a neighbor, who owns a two-family home right next to our home.

We're a family of seven. Our neighbor is single. And three people live in his rental. That's a total of 11 people sharing one city trash bin, which is emptied weekly. This has worked great for us for several years now.

[Deb]

Be careful about sharing Netflix and similar services, though. It's against the law in some places, such as this recent law passed in Tennessee:
http://techland.time.com/2011/06/03/share-your-netflix-password-and-you-may-go-to-jail/