How I'm Saving My Family Thousands of Dollars a Year - An Audit of Household Expenses
Have you ever done an audit of your bills and expenses? This was my first time, and I’m going to be saving my family thousands of dollars a year which is pretty exciting. I’m also implementing a couple really simple strategies to get more savvy with our money. Here is a list of what bills I was able to trim down (including what companies/brands etc I switched to), how I’m getting more savvy with our money, and how you can too.
Admittedly, I’m the kind of person that doesn’t look at her credit card statement that often because I don’t want to be reminded of all the bills I’m paying and all the iced coffees I buy. LOL
I have been listening to a lot of personal finance podcasts lately (Money with Katie, Choose FI) and they inspired me crack down and “be kind to my money” (amazing advice I received years ago). Recently I have been spending willy nilly (although still saving), so I decided to do an audit on what we spend money on each month and if/how we can trim some of those down. How can we spend less and save more?
Please note, this is not financial advice. This is just my experience and what I have learned. Also, there are some affiliate links in this blog post. It doesn’t cost you any more to use my link, but it makes me (and often times, you, too!) a couple bucks.
Utilities
I started with our utility bills for our home: internet and electricity.
Internet - We were paying $59.15 for internet with Xfinity, and then I noticed during this audit that a couple months ago it jumped up to $78.74. It must have been the end of whatever “promotion” I had signed up for initially. I did some research and found that WOW Internet services our area and they are the cheapest option. Our new bill with them is only $40.25 for the first year, then it goes up to $60.25. The internet speed is the same as what we had before (200mbps) and it works perfectly for streaming on our TV, using our cell phones, laptop, and Nanit baby monitor. Now we are saving about $39 per month = $458/year on internet for the first year.
Electric - We own a Nest thermostat. It allows the user to set an automated daily schedule for heat and air conditioning, which we have never done before. Instead, we usually keep the heat at about 69 in the winter and AC at about 71 in the spring/summer all day and night. This is not necessary, as I am the only one at home during the day during the week (and Willa, until she is in daycare full time). I finally set a schedule for spring/summer in which the AC goes up to 74 at 7:30am (when we are all just about out of bed) down to 71 at 5:45pm (about when I get home from picking up the babies). I am hoping this saves us around $10 per month = $120/year.
If that is cheaper than what you currently pay for internet, you can sign up for WOW internet here and you will receive a $100 Visa Reward Card. Boom!
Other Bills
Cell phone - AT&T is our current carrier and our bill was around $200-$210 per month. It included our unlimited plan, insurance on both phones, a fee for their “Next Up” plan on each phone. The Next Up Plan is, per AT&T website: “After you pay half of your 36 monthly device payments, plus $5 per month for the AT&T Next Up℠ option, you'll be eligible turn in your device to upgrade early.” My husband only gets a new phone every few years, meanwhile, I like a new phone every couple years. I took off the Next Up fee from his phone ($5 savings), removed the insurance from both our phones ($14 total savings), and changed our plan ($5 savings) so now we are saving $34 per month = $408/year.
PS there is an open enrollment period to get insurance for our phones again, should we choose to add it back. I have never (had to) utilize the insurance before so personally, I figured it is worth the risk.
PPS In my research, I found Visible Wireless to be an excellent alternative. It would have cost us a flat $70/month ($35 per phone), no other taxes or fees, for the same service. Visible runs off Verizon towers. I spoke to someone who uses it and she said it’s been great for them for over a year. The reason why this wouldn’t work for us is because we both recently got new phones and we are on a monthly payment plan. We owe too much to just pay them off and switch. I will look into this again when we are closer to paying off our phones.
Car Insurance - Did you know Costco offers car and homeowners insurance? You do have to be a Costco member to enroll. I am saving us $650/year by switching to Costco’s car insurance for both our cars.
They also offer homeowners insurance, but we didn’t qualify because they won’t cover properties within a certain number of miles from the coastline.
You can learn more about their insurance options here.
Miscellaneous Expenses & Subscriptions
Dog Food - I have been using Chewy.com for dog food for its convenience for years. Plus, they are just an awesome company and their customer service is spectacular. Anyway, I switched my dogs’ brand of food, and I’m saving $7 each month-ish, = $84/year.
Ipsy Makeup Subscription Bags - Ugh, I love getting these each month, but I have so much makeup that has added up over the years. I needed to take a break and now I’m saving $14 per month = $168/year by cancelling this subscription.
Contacts - I wear Proclear 1 day (daily) contacts and purchase a 3 month supply 3 times a year. My vision insurance covers one 3 month supply. I was paying $71 per 3 month box but after some research, I found out that they are cheaper at Costco at only $47.45 per 3 month box! (A 3 month supply is 2 boxes = both eyes). I asked my eye doctor’s office if they will match that price if I purchase through them, and thankfully they will. Now I am saving $141.30/year on contacts.
Getting Savvy
(This was added to the blog January 31, 2023) High Yield Savings Account - Not something brand new to my ears, but I finally dug into it when my friend told me she was moving her savings into a high yield savings account. When she told me she estimated she was going to save an additional couple thousand bucks this year, I wondered why the heck I had never considered this for myself? Well, in recent years, HYSAs weren’t terribly fruitful, as the interest rates were pretty low. Right now, there’s a little more buzz because interest rates are sitting around 3.8% (that’s the rate I have with Wealthfront). So if you put $30,000 into a HYSA, you can save an additional $1,140 over the next year by doing absolutely nothing (and assuming interest rates stay the same). More money and zero work? Sign me up!
It doesn’t cost anything to move your funds, and it doesn’t cost anything to withdraw any money at any time. If you use my referral link, you get an extra .5% interest for the first 3 months! For a $30,000 balance, that’s an extra $450!
Adding Authorized User to Capital One Credit Card - A few weeks ago I asked my Instagram followers for recommendations on credit cards with the best rewards. TJ and I don’t share bank accounts or credit card accounts but I decided it was time to use one primary credit card between the both of us and stack up the points.
I got a lot of great recommendations, but nothing fit quite right. A lot of you recommended American Express for travel rewards and perks but we don’t necessarily need travel rewards because we aren’t doing a whole lot of that right now with 2 under 2. Some other recommended cards have monthly rotating rewards categories but I know I won’t keep up with that. Costco has a great credit card but we only shop there every couple months. So, I ended up just keeping the credit card I have because it is still the best one for us at this time. I added TJ on it as an “Authorized User” and this will be our family’s primary credit card.
The credit card I currently have is a Capital One Venture Credit Card. Even though I said I didn’t need travel rewards, this one is meant to be a travel rewards card. I initially got this card when I was planning a trip to Spain and Italy because after I spent $3000 in the first 3 months, I earned a $600 travel credit. This is still their introductory offer.
The points are halved when used for cash-back, but there’s no limitations on where cash-back is earned. And Capital One has a fairly extensive list of items that are “generally considered travel purchases”. For example, I just redeemed a $15.12 purchase at FedEx that was labeled as a travel expense even though it’s definitely not a travel expense. We stayed in Kiawah Island last February for a night and our points covered the whole cost of the hotel. Hopefully we still get to use this card for its highest and best use here and there (and definitely in the future!), but as a rewards card for everyday purchases and expenses, it seems like the best option for us. And, we will be able to stack up points more quickly by using this one primary credit card between the both of us. I can’t quantify how much this will save us each year, but I am hoping hundreds! $$$
Get Upside App - Gas is so dang expensive these days! It costs me almost double to fill up my tank now. I kept hearing about the Get Upside App, looked into it, and then TJ and I both signed up. We aren’t going to get rich off of it, but it’s a super easy way to earn cash back every time we get gas.
You pull up the map in the app and can see all the qualifying gas stations nearby and what their cash back offer is. Thankfully one of the best cash back gas stations is less than a mile from me, so I try to fill up there whenever possible. We have earned about $120 between the two of us in the past 5 months or so. That means we will earn around $290/year. That’s about 3 date nights!
Use my code VALERIE53248 when you sign up and you’ll get a $4.22 bonus the first time you use the app!
This totals a savings of $2319.30 each year, not including what points we rack up by only using one credit card for all our purchases moving forward.
It might not seem like a lot, but that’s a mortgage payment and a half for us, a month of childcare, a whole lot of groceries. And it only took a few hours of my time to run this audit and make these changes.
Other Non Quantify-able Ways to Save More/Spend Less
Empty the pantry/Smorgasbord meals. When it’s about time to go grocery shopping again, I like to play this game where we eat random meals of whatever we have left in the freezer and pantry for 2-3 days to stretch the time between grocery trips. This might mean spaghetti with garlic bread made from hot dog buns (actually delicious btw), breakfast for dinner, or boxed macaroni and cheese with a side of frozen peas, but I kind of get a thrill out of it :P
Not buying Organic all the time. I prefer to buy Organic options whenever possible, but it gets expensive! So I alternate between organic and non organic. Hey, 50% of the time is better than not at all, in my opinion. The only things I stick to Organic pretty much all the time is milk, ground beef, chicken, and eggs.
Think twice! I am trying really hard to simply think twice when I want to grab food while I’m on the go (all the time) or when I don’t feel like cooking and just want to do take out or delivery. This kind of spending adds up so quickly and while I haven’t dug into it because I’m too scared to see the truth (lol), I know I am spending hundreds of dollars on this every month. If I am successful in opting to eat at home even 25% of the time, I’m going to save a nice chunk of money.
Online grocery shopping. I don’t do this because I actually enjoy grocery shopping, but I have friends that only do online ordering for grocery shopping, and do curb-side pick up. This helps them stick to a budget and prevents them from picking up random extras each time they’re in the store. Lord knows I grab a new eyeliner or pair of sandals or hair product or two or three each time I’m at the store….
I hope this is helpful for someone out there!