Dollar Stretching

Since becoming a stay at home mom, we've had to find creative ways for saving money and keeping our monthly expenses down.  Here are a few things we've done to help keep money in our pockets:

1.  Cut the Cable About a year and a half ago we made the decision to kick Dish Network to the curb.  This was a thrilling occasion for us, as we've had numerous headache inducing customer service experiences with Dish and every time the smallest storm would pass by, our reception would completely disappear.  Since we live in thunderstorm country, we were without reception quite often.  After cancelling our contract with Dish, we purchased a digital antenna and hooked up our television to a computer with a TV tuner and Windows Media Center, which has a built in DVR feature.  We are able to record most of our shows using Windows Media Center and catch our other favorite shows over the internet on Hulu.  There are a few shows on the Food Network and HGTV that I do miss watching, but many can be found on Hulu, and PBS has a few good cooking shows to help fill the gap.  The best part of catching our television waves over the air, is never having to deal with customer "no" service ever again and freeing up $60 a month is pretty nice too!  Oh, and our reception has stayed intact in even the most severe thunderstorms.
Annual savings = $720

2.  Know Your Neighbors Getting to know our neighbors has helped us save money on several occasions each year.  The power of numbers can really help when negotiating pricing for home maintenance, general upkeep, and home improvement services.  Many companies are willing to drop their price if they can get multiple households to sign up at the same time and splitting the cost of lawn and tool rental equipment can also help stretch the almighty dollar.  We've used our neighbor connections to save money on our annual backflow prevention testing and lawn equipment rental each Fall.  The same principal could be used for larger and more expensive services for even bigger savings.  So get out there and make friends with your neighbor!     
Annual savings = $45   

3.  Shopping Insurance Companies As we are fast approaching our 3 year anniversary of living in North Carolina, it is, once again, time for us to renew our homeowner insurance policy.  I received quite the shocker a few weeks ago, when our new policy arrived in the mail.  Geico was increasing our premium by nearly $300!!!  Say what!?!  It was just the kick in the butt I needed to shop around and see if we could do better.  I tried Liberty Mutual first, and received a quote around the same price as our old premium; however, I was really turned off by the slimy salesman I spoke to on the phone.  I decided to check out Clark Howard's website to educate myself on consumer information pertaining to homeowner insurance.  Clark recommends two highly rated companies and offers a couple of suggestions to help keep your annual insurance premiums low without exposing yourself to undue risk.  Next up was to call Amica, one of the insurance companies Clark recommends, and get a quote.  Speaking to the insurance agent at Amica was a completely different experience from my encounter with Liberty Mutual.  The girl I spoke with exhibited excellent customer service and never tried to talk me into adding unnecessary items to the policy.  She didn't have any problem with me wanting to increase our deductible (Clark Howard suggests setting your deductible at $1000) or removing the refrigerated property coverage from the policy, plus she found out that we had been significantly over insured these last 3 years through Geico. Sign me up!
Annual savings = $669     


These are just a few simple ways we've found to help pay off our school loans and save for our upcoming Disney vacation.  Care to share your own money saving strategies?  


Images found here and here and here.