One of the easiest and quickest ways to save money may be sitting right in front of you and you just don’t know it. In an effort to cut our spending, I have been studying the smallest details of our monthly budget. I am going through the process of looking at each recurring expense and trying to find ways to save money.

If I were to give one piece of financial advice for anyone looking to save money, I would suggest doing the same. I have been able to find small pockets of money that my family can save each month without making any drastic changes to our current lifestyle. While I have not found a lot of savings in any one place, I have been able to find several small savings that are starting to add up.

I have already been able to save money by cutting out snacking at work, checking our monthly credit card statement for recurring expenses, and switching from diet coke to ice tea. The latest target expense I have been looking at is our cell phone bill.

Lowering Our Monthly Cell Phone Bill

After reviewing several months’ worth of statements, I came to the easy conclusion that my wife and I were paying too much for our cell phone plan. We had a cell phone plan that gave us 700 minutes per month on top of free nighttime and weekend minutes. We also had free minutes when placing calls to in-network customers, so we could call our family members with the same provider at no additional charge.

As I analyzed the number of minutes we used each month, it was clear to me that we never came close to 700. In fact, we hadn’t even used half of our allotted monthly minutes in the past 12 months. This seemed like a huge waste of money and a place that I could possibly find some additional savings for our budget.

I first checked the website of our cell provider to review available plans to find a better deal for us. As I suspected, the 700 minute rate was their lowest advertised monthly plan found on the company website. I then called and spoke with a customer service representative and immediately asked them what their absolute lowest minute plan they offered. The lady put me on hold for a few minutes and came back and said they could offer us a 550 minute plan for $10 less per month.

While I was a bit skeptical that our cell provider still may have an even lower plan, I decided to switch over to the 550 minute plan and take the $10 monthly savings. This small savings on our monthly cell phone bill will be used to help us save 10% of our income.

Monthly Savings – $10

I also wanted to point out that we are currently taking advantage of a 17% employee discount through our cell phone provider. If you don’t want to completely cut your cell phone, then you may be able to save some money each month through this type of discount. Check with your employer to see if they offer a discount for your provider as a way to save money.

Final Thoughts

Some extreme savers could argue that we should just cut our cell phones completely and in many ways I don’t disagree. My wife and I have given this option a lot of thought and consideration but are not totally ready to abandon our cell phones. The security of having them in emergency situations means more to us at this point than the cost savings.

I know that there are other options, such as prepaid cell phones that can help give us the security we are looking for. I think that overtime we will probably make the switch to this option, but not before we have the time to explore the benefits.

Switching our monthly cell phone plan will save us $120 per year, but completely cutting our cell phones could save us well over $700 per year! While we have taken a small step to help save more money, the potential savings on this expense will need to be revisited in time.

What tips can you provide to help cut your cell phone bill?

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3. Save Money by Reviewing Your Credit Card Statements

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I have completed the calculations of our September (2008) monthly budget. I compile the results of our expenses (fixed and variable) to ensure that we stay on our monthly budgeted amount. In order to achieve sound personal money management, I believe you need to keep track of your household budget. Whether it is weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc., keeping track of your expenses keeps your personal finances on track. It also helps to identify areas for improvement. By tracking my family’s monthly expenses, I have been able to identify our areas of strength and weakness.

Considering the global economic crisis, I felt that we did an excellent job staying on budget in September. We came out $71.75 under budget in September, which isn’t that significant compared to past months. However, we also incurred a miscellaneous one-time expense of $210, which brought us down significantly. The additional money left over from the past month will be added to our expense fund, which is now up to $913.87. This money is saved up so that when we go over budget, it can be used as a reserve. In the meantime, it is earning some interest in one of our savings accounts.

September saw several highlights which I believe can be carried forward for the rest of 2008. The more money that we can save by coming in under budget allows us to free up more cash. This extra cash can then be used in an emergency if needed.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Groceries & Entertainment – While we came in $50 over budget in groceries, we finally have stopped the bleeding in this category. Previous months showed us having a steady increase in this category due to several factors. I am predicting that in October, we will come very close to meeting or even slightly exceeding our budgeted amount.
• Utilities – It has become somewhat repetitive having our utilities included in this category, but we continue to come in under budget on our utilities. I am very excited that we shut off the A/C for good in September, so our energy bill should drop dramatically in October. We now will focus on keeping the gas bill low by implementing some energy saving tips to heat our home.

CONCERNS

• Miscellaneous Expense – The only concern we had during September was a miscellaneous (hopefully) one-time expense of $210. This was unexpected, but we were able to accommodate through other areas.

September 2008 – Budget Review

Final Thoughts
I think September was an excellent month for our budget. I am looking forward to October and the rest of 2008 to save more money. This extra money will come in very handy over the course of the next year. It may be used in an emergency because of the deteriorating economy or eventually used to purchase some stock in high quality companies that have been beaten down.

How do you keep track of your weekly/monthly finances? Do you have a budget setup to track your cash flow?

Related posts:

1. Monthly Budget – August (2008)
2. June 2008 – Family Budget Review
3. Monthly Household Budget – Expenses to Cut Back

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