3 frugal things I did to save $2000

[Scanner]

I don't think of myself as a frugal person and a lot of you probably do/did this but I thought I would share:

1. I changed auto insurance companies. I checked the Moody's and A.M Best rating, was satisfied (NJ Skylands) and found a company that gave a significant discount for paying 1 year up front (many do).

I went from paying $3200/year ($1600 biannual) to one $2200 payment for the same exact coverage. Yeah, it was kind of a bummer pill to pay that in Nov., right before Christmas but it it's worth it.

In NJ, car insurance is a huge issue.

Savings: $1000.00 per year.

2. I neglected my long distance plan. I do make calls during the day sometimes, both toll and long distance so I switched to Verizon's Freedom Value package for about $52/month - all inclusive, similar to Vongage. I actually considered Vonage but I have heard of some service problems and for $5, I figured it wasn't worth it. I figure I was paying about $100/month between local and long distance.

Savings: $600/year

3. I switched to a TracFone for my cell phone. It's a prepaid cell phone. I bought about 360 minutes upfront and it costs me about $11/month. I don't use the phone very much - just for my work and wife to contact me and we have jobs where we can't chat all day so I know this may not work for most of you.

I will only use it about 30 minutes/month anyway. . .actually, after buying minutes last May, I still have about 180 minutes left to spend.

Don't sign up for those Sprint and Nextel plans.

Savings: $400/year

POTENTIAL SAVINGS FOR OUR FAMILY: Getting off of Digital Cable. But the 4 year old likes "On Demand" for Blues Clues so we keep paying it. Kinda dumb since we have old Blues Clues videos laying around. Oh well - there's another potential $300. My older son also likes NFL Blitz. . .ahhh. . .too much TV.

[Aleta]

Scanner: I so agree with you. I think that the more minutes that people have on their phone, the more they use it. My husband is like that. He has little by little raised his minutes and he still talks over his minutes. I have a tracfone and love it. I, like you only use it for short messages so when I get home, I can call the person back and talk further if I want. The other feature that I like is that I can check my messages an call them back when I can. It's just a low cost, not by the minutes, but by the monthly amount paid. I also get a year's contract which means the phone is mine for a year with no payments due.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Everyone talks about car insurance. Too bad I live in a place regulated by the state so there is no shopping around. There are like 5 companies in the state. But it's better for bad drivers like my DH.

[jodi]

Ditto on the trac phone. I just changed DH over last month. So far he's used 2 minutes total, where he used to use several minutes a day when he had them! I would switch myself over too, but I use it too much (for business). The cost would get higher than my monthly bill fairly quickly.

[Aleta]

Down here where I am, Metro PCS is very popular. You have unlimited minutes. It's great for business people. Unfortunately, my husband heard a couple of people complain about it and he'd rather stay with Cingular (Now AT&T).

[PRICEPLUS]

SCANNER, Congrats on the 2000 dollar savings!

[Ima saver]

I don't know how much I am saving, but I have no cell phone!!

[Fern]

This TracPhone seems like it could be the anwer to my cell phone needs. Can you tell me how/where to get one?

I would like to get a cell phone mainly for emergency purposes, but know i wouldn't use it much; i'm just not big into talking on the phone a lot when out and about.

[LuxLiving]

Dollar General had them for $15 a few weeks ago. Sixty units of time was about $18 plus tax.

Walmart also sells them.

[Scanner]

Fern,

I got mine as a present but I think my brother-in-law got it at Walmart.

You buy minutes as you need them but there is kind of minimum and if you don't recharge by a certain date, they'll cut you off.

Like I said, it comes to around $11/month. I like to just buy the minutes for a year (even more cheaper) and then you don't have to worry about recharging every month or 3 months. When I get a text message, that's free - I imagine if I sent one (I don't - I don't know how), that would cost units.

I have hardly had any "outage" problems - one area I travel, I can't get service for about 5 miles - other than that, works like a charm.

[poundwise]

I appreciate that you have saved a considerable sum and, for that, I congratulate you! Good going!

I do not understand one thing, however. You wrote:

"...Verizon's Freedom Value package for about $52/month - all inclusive, similar to Vongage. I actually considered Vonage but I have heard of some service problems and for $5, I figured it wasn't worth it..."

Vonage is less than $30 a month for all local and long-distance calls including fees and taxes. I'm not sure I see how that works out to a $5 difference versus $52?

Still, as I said, good going. I wish I could figure out some more ways to save money each month myself!

[jodi]

I got my Trac phone at the Dollar General. I was going to get it at Walgreens, but they were all out (and the sales associate told me they were cheaper at DG anyway!). It was $15 and it came with 10 minutes of service. I've had it over a month now and DH just used it for the second time today. I haven't had to buy any more minutes yet, but I will soon to avoid having service cut off (you have to buy every month or a year's worth at a time, I think). I will be buying the year's worth - it's $100 or $120, depending on how many minutes you get. I'm kicking myself for not getting it sooner.

[family_of_seven]

Fantastic savings! Keep looking for ways to change habits. We have resisted the cable/satellite/etc tv trend for over 15 yrs and stuck w/cheap tv's and rabbit ears. It's tempting when the superbowl comes around, but after getting to view cable tv when I occasionally travel I realize how there is nothing valuable enough on tv to spend my money on it.

[Scanner]

Vonage is less than $30 a month for all local and long-distance calls including fees and taxes. I'm not sure I see how that works out to a $5 difference versus $52?

Well, the Verizon Freedom Package was quoted to me at $34.99/month but then you get all kinds of excise taxes that were enacted to fund WWI and stuff and it comes to around $52. My DSL is $17/month.

I must admit I didn't really check that heavily into Vonage because I heard of some service problems. But it seemed to me it was priced $5 lower but you still couldn't escape the excise taxes and such.

So I figured it would be $47/month all said and done.