A Few Small Changes (And Adding Netflix) Saves Us $60 A Month

Often times, when monthly accounts are set up, we tend to forget about them. Please don't!! There is money waiting to be saved right now with your monthly bills! Here's what I did yesterday to save us $60 a month ($720 a year):

1. I called our paper and changed our subscription. We were receiving the paper Thursday through Sunday, but I began to notice that the only one that was really getting read was the Sunday edition. Not to mention all the fabulous coupons and circulars, haha. So, I called and changed our delivery service to Sunday only. That will be $9.50 a month, saving me $11.00 a month.

2. I called our quarterly pest service and canceled. Hmmm..... We'll see how this one goes long term, but for now I'm saving $36 a month. When we moved in, it was a new build (read: lots of spiders) but that was 6 years ago. Wish me luck on this one, I HATE spiders!

3. I called Verizon to cancel HBO and Cinemax. This one is a longer story. About 6 months ago I called to cancel the HBO. Yada, yada, yada, I "updated" our phone/TV/Internet package (saved about $40) and added Cinemax for free. About 2 months ago I start seeing a charge for $21.99 for the movie package. I guess they were both free for only 3 months. Hubby does love movies and we really liked that HBO and Cinemax had on demand movies, but $21.99 is crazy!

We decided to cancel both and get Netflix. I read about Netflix in the February Consumer Reports. They are rated #1 for video rental methods. Redbox was #2 (yay!). Now, we love Redbox don't get me wrong, but the selection is small and it's $1 day. Even if we jump on the free Monday rental, that's a lot of pressure to watch one free movie a week. And, sometimes hubby's schedule doesn't even allow him to enjoy it with us.

A bit about Netflix, they have several levels of membership to choose from:

$4.99-One movie at a time, maximum 2 per month and 2 hours of online movie watching.

$8.99-One movie at a time, as many as you want per month, unlimited online movie watching.

$13.99-Up to two movies at a time, as many as you want per month, unlimited online movie watching.

$16.99-Up to three movies at a time, as many per month as you want, unlimited online movie watching.

We choose the $8.99 package. It seems like the biggest bang for the buck. After considering the $21.99 I'm saving but the $8.99 I'm now spending, this move will save me another $13 a month. After talking to my mom who also has Netflix, this really seems to be a great decision. She said since the distribution center is so close to us (Coppell for you DFW folks), you can almost average 2 movies a week. Netflix has no late fees and postage is "free" or included in your pricing I should say.

So, yesterday I spent about 30 minutes messing around with all of this and we will now save $60 a month ($11 paper, $36 pest, $13 HBO/Cinemax). Be sure to review your monthly bills and decide if you are really getting your money's worth from services. Ask yourself, "Is this adding value to our lives?", and start making adjustments!

Click below to check out Netflix, I think $8.99 is a great value! Movies are a great stress relief for hubby. We never actually go to the theater (it's such a waste of money!!), so the only way we see new movies is through rentals. Netflix has over 100,000 titles.....think you can find one you like?

Have any money saving ideas???? Please share!