The Comfort Zone Investment and Savings Plan
Everyone is looking for ways to cut living expenses, but many just don’t want to give up their lifestyle while doing it. It’s one thing to want to cut your cable bill, but another to miss your favorite TV shows or movies. For those that want to “cut the cord” and find ways to cut living expenses, the good news is that new technologies can make that dream entirely possible. Other ways to cut living expenses are fairly simple and rely solely on your ability to negotiate a better rate or get a discount on service. The recession has forced many business owners to cave in, when asked for a reduction in price. Any sale is better than no sale, in this economic climate, and you can use that to help you cut living expenses without necessarily giving up a service you like.
Target Your Comfort Zone
We often buy things that help us feel comfortable in our homes. Whether it’s the air conditioning or the subscription magazines, all these little comforts add up. However, home wouldn’t be home without them, right? So, here are some ways to make the same lifestyle choices without necessarily paying for full service.
- Magazine Subscriptions and Newspapers - You can get the same information online for free by visiting the websites instead of buying a subscription. If you want to have the experience of reading the paper or magazine anywhere you go, you can opt for a digital reader like the Kindle or Sony Reader. That will take an upfront investment for the hardware, but once you have it, you can get discounts on the rest of the subscriptions. If you’re a student, it can save you lots of money on textbooks, if they’re available through the reader.
- Cable Television - It’s not a choice between digital TV and cable, it’s a choice of a new way to get the same viewing pleasure without the monthly fee. For that, you will want to have a DVD player (which are cheap now) and either use NetFlix to get movies you want, or rent them from a $1 kiosk like Redbox to get the same service for much, much, less. If you’re really smart, you’ll have figured out some television shows are available online for free on Hulu.com too.
- Heating - A warm bath or shower on a chilly day is one of home’s best comforts. That warm water costs you money, however. If you haven’t thought about installing a solar water heater, or merely upgrading your aging water boiler, now is the time to do it. It can cut your monthly electricity and/or gas bill and there are rebates being offered through the stimulus bill for it. Check your state and federal incentives to see if a small investment now can yield bigger savings later.
- Cooling - Another item of comfort is cool air in mid-summer. Many people are finding that they don’t need as much air conditioning as they thought. They instead rely on ceiling fans, and some even install an attic solar fan. Energy costs will only continue to go up, and finding new, inexpensive ways to cool the home will yield savings for then on afterwards.
This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 9:25 am and is filed under Budgets & Money Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
