How do you trim your bills? If bills are eating up too much of your monthly budget. It’s putting you into a precarious situation where you’re living paycheck to paycheck and hoping that you don’t have to take on any expense that you haven’t already calculated for.
What will you do if your car breaks down or you need to pay for a home repair? Should you miss some bills to afford the payment and destroy your too-tight budget? Read ahead to see what you can do to trim your bills.
If you need to handle a small emergency and don’t have the funds to cover it, you could apply for a personal line of credit online. Click here to see if you qualify for the line of credit and to learn more details about what to do next. It could help you get out of a tough spot.
You can avoid this situation altogether by adding a little more wiggle room to your budget so that a small incident doesn’t throw a wrench in your finances. Add that wiggle room by shrinking your monthly bills. Here are four tips that will help you do it:
Trim Your Bills – Stop Collecting Late Fees
Your bills are already costing you. Don’t add more to the pile with late fees and penalties. If you have a bad habit of paying your bills late, use calendar apps and notifications to remind you of upcoming due dates. You can also automate bill payments through your online banking so that you never miss a deadline.
If you don’t have enough to cover the whole bill, remember that it’s better to give the minimum than nothing at all. Doing this will help you avoid penalties.
Negotiate with Providers
You may be surprised that you can negotiate lower rates for cable bills, phone bills, internet bills and more. How can you do it?
- Do your research ahead of time to see what the lowest rates from competitors are.
- Call providers during off-peak hours on weekdays.
- Be kind, patient and polite.
- Tell them that you can’t afford the rate, and that you’re considering canceling your service and shopping for a new provider.
If this is overwhelming, there are also bill negotiation services and apps that can help you get the job done.
Trim Your Bills – Run an Audit
Run a self-audit and take a good look at all of the bills that you’re paying. This will help you see what’s essential and what can be cut out.
For instance, do you really need four or five of streaming services? Why not pick a favorite and cut out the others? If you’re desperate to watch a TV show from a particular streaming service, reach out to your friends to see if they could share their account with you. You could return the favor and share your account with them.
If you’re having trouble with your audit, you can use subscription canceling apps to help you find what to trim from your budget.
Use Less Energy
You don’t have to invest in solar panels or energy-efficient appliances to use less energy. These are some affordable ways that you can shrink those energy costs:
- Don’t use the heat-dry cycle on your dishwasher
- Run appliances during off-peak hours
- Wash clothes in cold water
- Hang clothes to dry when you can
- Unplug devices that you aren’t using
Your bills shouldn’t be taking up so much room in your budget. Follow these tips to cut them down and give yourself some extra savings to work with.
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