The "Savings" Are In The Details
Written By: Sara Klotz
My husband and I try to do the bills together each month, but it inevitably makes both of us grumpy. It takes away from “our time” once the kids have gone to bed and I turn into this raging scaredy pants screaming, “where does all of our money go?” We literally have ten different accounts that my husband squirrels money away into each month so that we feel like we have no money, but if the chips are down we can scrape together funds for an emergency.
As I was doing bills alone this month so that my husband wouldn’t have to share the burden I noticed that two of our regularly scheduled bills had gone up. Our car insurance went up by $10 per month and our internet went up by $5. I sighed as I knew I couldn’t ignore it - almost $200 over the course of the year. We are loyal customers and have had no claims, why are we penalized? I know that may not seem like much and more of a hassle than it is worth, but on principle part of “my job” now is to manage our money to the best of my ability.
I have been a stay at home mom for over three years now and while we always tried to live on one salary even before we had children, it took us over a year to really start living within out new means. One thing that helped was looking at our bills and seeing if there were any opportunities by switching providers. We had been with the same home and auto insurance provider for years, but we saved over $1,200 annually just by switching carriers. It only took a few minutes and a couple of phone calls. It looked like I was going to have to tackle this burden again, but I thought that I would start by just being honest and seeing if my carrier could find any new “discounts” to lower my premium before looking elsewhere. Of course I go to email my insurance salesman and he is no longer with the organization, but I find another random name in the same office and email away. Within 12 hours I receive a response that my premiums will go down by more than $250 for the year because in switching systems they miscalculated my “inflationary increase for the year”.
What if I hadn’t emailed them? They would have just continued with the higher premium and made more money, how is this possible?
Next I called the internet provider. After talking to a robot who promised he could understand whole sentences (kind of scary…) I was told that my wait time would be more than 10 minutes….but not to fear I had unlimited minutes on my cell phone, a full cup of coffee and some quiet time to peruse the internet. I quickly pulled up another internet provider to find a lower price as a basis for my call if needed. The representative was very polite and warm. They were actually having customer service appreciation week, so I was hoping if I killed her with kindness she would help me out. I told her we had been loyal customers but that my bill went up and I could switch to another provider at a much lower price. She turned around and lowered my bill by $10 per month, less than I had been paying the entire previous year – another win! Could I have saved more? Probably, but that would take more work…more time…and more coffee. But in less than 30 minutes I saved over $350 for the year, just by paying attention. How much money are we giving away just by passively paying our bills? I am going to celebrate my win today and resolve to keep my eyes open.
As I was doing bills alone this month so that my husband wouldn’t have to share the burden I noticed that two of our regularly scheduled bills had gone up. Our car insurance went up by $10 per month and our internet went up by $5. I sighed as I knew I couldn’t ignore it - almost $200 over the course of the year. We are loyal customers and have had no claims, why are we penalized? I know that may not seem like much and more of a hassle than it is worth, but on principle part of “my job” now is to manage our money to the best of my ability.
I have been a stay at home mom for over three years now and while we always tried to live on one salary even before we had children, it took us over a year to really start living within out new means. One thing that helped was looking at our bills and seeing if there were any opportunities by switching providers. We had been with the same home and auto insurance provider for years, but we saved over $1,200 annually just by switching carriers. It only took a few minutes and a couple of phone calls. It looked like I was going to have to tackle this burden again, but I thought that I would start by just being honest and seeing if my carrier could find any new “discounts” to lower my premium before looking elsewhere. Of course I go to email my insurance salesman and he is no longer with the organization, but I find another random name in the same office and email away. Within 12 hours I receive a response that my premiums will go down by more than $250 for the year because in switching systems they miscalculated my “inflationary increase for the year”.
What if I hadn’t emailed them? They would have just continued with the higher premium and made more money, how is this possible?
Next I called the internet provider. After talking to a robot who promised he could understand whole sentences (kind of scary…) I was told that my wait time would be more than 10 minutes….but not to fear I had unlimited minutes on my cell phone, a full cup of coffee and some quiet time to peruse the internet. I quickly pulled up another internet provider to find a lower price as a basis for my call if needed. The representative was very polite and warm. They were actually having customer service appreciation week, so I was hoping if I killed her with kindness she would help me out. I told her we had been loyal customers but that my bill went up and I could switch to another provider at a much lower price. She turned around and lowered my bill by $10 per month, less than I had been paying the entire previous year – another win! Could I have saved more? Probably, but that would take more work…more time…and more coffee. But in less than 30 minutes I saved over $350 for the year, just by paying attention. How much money are we giving away just by passively paying our bills? I am going to celebrate my win today and resolve to keep my eyes open.
How I Met The Author
I found it hard to write this because I just didn't think that I could find the right mix of words to ever describe how awesome Sara "Harmon" Klotz is. When I packed up all of my worldly possessions (which wasn't much) and moved to Columbus Ohio for grad school at "The" Ohio State University, Sara was the very first friend that I made. She was the blessing that got me through so many things in those 2 years. She was the friend that you wanted to study with because she would always be prepared with the right answers and of course she was the friend that you wanted to spill your guts to because she always knew the right things to say. We have shared so many awesome experiences together: new relationships, weddings, babies and career changes...through it all she always teaches me so much about anything and everything. My favorite trait that she has (that I am still trying to master) is her ability to give of herself so fully and freely while never compromising who she is. She is beautiful inside and out. She leaves everything and everyone "better than before"...
I found it hard to write this because I just didn't think that I could find the right mix of words to ever describe how awesome Sara "Harmon" Klotz is. When I packed up all of my worldly possessions (which wasn't much) and moved to Columbus Ohio for grad school at "The" Ohio State University, Sara was the very first friend that I made. She was the blessing that got me through so many things in those 2 years. She was the friend that you wanted to study with because she would always be prepared with the right answers and of course she was the friend that you wanted to spill your guts to because she always knew the right things to say. We have shared so many awesome experiences together: new relationships, weddings, babies and career changes...through it all she always teaches me so much about anything and everything. My favorite trait that she has (that I am still trying to master) is her ability to give of herself so fully and freely while never compromising who she is. She is beautiful inside and out. She leaves everything and everyone "better than before"...