Never Be Afraid to Ask

These last few weeks have been frustrating as we’re still receiving bills from our second daughter’s birth. We expected most of it, but there have been a few that caught us off guard. They range from $12 to about $350.

I’m all for paying what is due, but I also want to make sure we’re being charged the correct amount.

I requested itemized bills, so once they are confirmed to be accurate, then we’ll pay them. (Still I hate seeing our checking account dip every time we pay.)

Challenge Our Bills

To help counteract all this money leaving, I’m going over all of our regular monthly bills and seeing if we can cut them back.

My inspiration is J’s Challenge Everything series. He has evaluated and found some ways to hack his bills down. After seven months he’s accumulated almost $4,000!

We could use that kind of money to help kill the student loan and boost our net worth to reach our financial goals this year.

The first on our list? Our internet service.

Ask and You Shall Receive (At Least Sometimes)

Honestly I had no intention of canceling my plan because I need my internet to work from home. So when I spoke with the customer service representative I told her the situation- we had a little one and we’re reevaluating all of our bills.

If you do plan on canceling your service if you don’t get a certain offer, be upfront with that. Let them know they will lose a customer that day unless you get a competitive rate. We’ve done that before and got some significant savings.

Our ten minute phone call result in lowering our monthly bill by 15%. She also suggested going ahead and getting a modem so we can drop the monthly rental charge.

Between the two changes, we should save $160 by the end of this year. Not a ton, but certainly useful.

More importantly we’ve lowered our monthly obligations giving us a bit more buffer between our income and expenses – a nice win in my book.

Thoughts on Bills

I’d love to hear about how you keep your bills in check. How often do you call up your providers and ask for a better deal? How successful were you? Any tips on getting a lower price?