Cutting costs. Cutting subscriptions.

[daylatedollarshort]

Found a big one today. Cut out the lawnmower guy for the rentals. That will save $250 per month. We are fully capable of yard work, just didn’t have time before. Now we have all the time in the world- plus we will get outside for some fresh air and vitaminD.
We also found out TMobile offers a senior discount for over 55. Will save big time ($125/mo)
Chopped the other storage unit as well, there’s another $70/mo.
We moved everything into our Airbnb which is now vacant for the foreseeable future.
We also chopped the expensive Airbnb liability insurance from Proper and switched to State Farm. Saved $130/mo.
It’s adding up!!

We went through every expenses like that when we were first thinking about retiring. It cut years off our retirement date. Most of the trims were pretty painless. We should probably go through everything again and see if some expenses have crept back up.

 

[rodi]

I put my YMCA family membership on hold. Since the boys and I can't use the gym. The Y was nice enough to waive the $10 hold fee since they aren't open anyway.

Ironically I had renegotiated my cable package 2 months ago - got the price down $20/month PLUS they added HBO and SHO. So I have more entertainment options than ever. (We've binged old seasons of Homeland, Billions, Boardwalk Empire so far.)

Just added - for free - a month of CBS full access. This will let us binge Picard before we cancel.

We are eating take out from locally owned restaurants about 1x week - which is more than we ate out before. Mainly so we can help keep these neighborhood treasures running.

Grocery shopping is different now - we have been 100% unsuccessful in pre-ordering for delivery or pickup. Apparently you have to sign up between midnight and 2am to get a slot for pickup and delivery.

So the only 'cut' I've made is the YMCA membership.

 

[Sunset]

...

Since then we purchased Toyotas and have never needed a tow.
..

A couple of years ago I took off the insurance towing from DW's car as it was only 18 yrs old.
Now her car is 22 years old, still don't feel I need a towing plan.

Of course it's a Toyota

 

[Sunset]

Someone reminded me, I'm not going to hire the lawn guy this year, as I only put up with the bald spots and other mowing issues, as I wasn't around to do it.

I may still hire them to cut down a hedge (lower it), and fill in the backyard in a spot.

I figure mowing by me will give me exercise (forced) and save about $800 for the season.

 

[jollystomper]

I put my YMCA family membership on hold. Since the boys and I can't use the gym. The Y was nice enough to waive the $10 hold fee since they aren't open anyway.

I received an email from our gym notifying us they would not be billing our monthly fee while they are closed. They will be paying their employees from their reserves for as long as possible.

 

[rodi]

I received an email from our gym notifying us they would not be billing our monthly fee while they are closed. They will be paying their employees from their reserves for as long as possible.

This is different than the letter the Y sent... which said "please stay with us - and it's now a charitable expense". The Y I go to is in an adjacent VERY wealthy area (La Jolla) and I don't think their community served needs charity. I'd rather give to local foodbanks for my charitable contributions.

 

[Marita40]

Not cutting anything. My only two subscriptions are rock bottom: internet at $55/ month and cell phone (Ting) running about $20/ month.

 

[rk911]

Someone reminded me, I'm not going to hire the lawn guy this year, as I only put up with the bald spots and other mowing issues, as I wasn't around to do it.

I may still hire them to cut down a hedge (lower it), and fill in the backyard in a spot.

I figure mowing by me will give me exercise (forced) and save about $800 for the season.

we not only kept the lawn service we added a snow removal service. shoulda done that years ago.

we did make a change 2-yrs ago. we dropped the AT&T land line ($100 p/m) and the Earthlink DSL internet service ($50 p/m) and added Comcast voice and Comcast internet to our Comcast cable TV for the same price we had been paying for just the cable TV. $1800 p/y saved.

when the triple-play package was due for renewal late last year there was a $40 p/m increase. i called Customer Retention and got the renewal down to $20 less than we had been paying. a $60 swing and a savings of $240 p/y for the next 2-years.

 

[Gkk2001]

I dropped a TV subscription and modified an ancestry.com subscription, things I would have done despite covid19 and these small decisions add up to plenty of monthly expenses.

Biggest change I made recently was going to Tello cell service at $14/mo. Used to have Verizon at $95. I wish I learned how to be frugle a long time ago. Little control of income, but I sure have much control of expenses.

 

[REWahoo]

I just cut some costs by reducing the "annual miles driven" by 40% on our auto insurance policies. Annual savings $196.

We've been averaging ~32,000 total miles per year on our three vehicles combined. Estimating we will only drive 60% of that amount looks wildly optimistic at the moment since in March we put 300 miles on one vehicle and 0 on the other two. Looking forward to a road trip - some day.

 

[SpinDoctorTX]

We've made few changes, except of course not going anywhere but to exercise and pick up grocery orders. We're both missing around 3-4 group lunches a month (not together- my and his groups are very different ), so 8 lunches in all.

Now those lunches, I miss a lot. I really miss my liberal ladies who lunch, & just getting together with girlfriends. My campaign work this year is now all by phone, online meetings, & text. So that is cheaper.

We do miss meeting couple friends for dinner a few of times a month. No changes to our entertainment at home. Plenty of it through roku, NF, Prime, HBO, Showtime, and our prices on those are all very low. All in all our expenses are about the same if you count the $ I'm sending to relatives from time to time.

 

[Andromeda]

Shrunk Spotify from family membership to single because my husband doesn’t use it. Dropped Hulu and cancelled my trial of Starz. We’ll keep Amazon Prime and Netflix - we get a lot of use out of them. We don’t have cable. Finally consolidated our phone plans and got rid of a security system bundled with them that we don’t use. Cancelled my Linkedin Learning subscription. I go back and forth on Kindle Unlimited. $9.99 a month seems like a lot but I often read three books a week. If I’ve found a series I like in Unlimited I’ll sign up for a month and plow through them, then cancel for a few months.

I’m a photographer and use Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop and InDesign. They’re offering two months free if you try to cancel so I got that rebate.

Paused our newspaper delivery for 8 weeks(we will
still have digital access).

I’ve heard that some car insurers will give you reduced rates if you’re hardly driving these days.

 

[RAE]

I actually just signed up for about 4 new magazine subscriptions (got great deals on all of them......lots of time now to shop for deals), and we also signed up for a free monthly trial of Hulu. As others have said, the rest of our expenses are way down lately, so why cut things like magazines and TV, which we have the time to enjoy right now.

As for food, we are eating some great meals lately...........lots of time to cook, and I've found several great bargains at the grocery store lately, also. It seems that not many people are going to the grocery store lately (many ordering groceries to be delivered, I guess?), so the stores around here have LOTS of perishable foods marked way down, to try to sell them before the expiration date. So I was able to get several things (salmon, pork chops, sausage, bread, etc) at very good prices.....much cheaper than usual. Lots of baked goods (pies, etc) marked way down also. Sure, they are near their expiration date, but they're still fine. We grilled some of the salmon last evening, and it was delicious. Eggs and a few other things are priced way too high still, but I can cut back on consumption of that stuff for a while if I have to, it's not a big issue.

 

[RAE]

I’ve heard that some car insurers will give you reduced rates if you’re hardly driving these days.

Yes, Allstate and a few others are now doing that. Auto insurers are reaping record profits lately, as driving and accident claims are WAY down. I emailed our insurer yesterday (AAA), and asked them if they were going to offer similar rebates. They replied and said not yet, but they are reviewing the situation. I would encourage others to write to their insurers also and ask about rebates........I'm sure they are all feeling the pressure to follow Allstate's lead, and if they hear from enough customers, it may push them to do the same.

 

[Rambler]

I haven’t done it yet, but will be cutting my chiropractic membership since I rarely use it ($69/mo), gym membership is already suspended ($25/mo), probably should cut off the cable TV since we only use Hulu and Netflix ($100/mo+) and may stop the yard service ($250/mo). I used to do all my own yard work, and usually enjoy doing it. But, we like to travel, and the HOA can be a PITA if you get a dandelion, so I’ve had a guy do it for a few years. Since it looks like travel will be pretty restricted this year, I may just do it myself, but I do like to help keep the economy stimulated don’tcha know. Also thinking to downsizing the RV, or selling it, since we haven’t been able to use it for about 3 years, and this year won’t be much different. Selling would save $6k per year, downsizing maybe $4k. But we need to think long and hard about that, because if we sell it, I won’t want to buy back in once the smoke clears. And, we have enough cash to hold on for about 5 years, should we have to. So, I don’t want to do anything rash.

 

[Dtail]

Yes, Allstate and a few others are now doing that. Auto insurers are reaping record profits lately, as driving and accident claims are WAY down. I emailed our insurer yesterday (AAA), and asked them if they were going to offer similar rebates. They replied and said not yet, but they are reviewing the situation. I would encourage others to write to their insurers also and ask about rebates........I'm sure they are all feeling the pressure to follow Allstate's lead, and if they hear from enough customers, it may push them to do the same.

Liberty Mutual just notified me that they will credit 15% of the March and April payments. I didn't request anything and will take it.

 

[Retired Expat]

Doesn’t ATT still offer a home cellphone service either where they give you a mini tower that connects to the internet or where your phone has WiFi calling?

 

[ivinsfan]

I haven’t done it yet, but will be cutting my chiropractic membership since I rarely use it ($69/mo), gym membership is already suspended ($25/mo), probably should cut off the cable TV since we only use Hulu and Netflix ($100/mo+) and may stop the yard service ($250/mo). I used to do all my own yard work, and usually enjoy doing it. But, we like to travel, and the HOA can be a PITA if you get a dandelion, so I’ve had a guy do it for a few years. Since it looks like travel will be pretty restricted this year, I may just do it myself, but I do like to help keep the economy stimulated don’tcha know. Also thinking to downsizing the RV, or selling it, since we haven’t been able to use it for about 3 years, and this year won’t be much different. Selling would save $6k per year, downsizing maybe $4k. But we need to think long and hard about that, because if we sell it, I won’t want to buy back in once the smoke clears. And, we have enough cash to hold on for about 5 years, should we have to. So, I don’t want to do anything rash.

I would think this would be a terrible time to sell an RV...downsizing might work if you can find a desperate dealer. We were all set to pull the trigger on a new vehicle but that's not going to happen ATM..

 

[Spock]

I would think this would be a terrible time to sell an RV...downsizing might work if you kind find a desperate dealer. We were all set to pull the trigger on a new vehicle but that's not going to happen ATM..

RV's depreciate in a hurry. Some parks have really tight age of vehicle limits, etc. Take a beating now or a bigger one later.

 

[REWahoo]

I would think this would be a terrible time to sell an RV...

+1

Lots of folks who lost their jobs are going to be trying to unload their expensive toys, driving prices down.

 

[SmallCityDave]

I cut out my $20 per month car wash, we live on a dirt road so that was a nice luxury.


Hulu is only $2 a month & Philo is $20 so that will stay.

 

[tmm99]

No more gym membership or volleyball leagues/tourney fees, etc (although it looks like I won't get refunds for leagues/tourneys, just credit, which sucks), but I'm spending more for TV/movie subscription services for entertainmennt. We also purchased a couple of pieces of exercise equipment, so overall, I don't think we have saved any money. I most likely won't be traveling this year, so that will be a saving of up to about $6,000.

 

[Hermit]

My income more than covers my expenses. No cost cutting for me other than gas and now 25% cut in car insurance from Farmer's. I did donate to the local food bank this morning and am planning to hire folks from the Kids Camp to do construction and landscaping chores this summer because the Camp will likely be shut down and staff pay cut down or eliminated. My overall expenses will go up or at least be moved in due to earlier construction costs. Who knows? I may even get my house completed this year!

 

[Scrapr]

I unsubscribed to Sling this week. It was $40/mo with my add ons. I used it almost entirely to watch the Pac 12 channel. So since nothing is on....and the replays are not that great I cut it out. I can watch You tube for games on replay. I just went through the 2018 College World Series in Oregon state run to the championship. I didn't watch much else on Sling. Though I did love watching MLB tonight in the evenings

If(when?) games start up I'll jump back in. I'm entirely local channels & Netflix now

 

[IMATERP]

I’m saving on razor blades. No need to go out - means no need to shave.

Scruffy I