Like everybody, my financial future is unknown…we all took 20% paycuts here (and were happy to do so because it meant that we didn’t have lay anybody off) and some costs are fixed:
Mortgage
Kid #1 tuition
Kid #1 house rental at state university (we had already signed a lease for next year so there’s no getting out of it…plus, subleases over the summer are a long-gone dream)
Kid #2 tuition
Kid #2 house rental in boston (though she’s able to pay this on her own through her TA work)
So I’ve turned to other things and I’ve been amazed by how easy it is:
- I was charged $36 for a bogus overdraft thing and I might have let it go before because it would take a lot of paperwork to prove it but I called my bank, ready for a fight, and they said “Ok.” and the charge was gone in 5 minutes.
- I called Verizon yesterday and chose “cancel my account” to get a live person on the line and they reduced my monthly phone cost going forward by 20%
- I called AT&T (our internet provider) this morning (also using the “cancel” approach) and found out that they’re giving COVID-19 discounts for three months, plus a discounted rate after that forever. The account person on the phone discounted beyond that, e.g., he reduced our Internet rate from $75/month to $40/month.
And so forth.
I guess the message is that most companies are very open to bargaining right now and i would welcome any other ideas that you all may have.
That’s been our experience too. My boss was able to negotiate a break on her rent and the company she pays to provide parking for patients isn’t charging right now at all.
As soon as my kid is back in his college apartment next week we are asking him to negotiate or change internet providers to get back to the introductory rate (savings $40 month we hope)
While I didn’t request,
-our auto insurance companies gave us some $$ back.
-my gym halted my monthly payment until they are back.
I recently received some medical bills from my knee surgery in January! Examined closely some of the medical codes. I questioned 3 items and all three were errors and will be removed. No actual money to me, as the surgery blew through our deductible, but it was the principle involved. (Actually saved a little over $300 last year when I questioned an item that I thought was coded incorrectly—so be sure to check!)
Have your kid’s colleges rebated portions of meal plans or some fees due to them not being on campus?
I’ll be calling our internet provider in the morning!
@SouthernHope thank you for pointing this out. I’m going to start negotiating!!
@gosmom, my surgical bill is all codes, no translations. (I can tell if x is a med vs something else. But not whether something was truly used.) So how can I begin to question whether something was truly done? This is something I’ll put more energy into later, when I’m further healed. I’ll probably need to sit with someone to go over it.
Just cooking more at home has saved us. A friend who dined out 4x/week is doing pick up. But has cut costs down by not ordering a side salad (at home, makes her own,) and obviously, now drinks her own wine.
My cleaning lady is self quarantining. That saves xx, twice/month. Unfortunately, the movie houses are closed, all outside entertainment. I cut back a few services from the lawn guy. My hair salon is closed. (Ugh.)
Not everyone has these optional things, to begin with. I may cut out some of them, more permanently.
While I have been saving some money in some areas, I also have spent a little more in others like sprucing up some outdoor living spaces since we are likely to be home more. I also am probably spending a little more grocery $ wise because to limit stops I am paying higher prices for some items.
Good reminder to call our internet and satellite provider! We still have satellite, really just for ease of use on local channels as our premium channels are through appletv rather than satellite. I had prepared to cancel a year ago but kept it bc they dropped it to $8 month for a year. That rate has now expired so either time to cut the cord for real or see if they will restore the low rate.
Otherwise, I’m saving a lot on travel to visit my kids, which always involved hotel, dog boarding etc. Of course, with a college student living with us, our grocery bill has doubled or tripled.
Yes, I’m spending far less. Hardly have gassed up car, eating our stockpiled food and using up what we have at home. Don’t shop, don’t eat out or carry out and buy minimally at grocery store. I had bought items items as soon as I got a whiff about this pandemic, so I have a years worth of the most basic things. Bought it all before the widespread hoarding began so I had the pick of the stock.
I too have dealt with extraneous chronic bills and gotten rid of cable entirely.
I’d gotten into a higher spending mode in the last couple of years and personally needed this reality check that I’m sorry had to happen with this virus. But I’m going to work on staying close to this baseline. I have way too much junk and now I know what’s basic to getting through this sort of quarantine. It’s not been much of a hardship to me at all. Instead, it’s been a relaxing time. That it’s such a horror to a portion of our population despite measures put in place to try and protect us is a tremendous tragedy. If this doesn’t bring activism up, nothing will in this generation. I’m sad about this because much of the work I had done in my younger years has come…to this.
So, personally, I’m in a good place. In general, I’m not even I see how we handle such crises in this country.
I am spending less on many things, no travel, entertainment, dinner out, gas, etc. I got back $ from my car insurance. A few events I go to every year got cancelled and so that money hasn’t been spent. My credit card bill is only food stores, liquor stores, and drugstores like CVS.
We have done some take out (for us and I send to my daughter also). I did notice that my amazon purchasing just started again - things for the house we feel we need now that we are home all the time (both for us and daughter). For my daughter in her small studio apartment, now that she is working from home, she felt she needed to organize a little to make it more comfortable.
Of course, my biggest expenses - housing and medical insurance premiums aren’t changing.
I have repeatedly tried to negotiate with Verizon on my FIOS bill (cable, internet, and phone). I get the same answer every time. The discounts you now have will not be continued if you change anything and we can only get your bill to go up!
We might be switching cell providers. Ours is low, but my daughter’s is high and we could save by combining with a cheaper provider. (especially since her phone is now paid off)
We definitely are spending less in terms of day-to-day things. We support the local economy and do curbside pickup once a week, but that eating out expense is less than our normal, because I would meet friends for lunch on the regular. Going to the grocery store once a week or less has meant that I do a better job of meal-planning, and we waste almost no food. That’s something I definitely hope to continue when this is over.
This morning I called Sirius to get a rate reduction as our yearly reduced rate had ended, which was reflected in this month’s bill. Companies are funny. I got a rate that’s about 35% of what the bill said. If the increase had been reasonable, I likely wouldn’t have called, and they would’ve made more money. I hate doing the song and dance.
Two questions:
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Those of you who have gotten insurance breaks … Did they send you a refund check? How did you know?
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Has anyone ever negotiated with Netflix?
As I understand it, GEICO is just cutting our future car insurance bills by some %. I may be wrong though I saw their email and thought, OK, that looks nice, and then scrolled on by.
We have saved a shameful amount by not eating out so much! Oddly, the grocery bill doesn’t look that much higher. Oh well. Saved a bunch on gas too.
SouthernHope- my big ticket ideas are the ones that you know you should have done a few years ago but it’s too time-consuming to bother:
1- pull out your property tax assessment. You’ve got the time now to file an appeal if the town describes your slab floor basement which has a treadmill on top of an area rug as a “finished basement/den”. Is your powder room on the books as a full bathroom? Is your home office- carved out of a linen closet, classified as your fourth bedroom? (check your town’s housing code- ours requires a bedroom to have a door, a window, and a closet, so many people who have configured or cut out space for an office don’t realize that they have been over-assessed for property they don’t own. And pull out the survey on your property… a neighbor of mine was paying for a half acre lot when his home was actually less than a quarter acre…
2- do the same with your home owner’s insurance, and run the math on your car insurance. What’s the break-even on collision coverage for an older car? Are you still paying a “jewelry and fur” rider even though you got rid of grandma’s mink and sold her pearls to pay down your mortgage? And up those deductibles if you can- there are numerous studies on how profitable (for the insurance company) a lot of coverage is…
3- Go through the file you got from HR on your first day at work and read the fine print (and log on since most of your documents will now be on a dashboard of some kind). If you have a job with benefits- I almost guarantee you are not taking advantage of all of your benefits (I work in corporate HR). And check your beneficiaries!!!
Saved on gas, not eating out, and using curbside pick-up for groceries. I’m not paying my housekeeper since she’s not coming at the moment by choice. (She’s currently picked up jobs through a realtor to ready houses for sale. She charges much much more for that service than regular cleaning.)
I have GEICO auto insurance. My policy renews on May 15th. When I got the bill a month ago I reviewed it carefully and did cut out some things (like roadside assistance when I already pay AAA). They charged me the regular premium. Then this week I got a rebate check back for the 15% off they are advertising. The discount is being applied as your policy renews (they only do 6 month policies as far as I know).
We are saving money like everyone else, from the lack of eating out, discounts being given, no haircuts or vacation, cheap gas. I’m working twice as much as usual and my company provides food (though I’m mostly skipping it, bringing energy bars to work and fasting). I bring my own bottle of wine on trips, which is far cheaper than how I used to order a glass of wine with dinner. Financially this has been a boost to our paychecks and lowering our spending, but I’d trade that in a split second for this crisis to be over.
Oh dear, now everyone is doing what I’ve been doing for years and years. This is not good for a consumer driven economy! It will be interesting to see what happens when everything is open, do people go back to free spending or not? If not, because they are recovering from loss of income for this quarantine time, meaning they likely will go back to their old ways as soon as they can or because they have adapted to their new habits and will never really go back?
For years, Verizon has refused to budge on our charges. 5his is for home internet and cell.
Also just checked and auto & home insurer credited $54 against March and April costs. Automatic review and they’re waiting to see if May will get similar. Apparently, it goes thru the regulatory approval process.
I have wasted more than my share of money in the past, but I also try to save where I can. Sirius/XM is one I refuse to pay full price for!
I taught my kids, if they don’t ask, they can’t get the benefits. My son is more like me and is always looking for a deal; my daughter on the other hand is too busy to bother.
H called Sirius last month when our promotional price ended. Couldn’t get them low enough so we cancelled it. Our driving has decreased dramatically the last two months so I don’t miss it much. Hoping we’ll be considered new subscribers if we wait a few months before signing up again.