How do you reduce your bills?

These articles always seem very wildly optimistic, with claimed savings that far exceed what we actually spend on the highlighted items. Numerous of the suggested steps would even increase our spending.

Does anyone here find ever find much new savings from these sorts of articles?

 

Interesting list of tips. They work if you're willing to sacrifice. There has to be a happy medium between bare bones and exuberance. No substitute for hard work, live below, not within your means, save the difference. Plan ahead. My favorite quote, "the harder your work, the luckier you get". But I add, don't count on luck (lotto dreams), but don't discount it.

 

This is the first time I have read an article of this type, but I have to say that tip #1 "eat out less" encouraged me to skim the rest of the article. I wondered if all the tips were equally inane.

Yep

 

Well, not quite true. The Gas tip was truly moronic, to pay for a Costco membership and then not use it LOL

 

I cannot see the poster, but as far as the ACA goes I have nothing to complain about. My 4 person family will pay about $70 in monthly premium, have a much lower 'high deductible' than before, and of course a better plan and no worries about being dumped if someone gets sick.

It is truly irony that this dirt cheap plan for people who look after their health and own a small business came out of the ACA act.

 

eBay.

I don't or rarely buy anything I need retail. I find the model number in a retail store note the retail price, check it on Amazon then wait till I see it on eBay new in the package. Especially tools. Use Paypal always. 13 years now. Never been beat. The trick to ebay is you have to wait to find the right time and right price with the right seller.

Replaced the water heater with new in the box instant on unit bought on ebay identical to the one I saw in Lowes.
Bosch. Don't like Bosch products but this one has been really good for years now. Huge electric savings.

Replaced the electric cooktop with propane gas cooktop hooked to a small tank outside. Bought new on eBay half price. 30 inch dropped right in. That alone was about $30 a month savings in electric and gas cooktop is the best. Incredibly fast and efficient. Wife loves loves it. Best part is during storms I have heat and or cooking.

They piped lp gas through the neighborhood but the racket is in order for them to bring it to the house you have to buy all new gas appliances from them only and there expensive. No one on the block has signed up.

Use reclaimed water. Worth it as in this area they charge you a reclaim water service fee on your bill even if you don't have it hooked up. Might as well hook it up.

Got rid of all crt tv's and all light bulbs are LED. Tried CFL but too harsh. Use X-10 for lighting management. I use CFL in the garage.

Cut my electric in half from last year. Still trying to get my act together for solar install. My co-worker lives in the next county over and its a different electric company. Almost 100% tax incentive after electric company rebates. My county is serviced by Progressive who were just bought out by Duke. God they suck. Very poor incentive for solar.

 

I'd have to do some serious splurging in order to make room to make most of the 'sacrifices' listed there. And my lifestyle is not even close to 'bare bones'.

I have plenty of complaints, starting with the 23 days it took to get signed up the first time, before state miscalculations forced a re-do of the final portion. And this is in a state health exchange being heralded as one of the best run. Thank heavens I don't live in either neighboring state. Last I heard, OR hadn't yet achieved its first successful on-line signup.

Then there is the fact that our old plan, which we liked well enough to want to keep as was repeatedly promised, was cancelled because it was illegal to continue offering it. (It lacked many of the new 'Ten Essentials'.) The default replacement carried a 61% price hike, along with higher copays, doubled annual deductible, and higher out-of-pocket cap. We switched to another plan with similar such features to our old plan, but its unsubsidized premium is double our old premium. Thanks to tax subsidies, our out-of-pocket will be essentially unchanged, so some other unlucky taxpayers will be forced to pick up the difference.

We are in transition from employment to retirement, gradually converting pre-tax IRAs and 401Ks into post-tax Roth accounts at favorable tax rates before Social Security arrives. ACA is sharply curtailing our flexibility to do that. Going forward, missing the proper ACA income window means paying the full price of the new health plans, more than wiping out any savings from prepaying income tax on our retirement accounts.

I'm seeing ACA as a necessary step towards 'something better'. But we are not there yet.